+1 Takes on a Whole New Meaning

This post is a cross-post from my post earlier today for Grafik.

Last week, as most of you probably heard, Google finally unveiled the much talked about, Project Emerald Sea, which has officially been called, Google Plus One (or +1, there still seems to be some debate about how to write it). And now that the dust has settled somewhat, and the various search engine optimization authorities have had a chance to parse through the publicly-available information, I thought I’d spell out the basics and provide you with some helpful links. So, let’s get started…

What IS Google +1?

Google +1 is essentially Google’s version of a Facebook “Like” button, and it will appear next to both organic search results and Google Adwords. In honor of the Washington National’s season just starting, I’ve included two examples below. One version of the search engine results pre-click, and one version post-click.

Google +1 Example (pre-click)

Google +1 Example (post-click)

Also, here is Google’s official product launch video that walks you through +1.

I don’t see this +1. How do I see it?

The +1 feature is only visible to users who have created a Google profile which could be a Gmail address, Google Reader account, etc. And if you are one of the few who has not created a Google account, you can create one here. If you still do not see the feature in your search results, Google may not be done fully rolling the feature out. If you do NOT see it, you can sign up for the +1 feature for your account here.

What does this mean for my search results?

When performing an organic search, your results may be influenced by people within your “network” who have +1′d something or others on the web who have +1′d it. In other words, it functions very similarly to how Google’s social search works now, but now on top of seeing results that your connections on Twitter or other social networks have shared, you will see items that they may have +1′d.

Who makes up your +1 Social Network?

• People in your Gmail & Google Talk chat list
• People in your “My Contacts” group in Google Contacts
• People you follow in Google Reader or Google Buzz
• Other connections from other social networks will be integrated soon

What does this all REALLY mean?

Well, in the short term, I don’t see this having much of an impact as it will take some time for people to get into the habit of +1ing a result, and depending on the size of a searcher’s network, it may have no influence at all (assuming you have no friends or do not participate in other networks). However, should this catch on, and Google begins to integrate the results +1′d by folks outside of your network, “liking” a site could dramatically change the search result landscape.

In reality, the +1 button is a natural and logical extension of their social search and probably a next step towards creating their own social network as a few people are hypothesizing. Which is OK by me. I wouldn’t mind seeing search results that have been validated by my friends versus results that may have been artificially “gamed” by an SEO expert. In fact, SEOMoz has a great article speaking to the correlation of social metrics to Google rankings, and they believe that inbound marketing is going to overtake SEO as the primary function of SEO professionals. In other words, we’ll have to work harder to engage our target customers across social channels to get links, shares, likes, comments and +1s if we want to generate relevant and substantial traffic to our sites.

At the end of the day, regardless of what new feature or variable is integrated into Google search, it boils down to having a good, quality product, and a website that contributes valuable, relevant content to your audience. And isn’t that what we should be worried about?

But don’t just listen to me, learn more about +1 and form your own opinion. Here are a few links to get you started:

Official Google page: http://www.google.com/+1/button/
Official Google post: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/1s-right-recommendations-right-when-you.html
Google News results for +1: http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=Google+%2B1
Search Engine Land Article: http://searchengineland.com/meet-1-googles-answer-to-the-facebook-like-button-70569
Techcrunch Article: http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/30/google-plus-one/