An overview of Google’s new +1 button, its implications on SEO, the web and a rel=”canonical” +1 implementation tip for Web Master looking to utalise the new button. By Scott Shorter

Google Plus One +1 goes public

Google have publicly released their social plus one (+1) button, heating up the Google vs Facebook war one more notch.

The plus one button will be available next to organic and paid (AdWords) search results. The button will also feature within participating non-Google websites at a root level or at an individual page level.

Google Plus One +1 SERP Example

Coming to a Google near you

Currently this is only available on Google.com, however it is expected to be rolled out shortly to the various other Google properties, ie (Google.com.au, Google.co.nz, etc)

Google Plus One for Non-Google Websites

Depending upon your Google profile settings, you’ll currently be presented with different levels of +1 sharing and feedback participating non-Google Websites and Ads within these website. Set your Google +1 personalisation here. (The current default is disabled.)

With Google +1 enabled, you allow Google to use your +1′s and other profile information to personalise content and ads on non-Google websites. You may see +1 recommendations from people who you know when visiting those sites.

With Google +1 disable, you do not allow Google to use your +1′s and other profile information to personalise content or ads on non-Google websites. You will not see +1 recommendations from people who you know when visiting those sites.

Note: Enabling +1 on non-Google sites does not share your information or your friends’ information with the site that you’re viewing

AdWords & AdSense Plus One

Google Plus One SEO….is SEO DEAD?

According to Matt Cutts, well known figurehead of Google’s web spam team speaking on searchengineland.com, +1 click data will be used, “as a potential signal to improve search quality”.

And no…this doesn’t mean SEO is dead. Google +1 adds a social layer to the algorithm which websites & SEO’s must score highly on inorder to rank well in the SERPs. SEOs will be needed to provide a suitable strategy for accommodating this extra requirement.

Cleaning up the web?

Adding the extra social layer should help Google clean up the SERPS. For example, whilst it is relatively easy for content farms and low quality sites to score highly on revelance, and ammas a sh#t load of questionable yet effective inbound links driving authority, it will be much harder for these low quality resources to accumulate real +1 recommendations.

If you’re interested in steps Google is taking to counter spam you might also want to look up the recent Panda update which also goes after content farms and low quality sites.

How will this effect SERP rankings?

Beyond filtering out the junk, +1 rankings will also highlight the most personally relevant(recommended by your friends) and best(recommended by the public) sites on the web.

From the Google +1 FAQ, “Content recommended by friends and acquaintances is often more relevant than content from strangers. For example, a movie review from an expert is useful, but a movie review from a friend who shares your tastes can be even better. Because of this, +1′s from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user’s query.”

This suggests that Google is likely to improve the rank of a site in their SERPs if it has been recommended by one of the people in your network. It’s also likely a site would improve if it was to receive +1′s from people outside your network, however the improvement would be more subtle. Time will tell us for certain how this all plays out.

So as not to be left behind it is critical that all web masters, seo specialists and strategists adapt and devise strategies now to ensure their sites accrue as many +1′s as possible.

Plus ones and your Google profile

Google profiles have received an +1 update. Inside your Google profile, if you have one and if you’ve enabled the +1 sharing option, it’s possible for people to see your plus one tab. Inside this tab is a list of all the sites you have +1 so it’s not a good idea to +1 anything that isn’t work safe.

Google and your circle of friends

If you don’t know what a canonical link element is then start here.

When implementing the +1 button within a website it’s important to consider the following from the Google +1 API document,  ”If the href attribute of the +1 tag has not been set, the next place Google will look is a link tag with rel=”canonical” set”
Essentially that’s suggesting that you should utilise rel=”canonical” over manually specifing the href atribute if you have multi faceted navigation, ie

• http://www.johnsmith.com/article1.php
• http://www.johnsmith.com/category/article1.php

In the scenario above you have the same article accessible by two different URL’s.

• You should already have a rel=”canonical” tag specifying which of these two URL’s is your preferred (mitigating duplicate content issues).
• Generate your +1 code, and leave your href attribute on the +1 tag blank.
• This in conjunction with a rel=canonical link tag will ensure +1′s on both URL’s are credited to the preferred URL.

If you like the canonical tip or the article above, please +1 below.