joi, 7 aprilie 2011

SEOptimise

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 07:31 AM PDT

By now I’m quite weary of the manifold failed attempts by Google to enter the social media arena. We had:

Google Answers
Google Bookmarks
Google SearchWiki
Google SideWiki
Jaiku
Google Wave
Google Buzz

to name just the most known failed or abandoned Google social media services. As with most of the previous offerings, last week’s Google +1 started in a clumsy beta or rather alpha version. I didn’t even want to test it at first, but then all the search and SEO publications frantically reported about it so I felt compelled to give it a try.

I encountered many difficulties, and it took me two hours just to “get it”.

Google +1 is way too complicated right now and it was quite buggy when I tried it over recent days. The Google +1 page itself redirected me to 404 pages in German (I’m in Germany) despite browser and Google preferences.

When Google +1 finally worked for me, I tried to use it extensively but to no avail. Nobody has noticed my +1s it seems, and I barely see any by others.

Still, everybody is writing about it and the list of resources is already huge. Furthermore, there are high profile people in the SEO industry who actually suggest we jump into it. So to provide a more objective resource, I decided to compile the links and to enable you to make your own choices.

Google +1 on and by Google itself

How to use Google +1

Analysis and overview

Opinion (pros and cons)

Google +1 SEO resources

Miscellaneous resources

Google’s +1 Button (links)
Press Coverage: Google's +1 underwhelms agencies
Google +1 is a scheme. (humorous/paranoid take on +1)

So I guess you can’t ignore Google +1; but equally, you don’t have to hurry up and amass +1 votes even though Google announced that they will count as a ranking factor (in contrast to Google SearchWiki, for example).

One year from now will see whether Google +1 is still around, and even if it is, whether it’s actually alive and not used only by bots.

The Facebook Like button depends on the biggest social network there is. There is no Google social network and there is no such thing as a search network; even Blekko relies on Facebook Likes to socialise search results.

So the +1 button must offer something of real value to succeed at all. Only significant traffic and Google ranking improvements will motivate webmasters to introduce it along with the Facebook and Twitter buttons.