There's a big change taking place in Google's search right now. Let's take a quick look at this change which might still be ongoing as you read this Nugget on January 13, 2012.
Social posts, user profiles, and business pages from Google+ started to appear in the Google SERPs earlier this week. For you this means it's time to jump on the bandwagon and set up your Google+ Page and start using it.
Including G+ information in the SERP has created many cries of foul play from SEO critics, web experts, and even concerns about Google breaking anti-trust laws. Where Google once upon a time suggested generic websites in the SERP, it has replaced those with information pulled from Google+.
Google is usually known for providing the most relevant results in their search, but perhaps pointing people toward Google+ is not the most relevant. Sometimes the most relevant is someone's blog, a website, a Facebook Page, or a Twitter profile; but Google Search is only including Google+ information in the results right now.
Our initial testing shows that only 1 or 2 word searches trigger Google+ results. The G+ results appear mixed in with the results and over in the right margin where ads usually show.
To test how this new feature would affect your jewelry store we looked closely at these common search phrases:
rings
engagement ring
loose diamond
solitaire diamond ring
solitaire diamond rings with diamond band
wedding bands
wedding band
We tested using several browsers, several location settings, and even tried the incognito setting on Google Chrome just to make sure our results were identical. So far it looks like those search phrases are not triggering Google+ information in the SERP.
We then tried the same 7 search phrases inside Google+ and found plenty of personal profile, business pages, and public posts to match. In other words, Google has plenty of information to pull from, but it's not.
There's a lot of buzz and complaints about this new feature, and in the coming days or weeks we will see how it works itself out. For the moment it looks like Google+ results are not tainting shopping related searches for jewelry, or searches for local jewelry stores. It also looks like Google is not mixing G+ results into pages that have heavy AdWords ads.
Even though we are reporting no net effect today, that could change tomorrow. Sorry to say that we're strongly urging all readers to activate their Google+ personal profile and then create a Google+ Page for your jewelry store.
Google still owns search and right now they have given their own social network, Google+, a big advantage over the others. The online marketing playing field is large and time consuming, and now you need to find the time to get involved with Google+.
