This theory has been persistently raising questions in the SEO business. Do search results significantly depend on Google +1s? Recent research shows that they do, and how! Google +1s have been ranked as one of the top factors affecting your website’s online prominence and your ranking on Google’s search results. It is found to be more effective than Facebook shares, likes and comments, linking root domains and even keyword implementations. Hence it has been categorically proven that Google+ activity does, and will affect your ranking.
Earlier, when Facebook likes and shares seemed to affect the SEO ranking results Google denied any such algorithmic provision in the process. But recently, Google+ seems to have taken over that spot, and it is your presence and activity in Google+ that matters more than the crude figure of how many “+1s” your webpage has received. It turns out to be the most effective networking platform, more so than any other social networking websites in terms of SEO rankings, especially when searched on Google.
Now, you must be wondering what is so special about Google+; why it ranks higher than Facebook, even when the crowd population of the latter is comparatively so much greater. Well, researchers believe that the designers who made Google+ primarily designed it for Search Engine Optimization purposes. Below, we have mentioned a few key factors that explain this phenomenon quite clearly.
Posts and URLs are crawled and indexed quickly
Any post or URL that’s shared on Google+ gets crawled and indexed almost immediately. This aids in real time search results. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Google+ data has less privacy restrictions and is thus available on Google findings much more easily. In fact, many links and posts on Facebook never get crawled and indexed by Google due to restrictions on data sharing and following.
Passing link equity
Posts on Google+ pass link equity, as the links can be followed while helping to accumulate page ranks. However, you need to keep in mind that only external and shared links get followed not the ones you post within the body of the content. Also, not every uploaded image passes the link equity. A good quality image may increase popularity but links embedded in screenshots do not necessarily get followed. Some links posted on Google+ “About” may get followed as well and pass link equity.
It is optimized for semantic relevance
The benefit of Google+ over Facebook and Twitter is that posts on Google+ are almost equivalent to blog posts and not just a tweet or Facebook status update. Every post has its own URL and title tags. Posts are also not bound by size restrictions, hence they can be longer and can elaborate more details. Research shows that there exists a correlation between long posts and higher rankings. Again, when a post is shared and re-shared it accumulates internal links with relevant anchor text aiding in rankings.
In Conclusion
Google+ is a nice platform and all you need to do is use it extensively to achieve your desired goals. To witness a potential rise in the SEO performance of your website you should follow few simple steps as jotted below.
- Join Google+ and stay active.
- Build connections and grow your network.
- Post and share good quality, worthy content.
- Link all your profiles on in the Google+ “About” section and maintain a complete profile with timely updates.
- Make your posts easy to share not only on Google+ but other relevant social sharing options. Also, make the posts public to reach a larger mass audience.
- And finally, make yourself easily available and approachable by allowing people to add you to their circles.