Implications of Google 1 on your organic rankings

[MrSavage]

A very strange thing happened to me 2 days ago. I have a Pandalized site which has been crunched over the past 8 months.

Imagine my joy to check the keyword phrase and find my site back. Wow, a Panda recovery? Hang on, not so fast. I am smart enough to wait.

Next day, check stats. What? About the same level of traffic. No Panda recovery. How can this be? I see my site back in the SERPS with all the phrases that it once ranked for.

Today I can clearly confirm there is NO panda recovery. However, I for one just figured out the situation and this is the key moving forward.

The reason my site showed up is because I +1'd it. Yes, I sign out of my Google account and I see what all of you see. That's not my site because it's on page 100 or whatever. In other words, the search ranking of my site has changed or been customized to my +1 choice.

Ramifications? There is a big situation if you can think it through. It says to me that organic traffic has no consistency and your site has no "actual" ranking. It's all based on your Google profile and your +1 choices.

So, if a person chose to +1 related sites on the same subject as mine, it puts me even further behind. The reason? Google says okay, you +1 that site, so you like it, so that site will show up higher in your version of Google rankings.

Some of this may have been covered but certainly not clearly laid out as in an example I've just described here. You need to think about this. If you are a small site, guess what? CNET as an example has probably about 10,000 more +1's than you do and those people will see CNET and not your site.

This is a reality check. It's not negative but it's a huge eye opener for me. Yes I'm getting tired of this madness. Yes the organic search traffic is getting put through the grinder and then some. You ranking really means squat now imo.

[onepointone]

The problem is that it forces you to break G-Rule #1 - manage your website for the visitors, not the search engines.

Right, just putting the button on your site means you are doing it for the search engines (along with letting them share your opinion). Your visitors already know if they like something without clicking a button :)

[littlegiant]

@littlegiant..as I stated before ( does anyone read previous posts in threads properly ? ) that still doesn't change your IP ( even if you click on nothing ) so your serps are still "contaminated" just to a lesser degree..

I would say to a much lesser degree because I've frequently doublechecked my rankings for a number of keywords from numerous different IPs (e.g., friend's computer across town, internet cafés, my mom's computer 400 miles away) and I rarely see much variation. So that's good enough for me. I don't need perfectly 'clean' results.

And just as an aside (and with all due respect), I've made a habit of just skipping over your posts because I find them an eyesore to read on account of your 'unusual' punctuation. That liberal peppering of double periods (..) just drives me crazy. Sorry.

[Leosghost]

you are not the only one.. :)

[MrSavage]

Just a follow up thought to my original post. The irony is that my site is Pandalized, apparently does not meet the new criteria of "quality" or "excellence". However, it appears that it's good enough to tell my friends about and rank because of the +1. Google chooses to show my site but they completely agree with the #3 ranking that I get in my SERPS?

There is a core problem here. +1's say my site is worthy of ranking, yet Google algo has me completely off the radar. Now all I'm saying is someone is wrong here. I know there is collateral damage from Panda. With that said it's actually quite comical in a way.

Google can rank crud that otherwise can't get a sniff of good rankings via the "quality" algo. In my example they apparently disregard the algo, giving that +1 a priority in how they rank my site. It's a ranking that the Google quality algo completely disagrees with. It's like Google has a split personality!

On the surface, this is a mess imo. I'm going to just LOL. We don't mind ranking junk in your search results so long as you and your friends +1 it!?

[martinacastro]

This also works with a minus 50 penalization.

I +1'd it my penalized site and when I logged into the account I see the site in the first positions...

[Zivush]

What a coincidence..
Just received an email from Google WM Blog introducing Google+ for businesses/websites.
[google.com ]
Google is now competing with Facebook pages.

[Zivush]

Frankly if 3000 more people 'like' or 'plus one' or somehow publicly indicate that they like my site better than someone else's, I think it *should* rank higher than the site who doesn't get those social signals.

And if someone gets 10,000 more likes or plus ones than I do, then they should probably outrank me.

"Social signals" and +1 among them are of great advantage for high traffic websites over any new comers.
Who says that what 'high traffic websites' recently wrote is better than any other article written by an expert elsewhere?
Google.
Tomorrow another Search Engine will go to the opposite direction.

[Quadrille]

I don't see how it can be 'proved' either way, but my impression is that "+1" helps, especially for new sites.

I doubt it's a big factor, and, as we know, just one of hundreds, but every little helps as they say.

I suspect some of those opposing it so vigorously realise that, and they're trying to keep the field free for themselves ;) (Else why would they bother to follow this thread?)

Like everything else that's 'within the Google system', it's important to do it right, otherwise you are simply flagging your own site for closer inspection, and none of us are perfect!

[atlrus]

I suspect some of those opposing it so vigorously realise that, and they're trying to keep the field free for themselves ;) (Else why would they bother to follow this thread?)

I can't speak for others, but I am against +1 because it simply opens a door to spammers, while bringing nothing of value to a "normal" website.

What's the benefit to a website with good ranking and traffic to add a simple small box that only says "+1"?!? Now, everyone knows "tweet" and "facebook", but "+1" means nothing to the average user. So, what's my incentive, why should I add this button on my pages? Does it improve my ranking? If so, then it would be overly abused by spammers, rendering it not only useless but counterproductive. If not, then what's the point of having +1?

Or let's put it this way - you know what +1 stands for, so when was the last time you visited a website and clicked it? This thread is already 3 pages long, yet the +1 counter at the bottom is still at zero...

[Quadrille]

And how, exactly, does it "opens a door to spammers"?

Many have tried, over the years, to use a vote as a measure of quality, and this is the first I've seen that might work.

FB has been proven as a spammer's back door, but Google, uniquely, has the means to make this work.
At least for me ;)

If you don't want it, then fine.

But it's fair to my visitors, and fair to me, so I'll use it.

Feel free not too.

[Quadrille]

Or let's put it this way - you know what +1 stands for, so when was the last time you visited a website and clicked it? This thread is already 3 pages long, yet the +1 counter at the bottom is still at zero...

I know what +1 stands for, and I use it regularly, as intended.

I'm not sure that you understand it, if you are concerned with this thread's lack of score, however. Most of the participants, and a fair number of readers are Google-haters who would sell their grandmother before endorsing anything Google; most of the rest can see that the thread is fueled more by those sentiments than any facts relevant to +1, so it's hardly a thread to be recommended as Quality Reading.

And I guess the staff don't indulge in spammy self-promotion ;)

[Donna]

"Social signals" and +1 among them are of great advantage for high traffic websites over any new comers.

I think it could be exactly the opposite. Do you really think there isn't ratio involved in the calculation if there is any ranking factor , think about it . It's another topic how much value each user brings to the click. At the end is easier for low to medium traffic website to benefit greatly from the + if there is ranking involved which is still not clear.

[MrSavage]

The point is not whether clicking that +1 improves your overall ranking. Based on my OP, it's like a virus. Once you've clicked it, your Google search results have just become skewed. That site will show up where it otherwise would not have. The more infections, the more traffic you can get. In that sense it might improve your ranking, but only for those infected. Obviously with the usage of +1 and participants, it's not going to have a noticeable difference to overall traffic at this point in my opinion. I guess the key is to get as many infections as possible and go from there.