With an almost definite effect on a links CTR, will this new tool also affect how you rank in the search results? And with more and more emphasis on social sharing, the battle of the +1 may be about to begin.

Google has taken their search function to a whole new social level with the introduction of the +1 button.

What is Google +1?

The world of the web have been in broad discussion over the step Google has taken into mixing SEO with Social Media, the Google +1 button. Currently in its experimental phase, +1 works in a similar fashion to Facebook's 'Like' button.

This seems to be very similar to the Facebook Like feature except the only difference is that when you +1 a blog article or web page it will help promote that website or page to your contacts via Google services.

Google have been investing a lot over the last few years to try and make search results more personalised and focused to a user, iGoogle which helped promote websites you visit most to be in the top of the search results when they contain information you are searching for. Now the Google +1 will allow you to recommend content to your friends, these will be of great value as most people buy products after reading a review and even more so if a friend or family member recommends a certain product. This new feature is what Google is trying to capture in its search results a more friendly, precise and focused results containing good relevant content.

Google +1 is only available in the US and hasn't had the code released to add the buttons onto websites yet, but soon once the code and the feature is made more available we will start to see it everywhere.

Just like its Facebook counterpart, the +1 button lets you recommend search results to your contacts across Google's own social network, and also receive recommendations in a similar fashion. But unlike Facebook's Like button, the recommendations will be served to the user in a more elegant and targeted manner. Anyone in that user's network of Google friends who then searches on a similar topic will be shown those recommended results, mixed in with the the usual search results, flagged with a note advising that a friend has "+1'd" it.

With Google holding the current controlling share of the search engine market, their recommendation tool has the potential to dramatically affect a companies ad words CTR.

Chatty Google

Word of mouth referrals have long been the most effective way for companies to build a trusted customer base. With more companies opting for online e-commerce and a large majority of consumers carrying out their shopping online, such referrals are becoming harder to capitalise on.

The translation of word of mouth advertising to the online world has become an almost impossible task. In answer to this problem we have seen a large growth in review sites such as Reevoo but it is often the case that some companies will have staff write reviews in an effort to increase their brands trust factor. Using the Facebook 'like' system allows an element of peer to peer referral but it is done on a rather generalised scale. The +1 system fills the niche in allowing people to refer the better links that they have found through Google and have had good experience with to their friends.

With an almost definite effect on a links CTR, will this new tool also affect how you rank in the search results? This remains to be seen and is dependent on how Google see fit to alter the current ranking algorithm. But with more and more emphasis on social sharing, the battle of the +1 may be about to begin.

If you want to get in on this experiment then just follow these instructions:

Register for or sign into your Google account Go to www.GoogleLabs.com Click 'join the experiment' for +1 button Get '+1ing'NB. For those living in the UK you may need to set your Google search engine to.com in order to see the results.

Izaak Hutchinson - A Digital Media Executive at Electric Dialogue

Specialising in Web Development, SEO, PPC, Social Media and Real Online Strategies

website: http://www.electricdialogue.com/

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