The New Google Search Plus and Twitter’s Response

If you haven’t already noticed, Google has implemented their new “search” tool, Search Plus. The new Google Search Engine now incorporates Google+ brand pages as well as personal pages into your SERP (search engine results page). This merge has been foreseen since Google+ was brought into beta testing, but never verified as truth. If you read our blog, Why Your Business Should Have a Google+ Page, then you should already know the benefits of Google+. The newest Google update will only increases your company SEO. But if you’re a company like Twitter, you may be a bit angry.

To start, go search something on Google (of course you should open a new window so you do not leave this post). You will notice a list next to your results that is comprised of companies and influential people that have Google+ pages related to your search term. At the top of the SERP you will see your personal results. If you click on “see all results,” you will see what people in your circles have been doing on Google+ that incorporate or involve your search term. Whether it is a comment, a post or a +1, this allows you to see how your own circles have interacted with articles or brands that relate to the search term.

Try searching for a Twitter handle. The outrage by Twitter is caused by the lack of “indexing” or recognizing of the “@” symbol. If you search a Twitter handle, it does not recognize the “@” before the name as relating to a Twitter name. In the Google search engine, it will only search for the name minus the “@” symbol. It is no different from searching Example as it is @Example. Why is this an issue?

To start, it is taking SEO away from Twitter and their users. If you search Example Twitter Page, the Twitter page will be listed first, but trying to search @Example will list the Google+ page first. Google’s response is that it has NEVER indexed the “@” symbol. Fair enough, but then why is it some pages that accrued more followers on Twitter are still outranked by a far inferior Google+ page? Take WWE for example; the company has gained roughly 24,900 +1’s on Google+, but amassed more than 790,000 followers on Twitter. It would seem to anyone that their Twitter page would be a more relevant social result than their Google+ page, yet it isn’t.

So how can you and your company benefit from the newest update to Google? It seems that SEO is still crucial in ranking websites that are unrelated to social media networks, but now you may need a second strategy for increasing your Google+ SEO. The more circles you’re in, the better SEO you will have.

It also may seem Google+ may act as a blog of sorts. The more you post, the better chance there is of your content being shared. If your content is great, there is a great possibility of it being +1’ed, commented on, and mentioned by other Google+ users. The better your content does, the more people see it, and chances are, more people will add you to their circle as they find your information useful and interesting. Isn’t that similar to how a blog site works? Add in the features of YouTube and Facebook, it may seem Google has created an all-in-one network. Whether it will be successful or not, only time will tell, but I do plan on sticking around to find out!