Webmaster Tools 1 activity - does it affect the SERPs?

[deadsea]

I was poking around in webmaster tools this evening and found that the +1 section had some interesting data. It appears that during the default reporting period (1 month) Google has been experimenting with adding +1 buttons to the SERPs next to my site.

During this period, the reports show that they have shown up to 200 +1 button impressions for each of my pages in the SERPs. A couple pages have 200 impressions and the rest have less. Looks like maybe 1000 impressions of the +1 button total.

Another report shows that during this period I got 270 +1s "from other sites" and 0 "from your site" (I'm not putting the +1 on my site if I can help it). I would assume that most of those +1s are from the SERPs,

I'm hoping everybody will be willing to share the data from their sites and we can compare. I'm interested to know what a good baseline for +1 activity is and if this is a signal that could actually be useful to Google for ranking. They have certainly put lots of effort into mining out all the data they can from +1s.

[kidder]

I've just added the plus one button to our content pages, I can't see it hurting us considering recent events..

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

I just removed the plus one button from my content pages, I couldn't see it hurting at the time but it brought no benefit and certainly not enough to offset the page speed decrease.

only 0.01% of my visitors used it.

Also, look at the bottom of webmasterworld pages, they feature the +1 button and it's only RARELY used, it says zero on most articles.

[AnkitMaheshwari]

IMO adding +1 button to site only decreases page speed with negative impact in CTR as per Google Webmaster tool for a few sites I checked having really good organic traffic

[deadsea]

Is anybody seeing activity from Google using the +1 button in SERPs? How many impressions are they giving for the +1 button for your site and how many +1s does that lead to?

[tcsoftware]

A few sites I manage have added it, basically it's worthless!

Realistically it only promotes your site for the user who +1'd you as very few people +1 anything to affect the organic SERPs and very few Google accounts have friends.
Perhaps if Google+ becomes popular it would be an easy way to promote your site on the social networks.

[netmeg]

Most of my users don't have Google accounts, much less know what the button is or is for. Heck, I recently added a Stumble Upon button and found out I had thousands of stumbles I didn't even know about. But there are fewer than 10 +1's.

and at least two of 'em are me

[mark_roach]

Another -1 for +1 for me.

I have just removed the button from my site. In over a month I had less than 10 plus ones.

[courier]

I am likely wrong, but could it not be a case of

1. If a +1 button is on your site and there are little to no clicks on it, would Google not be saying this is not a very popular site, and use it for a reason to down rank you.

2. If there is no +1 button to click on a site there is no info so Google cannot see how popular or un-popular your sites are, thus perhaps not using lack of +1 clicks as a reason to down rank?

Just thinking out loud!

[tutu]

It is not like this, +1 is a little element effect google ranks.

[deadsea]

My theory is that if you get some +1 from installing the button on your own site, it will have little or no effect.

On the other hand, when Google shows the +1 button next to your site in the SERPs, the rate at which it gets +1 would probably be just as important as CTR from Google's perspective.

[aristotle]

The notion of using clicks on +1 buttons, or any other voting system, as a ranking factor is FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED. Many people have ingrained prejudices, and are badly mis-informed, about important social and political issues. These people will vote for websites that reflect their views even if the sites have very low-quality content and are full of mis-information, lies, and prejudices. It would be a fundamental error for Google to use such votes as a ranking factor.

[rlange]

courier wrote:
I am likely wrong, but could it not be a case of

1. If a +1 button is on your site and there are little to no clicks on it, would Google not be saying this is not a very popular site, and use it for a reason to down rank you.

2. If there is no +1 button to click on a site there is no info so Google cannot see how popular or un-popular your sites are, thus perhaps not using lack of +1 clicks as a reason to down rank?

Extremely unlikely. A +1 Button with 0 clicks is the same as a page without a +1 button. No negative, no positive. There's absolutely no need to count a 0 or a smaller-positive-number-than-your-competition as a negative. Being less popular than your competition is its own "penalty".

I think a lot of people have a perception problem when it comes to ranking. They seem to view the #1 spot as "zero", and everything below that as some sort of negative value. If you're not #1, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're doing something "wrong"; it might just mean that you're not doing something as well as the folks ahead of you.


Remember, the winner of a sports match isn't the team that has the least penalties; it's the team that scores the most points.

Unless it's golf. *shakes fist*

--
Ryan