No Google+? Google Don't Know You!

On its blog on Tuesday, Google made an announcement that can only be described as a game-changer. A change that basically says if you want Google to play ball with your business, then your business had better play ball with Google+.

Since they launched their Social Media platform last June, speculation’s been rife as to how they would drive membership and how it would affect the business of search. Well, now we know: fundamentally. Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to welcome you to the dawn of the new digital world order that is Google, search plus Your World.

So what is Google, search plus Your World?

In a nutshell, it’s Google’s way of ranking your search results based on peer recommendation. It does this by looking at what people have shared, have +1 or are talking about in Social Media. There’s even a feature within that allows you to personalise your search so it brings up information just for you, such as your photos and those shared with you. Of course, when I say Social Media I actually mean Google+. As part of the change Google will be ranking G+ content higher than any other.

And how will this affect your online business?

It has the power to revolutionise it. Whilst exact details are hazy at the time of writing, it seems clear that the shift of emphasis from traditional search engine techniques, such as number of back-links, page impressions, relevancy of content etc., will increasingly play second fiddle to what you and I say and share within G+.

For some time now Google have been seeking ways to make search deliver peer-to-peer recommendations as well as eradicating ‘black hat’ SEO techniques. Plus Your World will certainly help with both. More importantly perhaps, it will force recalcitrant businesses that aren’t engaging on Social Media to get involved. And this, in our opinion, can only be a good thing for businesses and customers alike.

What should I do?

If your business has an online presence and you want it to be found, you need to get on Google+. Pages are free and easy to set up – a guide can be found here. That done, you need to devise a strategy for G+ engagement and start building your business’s community. If you’d like any help or advice with this, please get in touch by mailing digital@balloondog.co.uk

Here at balloon dog we’ve been huge fans of Google+ since the platform launched. Its functionality is increasingly business-friendly, it’s easy to use and integrates well into other areas of the Google empire. The big question for us was always what was going to be the killer feature that would increase its population from national to continental – something else we now know…

You can read the official guide to Google, plus Your World here, http://bit.ly/yUJnCl