jellyfish agency googleplus pov

© Jellyfish Online Marketing Ltd 2012

Jellyfish POV Google+: Search, plus Your World Background, implications and actions for Jellyfish clients

01| 19| 2012

Jellyfish POV Google+: Search, plus Your World, January 2012

PAGE 2

Introduction

During the second week of January Google officially launched Search, plus Your World (SPYW), an update to search that heralds an epic and arguably seismic change for the digerati, brands and consumers. Cripes, why all the fuss? Background Personalised search in Google is nothing new (default even when signed out from 2009 onwards). Incorporating social results (and by implication using social signals to influence rankings) is also nothing new; Twitter results still feature in Google’s index, and Google have admitted publicly that good social = good rankings:

Danny Sullivan: ‘If an article is retweeted or referenced much in Twitter, do you count that as a signal outside of finding any non-no followed links that may naturally result from it?’ Google: ‘Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and news rankings. We also use it to enhance our news universal by marking how many people shared an article’. What is new is the aggressive manner in which SPYW ‘pushes’ the perceived relevance and visibility of Google+ content INTO YOUR FACE, where the personalised search results are strongly influenced by users’ immediate spheres of influence, including the people and materials they interact with in Google+. (NB – SPYW is only live on google.com at the moment).


PAGE 3

Examples – Search for a person

I follow Matt Cutts on Google+, he is in one of my circles, and (quite reasonably) his Google+ page is one of the results pages. Note his image is presented in the search preview pane.


PAGE 4

Is this a good / better search result? Yes: There may only be one Lady Gaga, but there are hundreds of people who share the name Michael Jackson. In any international or even country-specific search, one particular Michael Jackson and interest in his work risks drowning out the others. So, a name result which delivers information more closely related to my social relationships (read circles in Google+ land) seems sensible.

Now, search for a brand


PAGE 5

Even though Macy’s is not a part of my social circles, their Google+ pages(s) are the #2 and #3 result, outranking their Wikipedia entry and (no surprise!) their Facebook page. Now that’s just not cricket. So personalised search that relies heavily on analysis of social activity in Google+ raises the worrying spectre of a Google+ pages from (or even about…….) your company rating highly for searches for your brand name, or potentially even higher than any given main site for a brand that is rarely updated and experiences little-to-no social engagement. Personalised search also makes it far more difficult to measure and improve what appears in any given search for your brand name; the results of most personalised searches will be invisible to you, and 'chat' within the relevant circles will be largely beyond your direct control; you would need to influence the opinion-formers/leaders those in any given circle in order to influence the wider circle(s). Finally, try a generic search

This one is harder to predict, though potentially if I search for city


PAGE 6

break Italy, I am just as likely to be served a mate’s Google+ page with holiday snaps as I am a travel website. Practically, you’ll note the people and pages on Google+ side bar…hard to miss, right? Well, that can only be a blatant land grab by Google to drive users / brands on to Google in a way that is raising eyebrows and more across the marketing and legislative community (see later in this document). Returning to the issue of search quality, I’d argue that this level of personalisation at a generic search level is counter-productive in many circumstances. The fact that my mum might have bought a Nikon D3 does not make her an expert on DSLRs. When I search for digital cameras, the result I want in that scenario is a site where authority has been gauged over time based on a broad range of metrics…..please. On a positive note, SPYW is likely to be a better user experience for micro personalised searches. For example, when looking for best Thai food in Clapham, a search result driven by my friends’ experiences would be highly relevant to my information needs. Don’t forget mobile Desktop computers are often shared, personal devices less so. As rollout progresses, personalised search is going to dominate the mobile market before it dominates the desktop market, simply because a much higher percentage of users – especially Android users - will be signed in, and will stay signed in. And don’t forget that with all those rich snippets (images, video thumbnails etc.) SPYW also eats up more screen real estate. On a small screen. So what? Is this good for users or Google? It depends on the nature of your search – see examples above. But it’s definitely good for Google, as SPYW necessitates focus by anyone who needs SERPs visibility (people or brands) to kick start or accelerate their Google+ strategy. This prerogative will in turn drive user numbers, increase the breadth and depth of content delivered via Google+, and thus


PAGE 7

Google+ visibility in SERPs to a broader and broader range of search results. It will also enhance Google’s ability to deliver ads based on precise user preferences (which is surely on the roadmap). How persistent will SPYW be? Make no mistake; SPYW is part of a grand plan by Google to grab not just user numbers (where it has an advantage over Facebook) but also user attention (where it currently falls way behind FB). And, tight integration with +1, selling benefits of social extensions to AdWords, it’s a plan all right. But any plan can be thwarted or foiled, and this is most likely to emanate from legislative pressures; here’s the letter sent by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) asking the FTC to investigate Google over the changes Google made as a result of Search plus Your World. "EPIC cited Google's decision to include personal data, such as photos, posts, and contact details, gathered from Google+ in Google Search results."

Twitter have voiced similar concerns and Facebook are likely to follow suit. So it seems probable that Google will make hay while the sun shines, promote Google+ while it can, use the right hand side bar for a few months, then step back and wait while the digital dust settles. What’s a brand to do? • Set up on Google+


PAGE 8

• Link your Google+ page to your domain using Google direct connect (this will feed aggregated data on all your +1 interactions from ads, +1s from your website, +1s from Google+, into a single ‘pot’)

• Enable social extensions in AdWords (shows social interactions on your PPC ads and improves CTR)

• And most importantly, think about content strategies that can work alongside existing processes to encourage engagement via Google+

We’re already advising clients on the details of Google+ set up, AdWords integration and content development based on brand and user data insight; do let us know if you need further information.

jellyfish agency googleplus pov

Technology