Posted by Jonah A. Berger, Manager, SEO
More than two months have passed since Google first made the +1 button public in its search results, and now webmasters can add the button to their sites with just a few lines of code. This document focuses on a variety of topics related to the +1 button – most importantly how webmasters should implement it on their sites today to further enhance their search marketing efforts and content sharing capabilities.
WHAT’S NEW?
When the initial +1 button was released by Google, it lacked any landing page correlation because it could only be found in search results. To utilize it, searchers either had to click the button before they visited the destination page, or visit the page, return to the search result and then click the button. Now, the clicking of the +1 button in search results automatically ties the button to the search result, the page itself and vice-versa. This way, visitors who find quality content on a page can click the associated +1 button, and those in (and outside, depending on privacy settings) their Google network can benefit from uncovering the same +1’d pages as they search.
WHY NOW?
This latest release has search marketers and webmasters in particular asking questions like “How will this button fare?” “Why this button, why now?” and “How can my site benefit from it?” For a quick +1 refresher (Note: Performics first discussed the +1 button on its blog in April 2011), the button is Google’s answer to Facebook’s universal “Like” button, which continues to show up all over the Web, including in top competitor Bing’s search results and on countless millions of pages. When a user clicks a +1 button in search results and now on a Web page, they’re publicly stamping their approval of that content to everyone in their Google network and the Webosphere (again depending on privacy settings). Saying “Google network” may cause some Web users to snicker because Google has struggled to use its network of mish-mashed products (Wave and Buzz come to mind) to form a sensical, well-rounded social circle. The current Google social circle intends to use a Google Profile as a hub to share and exchange information with sites like Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, as well as Google Buzz, Google Reader, et al.
THE GROWTH OF SOCIAL SEARCH
In a way, one primary goal of the +1 button, at least socially to Google, is for it to create a network of social connections that helps make searching more intimate and relevant. For example, the more +1s a search result garners, the better the chance that family, friends and coworkers will click through and visit that page. The addition of the +1 button to Web pages creates a one-way page to search result relationship that Google has never experienced but Bing certainly has. On the heels of Bing’s May 2011 announcement of a more social search, which includes improved “Liked” results, expanded Facebook profile search capabilities and more, and Twitter’s launch of a new “Follow” button that allows logged-in Twitter users to follow a Twitter account without having to leave the page they’re on, the time is now for Google to put a stamp that finally sticks on social search by convincing those who “Like” Web content to +1 it instead.