The Impact of G+ on Search Rankings

Social networks influence rankings. This is no secret. But how exactly? Can a thousand likes raise a site by at least one position in search results? The company Tasty Placement conducted an interesting experiment, the results of which were summarized in an infographic. For the study, six websites of similar topics were created in six American cities of similar size and population. Ten months after creation, the experiment began. With the help of friends and acquaintances, researchers generated social activity for five of the sites.

For each site, different social signals were measured: Twitter followers; tweets and retweets; shares and likes on Facebook; followers of the Google+ “Business Page”; the +1 button on the homepage. After one month, the average change in Google rankings was measured: the site that gained 100 Google+ followers rose by 14.63 positions; the site with 300 +1s rose by 9.44 positions; 70 Facebook shares and 50 likes raised the site by 6.9 positions; 50 tweets and retweets resulted in an increase of 2.88 positions; the number of Twitter followers actually had a negative effect: with 1,000 followers, the site lost 1.22 positions in Google.

The sixth site was used as a control, with no social activity applied. The result: no significant change, only a decrease of 0.11. Of course, the experiment is not perfect: too few sites, many factors not considered. However, the goal was achieved – to compare the positions of sites with and without social activity. Most clearly, the experiment showed that Google gives priority to its own social signals (G+, +1 button). Therefore, those aiming to promote in this search engine should take this into account for the future.