Google’s “Search Plus Your World”: What It Means for Your Business
If you’ve logged into Google lately, you may have noticed that your search results look different. This past Tuesday, January 10, Google launched “Search Plus Your World,” a new set of personalized search features for anyone logged in to Google.
What Is Search Plus Your World?
The tagline, “your photos, your friends, your stuff” pretty much sums up what Google is trying to do with Search Plus Your World. The idea is to make search results more personal, and therefore more relevant, to the user. Personal results are distinguished from typical search results by a special icon and Google has added features that allow users to hide personal results if they wish.
So what do Search Plus Your World results include? You’ll find photos that you or your friends have posted to Google+, content from your Google+ circles, and Google+ profiles of your friends as well as other relevant people and pages you may want to connect with.
What Does Search Plus Your World Mean for Businesses?
Clearly, Search Plus Your World is a major play by Google to promote Google+, which so far has, in our opinion, been something of a flop. Regardless of Google’s motivation, the reality is that Search Plus Your World is going to impact where your business shows up in the search results for anyone logged into Google. Here’s what this all means for you as a business…
- You need to know what percentage of your audience browses while logged into Google: Because Search Plus Your World is only available to people logged into Google, it is only relevant to you to the extent that your customers or prospects have (and use) Google accounts. Anyone who uses Gmail, Google Docs, Adwords, or Google+ (to name a few) will fall into this category. There is an easy way to unearth this information. Simply go into your Adwords account (we are assuming you have one!) and look at the traffic sources for your website. If the source is reported as “not provided” then that person was logged into Google when they visited your site.
- The time has come to create a Google+ page for your business: Assuming enough of your target audience is logging in to Google on a regular basis, you will want to create a Google+ business page. This is easy to do (it’s much like setting up a Facebook page) and takes just a few minutes. By establishing a presence on Google+, you will increase the likelihood that your business will show up near the top of the Search Plus Your World results.
- The more you post to Google+, the more visible you will be in search results: Search Plus Your World will show users relevant results from Google+ pages that they have liked, but it will also suggest new pages that contain related information. For this reason, it is important to not just establish a presence on Google+, but to actively maintain it as well. The idea is to know the keywords that people are using to seek out your services, and then pepper your Google+ posts strategically with the top words.
Why Search Plus Your World Matters
The best thing about Search Plus Your World is that it is helping to level the playing field for small businesses. Establishing and actively using a Google+ business page doesn’t cost a thing (except for your time). Unlike cost-per-click advertising, Search Plus Your World allows anyone to boost their organic search results by simply generating relevant content.
If your target audience skews young or is tech savvy, it is well worth the investment of your time and effort to see how a Google+ business page can impact your placement in search results. On the other hand, if your audience is not logging into Google when searching, this new development may not have an impact on your business … YET!