“Don’t Be Evil” Google says but you have to wonder if they practice what they preach as I think with Google Plus they have set up a social media coup d’état.
In general I’m a fan of Google and their products. Google Plus in particular these days is taking up a lot of my time as I try to build up my presence on it (circle me!) for the social media engagement but also for the SEO benefits of Google Plus. Look at the weighting given to a +1 – pretty staggering if you ask me, more important than (some) backlinks.
What SEO benefits do Facebook and Twitter have when compared to Google Plus? Sure, it’s more beneficial to be on these sites than not on them but when you check the graph above (from Moz) it’s clear which social media site is the most beneficial for SEO and hence most beneficial for webmasters.
Google Plus – A Social Media Coup D’état?
In a previous post when discussing Google Plus – Is It Permanent? I alluded to the fact that Google Authorship could possibly become an even bigger ranking factor for SERP than it already is. Couple that with the huge weighting given to Google +1s by Google (well, they’re hardly going to say they’re worthless) and you can begin to see why Google Plus is a bit of a social media coup d’état.
Will Facebook, Twitter and the current social media pillars persist or will Google Plus be the top dog?
Currently Facebook have 1.15 billion or so users but I think that could be the peak of their social media powers. Webmasters who cotton on to the SEO benefits of Google Plus will flock to it (that is if they haven’t already flocked to it, 500 million users or so at last count) and the proliferation of Google +1 buttons on all sites hasn’t even begun yet.
Google have set themselves up for the perfect social media coup d’état by compelling webmasters and online influencers, who would typically be in the know about SEO, to use their products – namely Google Plus. Once the webmasters and online influencers start to use Google Plus extensively then we’ll see the full coup d’état unfold in front of our eyes..
But, I could be wrong.. What do you think? Will Facebook, Twitter and the current social media pillars persist or will Google Plus be the top dog? Would love to hear your thoughts and please, give this a +1 ;)