Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Marketing & PR Blogs -> PaperStreet Web Design: SpeakOut

Legal Marketing & PR

: PaperStreet Web Design: SpeakOut

Google +1 for my Law Firm: How Can This Help My Website and SEO Rankings

By peteboyd

Google just released their new +1 feature. This new feature will allow any Google Profile user to mark a search result as a positive result, a recommendation in essence.  Then search users will eventually see the +1 signal next to their search results in aggregate (for both search and paid rankings).

Here is an example of our listing with the +1 at the end.

What does this Mean for Search and SEO?

Google is now clearly incorporating social signals into its rankings.  From Google directly:

?Click +1 to publicly give something your stamp of approval. Your +1′s can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search.?

Google?s +1 is very similar to Facebook’s ?like? button.  You can improve your rankings, and presumably click-thrus, by having more votes (more +1?s).

So what should you do?

First, in the coming months, have your web developers install the +1 feature on any key content pages.  The tool is not out yet, but it will be soon.   Come up with a plan to place it on key content pages.  Not all pages, just content that would be liked ?errr ? plused.

Also, consider a campaign, widget, tool or something to raise awareness of the +1 with your customers and partners.  This is similar to giving away something for a Facebook like, but except with a +1 vote.  Perhaps do both and offer some incentive for a like and +1.  In the long run, the more votes you have, the better.  You can build a large following by using likes and higher rankings by having +1?s.

Finally, produce worthwhile content. It’s really that simple.  Have the best info online in your niche area and you will get all the right social and SEO signals that will rank your site higher.  Create relevant, interesting content and you will succeed.

Will this be abused?

Yes, just like any online tools, there will be spammers who try to game the system. But at the same time Google will have a wealth of data to compare spam versus real +1′s, to see if someone is a real account or is a spam account.   Google states:

?So how do we know which +1?s to show you? Like social search, we use many signals to identify the most useful recommendations, including things like the people you are already connected to through Google (your chat buddies and contacts, for example). Soon we may also incorporate other signals, such as your connections on sites like Twitter, to ensure your recommendations are as relevant as possible. If you want to know who you’re connected to, and how, visit the ?Social Circle and Content? section of the Google Dashboard.?

So even while there will be spammers trying to manipulate the new ranking signal, due to the wealth of data Google has, in the long run the best sites and content should win out overall.

How to Activate?

Note that at the time of this writing, I had to log in to my Google Profile and activate the entire +1 system via the Experimental tab. Once activated, I could +1 any search result and also see if any sites had pluses.  In the future, this feature will become more commonplace, but you will presumably still need a Google Profile to plus a site.

You can read more about +1 here:

• SEOMoz http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-1-and-the-rise-of-social-seo
  • Search Engine Land: http://searchengineland.com/meet-1-googles-answer-to-the-facebook-like-button-70569
  • Official Google: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/1s-right-recommendations-right-when-you.html
  • Official Google +1 Page: http://www.google.com/+1/button/

Full post as published by PaperStreet Web Design: SpeakOut on March 31, 2011 (boomark / email).