Google’s +1 plugin and its impact on search marketing

Besides Google+, another feature by Google that is gaining importance is the introduction of its social plugin feature – the ‘+1’.

What sets this feature apart from other social plugins such as Facebook ‘Likes’ and Twitter Share is its affiliation to the search giant. Now every search result has a +1 logo beside it to allow users to give their recommendation on the various links.

As Google describes it in its blogs: “Click +1 to publicly give something your stamp of approval. Your +1's can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search.”

“Best stuff when they search”: New SEO techniques?
With Google allowing its users to self-rank a search result on the basis of the +1 feature, does this mean brands and marketers would need new techniques to target their consumers?

According to a research report by Bright Edge on social media plugins in July 2011, adoption of the +1 button has increased by 1 per cent. With the plugin gradually gaining ground, it might be something marketers would have to factor in to make sure they keep up with these new recommendation techniques.

Benedict Hayes, Head of Search, Communicate 2, noted, “Google is aiming to gauge sentiment and interactivity by introducing the +1 button. This replicates the Facebook Likes and retweets by Twitter feature. This will allow a high presence in search presence and give value to the search results.”

Speaking from a brand’s point of view, Google is the biggest market for search worldwide, and this might mean that the plugin translates to more than just the Facebook Likes and Twitter’s Share.

“Will definitely influence search marketing techniques”
According to Biraja Swain, Vice-President, Digital and Emerging Media, Omnicom Media Group, “It will definitely influence search marketing techniques, if not now, then in a couple of years. Marketers would have to tweak their SEO techniques otherwise they won’t show up on Google, which accounts for 80 per cent of the search market. Marketers cannot shy away and will have to work on how to include this line of functionality since its percentage will only increase.”

Hayes pointed out that for brands, it was a tool based on getting endorsed by users and would add more value to it. “It definitely makes a lot of sense from the SEO point of view, as the more number of people liking it, the higher will be their rank, allowing for improving the value of a page.” he added.

However, the impact might differ from brand to brand, felt Yashraj Vakil, COO, Red Digital. He noted, “Google being the biggest market on search, websites would be forced to implement the use of the button to their advantage. But the adoption of the button would depend from brand to brand. Businesses which earn money by increasing traffic would have to implement them in a higher way, whereas as larger clients or brands whose websites just showcase their products, would not find much use for it.”

Alok Kejriwal, CEO and Co-Founder of Games2win.com India, added here, “Online games are highly ‘searched for’ by lots of consumers on search engines and we are delighted to have the +1 button implemented on our site. It immediately allows better content to bubble up and get noticed by friends on the Google network and hence, provided a nice referral to click upon. Simply said and in our context, it adds a nice spin to socialising single player games.”

“Given that Games2win as a company spurns paying for traffic – via SEM, etc., the +1 button is a welcome change, it ‘crowd-sources’ Google ranking amongst friends! Also, the FB Like/ commenting engine works in collusion with +1 - not in seclusion! To me, an FB like/comment is a 'viral push'; +1 is a 'viral pull',” Kejriwal further said.

An important support from the feature would be that Google could use the +1 plugin in terms of analytical results. Hayes said, “Google can also use the features to monitor its results and would know how many people and who are the people who have used the +1 feature.”

Hayes also pointed out that the plugin would be an add-on to the SEO techniques, but would not replace it. He said, “While it is a very strong thing, yet I emphasise it will not change the SEO techniques as it will just act as an add-on to the same, because the problems for Google would be to control the fake users and spam accounts. Twitter is experiencing the same problem with retweets by spam accounts and tweets appearing high due to retweets by fake accounts.”