Does The Google Plus Button Help With Ranking ?

It’s been almost year since Google gave birth to the +1 button; Google’s form of “liking” a webpage on the internet and sharing it with friends on your Google Plus profile. Getting +1′s for your website has always been in every web designers and SEO’s agenda, but everyone has the burning question, does it really help with rankings? Will I see an increase in my search engine traffic if I have a large amount of +1′s? We had to find out for ourselves

Bottom Line

From what we have researched, yes, getting Google+ votes to your website will help with rankings, but not significantly. Google has recently included Google+ in their ranking factors for relevant results, which means it is beneficial to have Google+ votes on your website, but it should not be your entire strategy of gaming search engines.

At the very least, having a large amount of Google+ votes will win you some extra search engine traffic, as those that are friends with whoever +1′s your page will see a personalized result if they search for something relevant to your website.

So does this mean you won’t see a #1 ranking by having a large amount of Google+ votes? Well, not necessarily. Danny Dover, an influential SEO writer, explains that Google is constantly running tests to improve the adoption and importance of the Google+ button. He goes on to explain that this could result in “big wins for short periods of time”; if you are the only person in your niche that actually has a large amount of Google+ votes, and Google is doing some beta testing with how Google+ effects your rankings, you might find yourself ranking very well.

In short, Google+ should not be used as a be-all-end-all SEO technique, but should be adopted into any SEO campaign as a compliment to your marketing efforts. It can’t hurt, right?