How Google+ changes (almost) everything for businesses (part 1)

I’ve been exploring Google’s new Google+ social networking service over the last week or so, and my initial conclusion is that it’s going to have huge implications for the ways businesses, and especially SMBs, market themselves on the Web.

That’s going to depend a lot on how quickly and to what extent people adopt it as a platform, though. And the main question I’m hearing from people right now about Google+ is “what’s it for?”

What Google+ is for

That’s a question that most people asked about most of the now-successful social media sites when they first launched, too, though. And my answer to the question is: it does 90% of the things that I like about Facebook — and does them better than Facebook — and doesn’t do 99% of the things that I don’t like about Facebook (I’m looking’ at you, Farmville).

So, assuming that people start to adopt G+ in Facebook-like numbers, prepare to see major changes and new opportunities in organic Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.

First, let’s look at how organic search is going to change.

As Google+ gains critical mass, Google is going to start to use information about the pages that people share and like (or “+1″ in Google’s lingo), to influence the search results that it produces. It may even start personalizing those results, ranking sites that are liked or shared by your community higher for you.

SEO is going to change

This, the thinking goes, will mean more relevant search results for people, making Google more useful for people using the search engine to find information.

It also introduces a major new factor to take into account for businesses looking to make sure their sites rank high in those search results. Creating content and sharing it via social networking services will be increasingly important.

Right now, Google uses the content and code on your site as well as the sites that link to it to determine how relevant your page is to a given search. More relevant equals higher ranking. And businesses that want to increase their rankings modify their site’s code and content and create backlinks from reputable and relevant 3rd-party sites.

Now, in addition to Code, Content and Backlinks, there’s a fourth element that will factor into all SEO efforts: social activity.

Content marketing and social engagement key

For businesses, that means that creating and engaging with an audience via social networking services — specifically, with Google+ — is no longer an option; it’s an absolutely essential element of organic SEO. If you’re not creating content and sharing it on Google+, and if it’s not interesting or valuable enough that other people also want to share it with their friends, that’s going to MAJORLY hurt your search engine rankings.

Now, more than ever, marketers need to become content creators, or rather, creators of useful content. The ones that don’t will become increasingly invisible, especially when it comes to the world’s most important search engine. Content marketing and social media marketing will be more important than ever.

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In the next installment…

How Google+ will change AdWords and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.