Last week, Google made the announcement that they were going to start including information from their oft-ignored social networking site, Google+, into their search engine results. I didn't recognize the importance of this situation until a friend emailed me about how excited he was that he had gotten his company onto the first page of Google overnight. After a few minutes I deduced that he was only showing up on the first page because he was naturally in his company's Google+ circle, and that to the average search engine user he was still pretty much invisible. He then got understandably depressed.
Generally speaking, those of us who work in web marketing have an odd relationship with Google: we're slaves to the search engine and disdainful of their social networking site, which has somehow managed to go from unknown to forgotten without the usual period of popularity. When it came to Google+, we generally didn't bother.
Of course, this announcement of a marriage between these two entities should have people stand up and notice, although any real worry is a bit premature. Simply put, Google+ results are not going to matter much until people starts using it. So, SEO is pretty much business as usual, at least for now.
However, now that Google+ is going to start showing up in everybody's Google searches, there is a definite chance that it could become important. If that day comes, the ramifications could be significant. Here are some of my theorized results of this scenario:
- Celebrity Endorsements Become King: Suppose Justin Bieber's 40,000,000 Facebook fans go over to Google+, and you have a product that fits that demographic perfectly. If you get him to share your page, you'll suddenly appear on the first page of their Google results even if they never visit Google+ again. In other words, instead of paying Google to get PPC ads, you can pay a celebrity to have the same effect, albeit with a onetime flat fee.
- Google+ Will Fuel Its Own Growth: Since having extensive Google+ circles can drastically improve search engine rankings, companies will start doing whatever they can to get as many people into their circles as possible. This could best be accomplished by having content, sales, or, deals only available on Google+, which would drive more people to it, continuing the cycle.
- Pay Per Click Advertisers Feel the Pain: Since the Google+ results are going to replace the PPC Sidebar, suddenly you're going to have to be in the top three to get any clicks on Google itself. This would result in a PPC bidding war. Although, there's also the chance that having fewer things to click would actually result in a net loss for Google, especially since Google+ doesn't have advertising yet. Of course, Google has deep pockets and they would have no problem temporarily reducing revenue if it meant that they could get a bit of that Facebook Pie.
- Bing/Yahoo Becomes Desperate: Bing and Yahoo, which together make up roughly half the US search volume that Google has alone, are not going to enjoy this situation one bit. Your Facebook likes already affects the results on Bing, but it's nothing in the way that Google+ does. If this level of personalized search takes off, Bing and Yahoo will have to do something drastic to remain relevant.
With all of this being said, however, it's important to remember that everything is still up there. Nothing was able to get people to migrate over to Google+ when it first came out, so why should it be any different now? In addition, there is always the possibility that having mostly Google sponsored content in their results could cause a backlash, either among or users or regulators (although I doubt the current political climate would lead to any significant sanctioning). Google became king because its content was impartial and their ethos was "Don't Be Evil." If public perception were to turn against Google, then everything they did to promote Google+ could blow up in their faces.
In other words, Google is at a crossroads. It is clear that in five years' time it won't be anything like the search engine we see today. The real question, of course, is whether it will completely dominate every aspect of online communications or start a slow decline.
What are your thoughts about Google+? Do you think we're looking at a transformative moment, or will this all just blow over?
Michael Gillen is a Project Manager for Fishbat, an online marketing company located in Bohemia, NY.