Google may have solved the conundrum of ‘social search’, or at least created a mechanic which forces us all to adapt to their principles and redefine what the term means.
The general perception is that ‘social search’ – where conventional search results may be influenced or even replaced by social content – is still somewhat immature, even to the point of being something of a laughing stock. As a user searching, the most useful results are almost exclusively editorial, validated content; i.e., normal organic results. It’s comparatively rare that social signals and content provide ‘answers’ to the questions which are represented by people’s keyphrase searches beyond simply validating or reinforcing editorial content; social content is very different to editorial content, and whilst there are overlaps, the relevance and usefulness of each vastly diminishes when consumed within the context of the other.
Similarly, ‘likes’ and social metrics don’t represent value in the same way that editorial endorsement and conventional metrics do – if so, Wikipedia might have very few likes in comparison to McDonalds, for example, who in this case might rank first in search engines for all food related keyphrases… This is obviously not representative of authority/value, or necessarily the best user experience!
However, these kinds of social signals are still useful for search engines and can be viable and useful metrics when taken into consideration alongside other factors. Given this, and the fact that Google have been unable to come to an agreement with Facebook to gain access to their data (unlike Bing, who incorporate this directly into search results), Google were at risk of falling behind on incorporating relevant social signals into their results algorithms and content.
As such, the launch of the +1 button in a space already owned by Facebook and Twitter was widely perceived as a gamble by Google to play catch up and enter the space with their own property. However, it came with a powerful USP which made it more than just yet another social button – it would be the only social functionality present directly in Google search results, marrying editorial validation with social signals. Now, users can visit and +1 a website and have that vote of endorsement visually represented in, and indirectly affecting, editorial search results.
This is the SEO game changer: whilst websites which have strong social signals (Twitter authority, Facebook likes, etc.) might find that secondary signals from this activity boost their rankings, +1’s will show up directly in search results and improve clickthrough rates. With sufficient adoption, this could feasibly act as the bridge between social and editorial content, and Google aren’t being hesitant about promoting it – with direct Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics and even Google AdWords integration (with +1s showing up in PPC ads) and heavy campaigning across all Google properties, they’re investing in making this work.
Websites which incorporate the +1 button over the coming months (either at site-level, most appropriate for B2B and service-based websites, or at page-level for content-based websites) who gain a significant number of +1s are likely to see an increase in clickthrough rate for both organic and paid listings, and can measure this impact directly through clickthrough-rate modelling in Google Webmaster Tools and engagement data in Google Analytics.
More +1s equals more clicks. Unfortunately, it’s yet-another-social-button on your website, and early data would seem to imply that you need at least upwards of 2,000 +1’s in order to start making a notable impact on CTR.
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