The Importance of Google +1 Votes

Although it’s been around for a while, Google’s +1 voting feature is often put on the back burner by people who are trying to market their websites.

If you own a site, you’re probably always looking for ways to bolster its ranking with the major search engines. You probably already know a fair deal about search engine optimization and search engine marketing too, and you’ve probably at least dipped your toes into social media marketing as well.

In many ways, Google’s +1 voting feature combines all of those strategies into one sleek, streamlined package.

What is Plus-One?

Google’s +1, plus-one or plus-1 feature, as it is interchangeably called, is Google’s answer to Facebook’s “like” button. To people who are browsing online, the +1 feature is a way to ‘vote up’ a website, a specific page or a Google search result. For Google, it is a way to return more refined and relevant results. For Internet marketers like you, it’s something that shouldn’t be ignored. If your site doesn’t already have several +1 votes, it’s you risk missing out on a increased traffic and visibility. Luckily, increasing the +1 votes your site gets is not difficult.

A New Twist on a Familiar Concept

We’ve all seen the +1 concept at work. At least, those of us who regularly use Facebook have. The +1 feature is designed to streamline and simplify the process of showing approval for a website. In many ways, it puts Internet users to work for social media sites and search engines. It has largely been developed to refine search engine results – it is one more indicator, (like text links) that Google uses to rank your website. By applying the information that is gathered through +1 votes to its existing algorithm, Google aims to return more relevant and useful results.

Ramifications for SEO

Ignoring Google’s +1 voting feature is going to negatively affect your existing SEO and Internet marketing strategies. If your competitors are working hard to accumulate +1 votes, your site’s ranking is might already be suffering. If plus 1s are not changing rankings much now, you can bet as that little button gets used more it will have a much larger effect in the future. Start using the +1 feature on your websites and get a head start on much of your competition. The good news is that it’s not difficult to get the ball rolling on accumulating votes. In my opinion, accumulating plenty of +1 votes will eventually bolster your existing SEO campaign by a considerable degree. When used in concert with sound SEO techniques, a boatload of quality +1 votes can only help push your site up in the rankings.

Why You Need +1 Votes

You might be thinking that the whole Google +1 thing is just a popularity contest, but isn’t that what rankings are all about? A visitor gives their stamp of approval when they click on the tiny +1 logo on your webpage.

The Google Serps also offer a +1 opportunity. When looking at the search results, the +1 logo lights up when you hover over any of the results. However, that vote does more than show that a person likes your site. It shows Google that your site is relevant to the person who performed that search.

Google being Google has gathered metrics on each person that clicks the +1 button. They know what they like, what categories they might be an expert in, and how much their vote should weigh. A +1 vote from a popular person with lots of social media followers will count much more in the ranking algorithm than a vote from a person that just joined the social media bandwagon. A plus 1 from someone like Neil Patel will help you a lot more than a +1 from a social dud – (or a guy in a +1 boiler-room in Pakistan using proxy IPs clicking on +1s all day for money) Still, every +1 vote that you receive matters.

Encouraging Votes

You can’t just expect the +1 votes to come pouring in. If you have put any effort into accumulating those votes, you probably already know that people still overlook that little button more often than not in the search results and web pages. The best way to encourage +1 votes is to create content that visitors actually think is worth a +1. Also, don’t be afraid to ask your readers to click your +1 button. (BTW – please click the +1 button for this article )

Get Quality +1s

What’s to stop people from hiring boiler rooms full of +1 clickers to accumulate artificially high totals? Not surprisingly, Google has ways to counteract that possibility and ignores these fake +1s. If you have come to this site, you know that if you game the system, you better do it the right way. As with text link advertisements, that holds true with the +1 feature. Google uses things like account information and IP tracking to keep abuse to a minimum. They know who is doing the clicking and it is not hard for them to ignore a bunch of garbage +1s just like they can ignore garbage text links. So don’t waste your money on +1 packages of 50, 100, or 1000 +1s. You need plus ones, but you need them from quality people. Just like you need text links from quality websites.

You probably already have a lot on your plate when it comes to marketing your site, and you may not want to add yet another thing into the mix. However, the Google +1 feature is easy to manage. The simplest thing you can do is make the +1 button available to be clicked. As competitive as things are these days, it’s smart to put every available resource to work for you as possible. You can get started this instant by clicking the +1 logo for your site and its pages. Ask your readers to click your +1s. Before you know it, if your content and website is worthy, you will have accumulated a lot of votes and will be climbing up the rankings.

Coming Soon to BSL

When I first heard about +1, I saw another opportunity to have something to offer my customers to help them rank. In keeping with the BuySellLinks Quality ranking services theme, we will begin offering the most potent +1s on the the web sometime during Q-1 2012. These will be plus 1s that work, not +1s that highlight you as a scammer. Just like most things related to SEO rankings, with plus ones, there is more than one way to skin that cat… Queue evil laugh...

Tagg: +1s, Plus 1s

Category: Google, Social Media