Google+ criticised for lack of impact on search campaigns

Periodically reports are published which claim that people are beginning to embrace Google+, but the reality is that it is still way behind Facebook in terms of active users.

According to Econsultancy, it is also clear that retailers are yet convinced by Google+. However, there is still the opinion among some that businesses should not shirk Google+ entirely, given that long term it will increasingly affect search rankings.

Google+ was analysed in the Econsultancy/NetBooster UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2013, and some significant differences were found between client-side and agency responses over the impact of the network.

Around two-thirds of client-side respondents claimed they didn’t know whether Google+ was having an impact on their search engines, whereas just 28% of agency respondents said the same. A larger proportion of agencies claimed they knew what impact Google+ was having on their clients’ campaigns, and for 51% of these respondents the impact was neutral.

For those agencies who claimed that Google+ was having a positive impact on their campaigns, the following reasons were given:

• Content is made more visible in the SERPS via authorship mark-up
• Higher rankings for those that utilise Google+ and have social share icons on their blogs
• Social extensions drive purchase intent
• Greater SERP ownership on brand terms
• Increased referral traffic