There’s been a lot of talk recently about Google +1, the new ‘button’ from Google that allows people to ‘vote’ for your site and could affect your Google positions in some instances.
So, firstly:
What is Google +1?
Google tell us that:
Adding +1 buttons to your pages is a great way to help your ads stand out on Google. By giving your visitors more chances to +1 your pages, your search ads and organic results might appear with +1 annotations more often. This could lead to more–and better qualified–traffic to your site.
This has been a little confusing for some people so we’ll try and put it in plain English for you 🙂
Basically, if you have the Google +1 button on your website pages or blog posts, then people can click on it in the same way they would click a Facebook ‘Like’ button. When they click on it (and to do this they must have a Google account), Google registeres that they like your page or post. So far so good.
When another person searches on Google, and your page or post is shown in the results, it will show the number of ‘+1s’ it has had from their friends or contacts. Google is working on the assumption that people will be influenced by the choices their friends and contacts have made.
How will it affect my Google positions? If people don’t +1 me, am I at a disadvantage?
In most cases, the answer to this is no. Google tells us that +1 won’t affect the usual SERPS (which is a relief as we’re sure it will soon become easy to game). However, if someone searches Google while they’re logged in to their Google account, the results that have more +1s from their friends and contacts will be highlighted.
Should I use the Google +1 button on my pages and posts?
We think so. Although it’s not making a huge impact right now, think back to how little impact Facebook Likes made at one point – now they’re an integral part of promoting any blog or website.
How do I install the Google +1 button on my site or blog?
If you have a WordPress blog or site, there’s a plugin for that 🙂 http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-plus-one/
If you have a Blogger blog, you’ll need to install one of their addons – more about this here: http://buzz.blogger.com/2011/06/add-1-button-to-your-blog.html
If you want to install it to your site manually, it’s just a case of adding some code into the head of your code, and then some more code where you want the button to appear – more on this here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/
As you can see at the bottom of this post, we’ve installed the Google +1 button – we’d love it if you could help us to test it, first by clicking on it, and secondly by installing it on your own site or blog and letting us know in the comments below!
