Google +1 strategies

[Shatner]

Like it or not, it's hear and success in getting people to click it will HELP your search engine rankings.

We've already heard reports in other threads of bloggers forming groups to game it and click each others' +1.

Let's talk about some white hat tactics here though.

How can I get my users to actually click on my +1 buttons?

So far, I've had no success at this. Facebook like, they click by the thousands. +1? Everyone ignores it, does not care.

Let's brainstorm some real strategies here.

Note: Please do not use this thread to complain about Google or tell everyone how you refuse to use the +1. This is a discussion for people who want to use the +1 on their site.

[tangor]

I just remember the FAIL of "RANK THIS" (1 to 5) which permeated the web for a bit. I also remember site counters, another FAIL.

Can't explain FB's Like... then again, I can't explain FB in total (I don't like it... but I am a member who visits about every 10 days). I don't tweet, thus no tweet clicks and (not a Google hate and fully in agreement with OP's beg to avoid) have no desire to +1 anything. My time, stream of consciousness, desire to complete my search mission (or buy, or get on with things) is very important.

As a webmaster I'm not convinced that any of these "signals" will mean doodly squat to the majority of my visitors who are, I am sure, much like me: get in, get it, get 'er done, then get going to somewhere else.

What I truly hope does NOT happen is celbutard SERP listings. If that happens only the Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollowood (sic) and the like will get the "cream"... and that's the popular ejaculate of enthusiasm rather than "of the crop".

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

I was invited to a +1 group yesterday. I guess it will take a while for these people to realize that the +1 is only visible to the group members and their immediate circle and that these circles are artificial to begin with... they can't yield any more natural traffic.

[netmeg]

That's something different - Google+ is the "facebook without the creepy people" social network that Google is trying to launch, and the +1 is the equivalent of the Like button.

There have also been some recent changes to Google Analytics - it will track +1 clicks, and with some modifications to the Analytics code, will also track other things like Likes and Tweets. The changes to the code are somewhat intimidating I hate messing with Analytics code directly, I really really do but I'm going to do it, because I want Google (and Bing for that matter) to know that I have tons of internal pages with hundreds or thousands of Likes and tweets. Will it directly affect my rankings? I dunno, probably not. But it's one more small signal to the search engines (and to me) that people love my pages and are sharing them with others. And it may be a quality signal.

Here's more info about the Google Analytics changes:

Social Plug-in Tracking [google.com]

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Will it directly affect my rankings? I dunno, probably not.

It might, by making my website faster than yours. That code is horrible, mutliple javascript, none minified, full of inline css and when did analytics revert back to synchronous loading? I thought they moved away from that in 2009...

edit: I just ran a test of a blank page with an adsense unit and analytics. 1.9 seconds was the load time, well into the slow zone (according to GWT) without a stitch of code from me yet. They've got to do better. I can also use a static facebook and twitter image and link it to their service for people to like and share my content but NOT with +1, yet another javascript file set is mandatory. Pass.

[Shatner]

How did a thread I started about ways to get users to use the +1 turn into yet another thread in which people debate the merits of it being allowed to exist at all?

The +1 is here, let's deal with it, and not stick our heads in the sand.

[Shatner]

@netmeg Are you seeing the social data in your analytics reports?

When I look at social interaction, it shows 0 across the board, even though Webmaster Tools tells me that I have definitely recieved some Google +1s.

[nmjudy]

@freejung - thanks for pointing out that everyone sees the +1 button on your site. I just watched the Google webinar on the +1 button and they were saying that it could take up to an hour for the +1 button to appear on your page. Guess it was just a timing thing when I was testing. It was a matter of minutes for me - but I made wrong assumptions based on what I wasn't seeing.

For anyone else who'd like to see the the Google +1 Webinar, it's available on YouTube. Do a Google search for "Google Plus 1 Implementation Webinar". Some of the questions brought up in this thread are addressed there including privacy, latency and analytics.

[netmeg]

@netmeg Are you seeing the social data in your analytics reports?

Heh, no, I took the button off during my heaviest traffic (because it is slow, and while I'm not worried about the effect of speed on my SERPs, I am worried about it when I have 900 people simultaneously banging on a wordpress install) Besides I don't use the new Google Analytics often yet - there are some things they didn't bring over from the old (yet, hopefully) that I can't live without.

If I look at it, it tells me I have half million visits that are "not socially engaged"

I actually *did* laugh out loud at that.

[Shatner]

@netmeg Yeah I don't think the social engagement analytics are actually working yet anyway. Mine should definitely be showing something if they are and it's all zero.

[tangor]

Add this to your site:

"Are you aware that Google is offering +1 to Everyone? Share your +1 with Every One of Your Friends by looking for the +1 on websites everywhere!"

Make that your header. And footer. Then decide on putting it right or left (in or around all the Adsense).

To get anyone to USE something you have to call attention to it... but you can't DIRECT them to do it... Catch-22...

[Shatner]

Don't anyone ever say Google gives us traffic for free again.

The amount of educating and informing webmasters are doing about +1 is worth millions in advertising dollars.

[Propools]

Definately the +1 is in its infancy.
How do we help it grow?

Promote it on other popular sites to let people know about it.

This is what I posted on our companies Facebook page:

It's more than just Like; it's Plus One.... The Best.
[google.com...]

I'll wait and see if it has any impact though.
I think it's our duty as those in the SEO community to promote it if we believe it adds value to our companies or our customer's companies.

[viggen]

Google +1 Button on More Homepages than Tweet Button
[searchenginewatch.com...]
maybe Google doesnt need our help already...

[Propools]

I wonder if being on the Homepage is not as critical/viral as having it promoted in other forums?

[lexipixel]

Google +1 Button on More Homepages than Tweet Button
(citing a searchenginewatch article)
-viggen

I don't know what is being measured, but I seriously doubt Google's [+1] button has more placements than Twitter [Tweet This] buttons...

The source (Brightedge) article says:

"...BrightEdge's new SocialShare Site Analysis found overall that Facebook is still the preferred social media platform for larger companies with more than 47 percent of sites linking to the network. Following just behind Facebook however, is integration of Twitter into site homepages, which was seen in 42 percent of sites measured. Overall the analysis points to a still much untapped opportunity for social platforms even on sites operated by some of the most sophisticated marketers and executives in the world.

[brightedge.com...]

I, as do 97% of the people who dislike non-complexity, do not abhor percentage based statistics mixed into convoluted wording.

[Shatner]

I took the tweet this button off my site about a year ago. Twitter is terrible at driving any traffic to your website.

I bet they also aren't counting things like "Add This" or "Share This" bookmarklets which contain the "Tweet" button.

So I don't think outpacing the Tweet This means that much. Call me when they outpace the Facebook Like.

[arikgub]

Definately the +1 is in its infancy.
How do we help it grow?

I might be repeating myself, but why to help it grow? Who needs it?

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Twitter is terrible at driving any traffic to your website.

The Twitter button may have recently lost ranking benefits associated with tweets after Twitter shut google out of the 'special' twitter feed. Google would have built metrics tools specifically for Twitter before integrating the effects of a tweet into rankings. Without the feed who knows if they need to review the process or not.

I wouldn't be surprised if Google focuses on +1 social signals and passes on social networks out of their control, lesson learned so to speak, so who knows how big a role social is playing in long term rankings. I'm sure it varies by topic as well.

I get the feeling I'm looking at the egg before the chicken in this thread, we don't need to promote +1 until the +1 social network is a hit. I'm sure that seeing a 'your friend recommended THIS site' in serps is helpful but good content will earn those in time, that's where the focus should be and not on promoting Google, yet.

It's got bugs still too. The +1 at the bottom of this page reads 0 but on the previous page it reads 6. Google should recognize a thread and promote the first page (in case a webmaster doesn't set it up to do that, hint, hint)

[freejung]

I just removed the +1 button from my main pages (it looked silly sitting there reading "0") and put it on my download page instead. I offer free image downloads, so I think it's reasonable to ask people to do things for me during the download process - I already ask them to link to me or share the image. I prefaced it with an explicit request to like _and_ +1 the image to promote it. We'll see if it gets any traction.

[new_shoes]

Having worked with Conversion Rate Optimization there's a trick that often works wonders: ask people to take the action you want them to take.
"If you liked this video, click 'Subscribe'"
"You should follow me on Twitter"
"Liked this blog post? Click +1".

This is also confirmed by 100up's comment.

Ask and you shall receive :)

[blend27]

Google +1 strategies....

Hack the image and make it +2. I have a feeling that someome at the Plex is trying to push an Idea of Web Currency. It always starts with just 1.

added: allthough most notations start from 0.

[paulguy]

It would seem that having a click counter for the +1 right next to counters for Facebook and Twitter would entice people to click, but I'm not seeing that. I think it comes down to what people are saying here... no one knows what it means to +1 something. My guess, and as rumors have it, is that it will somehow work with the Google+ social network eventually.

[moqambo]

Wouldn't it be a GREAT idea if Google introduce the thumbs down button ? A great way to get rid of all spam and irrelevant sites from top results. Wonder why they never thought about it instead of asking feedback. IMO a thumbs down button will benefit the organic serps more then the +1

[moqambo]

Of cource my suggestion is a tricky one because the world wide webmasters community apart from clicking daily wikipedia they will start clicking thumbs down to their competitor sites, unless google invent a way to recognise fraud clicks in that matter.

[Shatner]

Thumbs down is awful and it never works. Trolls end up using it more than anyone... and do you really want trolls controlling the internet? I can't think of anything worse.

Look up the Digg Patriots for an example of why Thumbs Down is an awful idea which does not work.

[Shatner]

So one thing I'm noticing about Google Plus is that if someone clicks the +1 button on your site... it doesn't actually share the post in your feed.

This is unlike Facebook. The +1s end up in a seperate tab on the person's profile, which no one will ever see.

In order for your page to be shared on Google Plus, the person must manually post the link to their feed.... which raises the question why doesn't google have a SHARE button you can add to your site page that does this automatically?

[graeme_p]

We need to educate users about what the +1 button is.

This, and many other comments in the thread, are essentially saying that we should do Google's marketing for them.

Sorry, Google, show me that users will use it AND that this will actually drive traffic to me site, then I will use it.

[new_shoes]

> Sorry, Google, show me that users will use it AND that this will
> actually drive traffic to me site, then I will use it.

In the short term I think the +1 benefits are more related to conversions. If you have +20 on an article it provides instant, recognizable social proof. That likely means more sales.

We are split testing +1's effect on engagement on our site. I'll post the results if anyone's interested.

[SEOMike]

My company website has ranked #1 for YEARS for local SEO terms. About a week ago I clicked the +1 on my site and a couple days after that Google removed the page I +1'd (my homepage) and it no longer has a cache date. I don't do any kind of link building for my homepage, just link-bait. There's nothing that happened recently except my click on the +1. Has anyone else seen a site completely nuked from a +1?

[freejung]

This, and many other comments in the thread, are essentially saying that we should do Google's marketing for them.

Why not? They do plenty of marketing for us.