The New +1 Google Button

By Beacon News | Published April 11, 2011 | Categories: Social Media

Get ready everyone because having a +1 is no longer just for party RSVP’s.  Recently, Google launched their new +1 button on Google search to allow users who are fans of your business to click to recommend your paid ads for all of their friends and contacts to see.  This feature, which to me is their attempt to one-up Facebook’s like button, has already started popping up, and will continue to increase in visibility over the next few weeks.  In order to see the +1’s attached to the organic listings and paid ads, you must be signed-in to Google and not using IE7 or any earlier version of IE.

This popularity feature is the next step that Google is taking to help their searchers see more relevant results, while helping businesses continue to gain better qualified traffic.  And, it doesn’t end with paid ads because soon you will have the option to include these +1 buttons to your website’s pages to make it even easier for people to approve and validate your content.  This personal annotation of “+1’ing” something is the next step since Google opening admitted to using data from social services, such as Twitter and Flickr, as signals in organic search rankings.

So far, Google says that quality score and ad rankings will not be impacted by the +1’s.  Hopefully the buttons will contribute to better click-through rate for paid ads since the personal annotations will increase user confidence to click on the ads if their friends, family, and colleagues already approve.  You will also be able to track the number of +1’s your campaigns are getting within the Adwords interface.

To sign up for email updates with more information about this button go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1button.