Google is doing everything it can to encourage personalized search based on social shares. Important because now Google ranks your likes, +1s, tweets and social shares as indicators of content quality and trustworthiness.
When readers are logged into Google with personalized search turned on, they will see SERPs that include results based on their web browsing history and content written or endorsed by their social connections. Personalization can radically change what readers see in regular searches and image searches.
As personalized search gains traction with users, content publishers will gain new visibility in three ways:
- Content associated with a particular publisher will get top position in personalized searches conducted by people who have clicked, shared, joined and follow them. Imagine what happens when a publisher tripled the number of G+ circles or if Google begins to incorporate Twitter and Pinterest follows into its personalized search results.
- Publishers will be visible to their indirect connections. If a publisher’s content is endorsed by someone in the Google+ network, the content could appear in the personalized results of searches conducted by that person’s connections. The ripple effect can reach a considerable distance.
- Publishers become visible to people who visit their website. If a reader frequents a publisher’s website, Google will serve the publisher’s content in that reader’s personalized searches.
Customers might not completely understand Google+ yet, but the fact that Google wants to help new people find you, should be reason enough to adopt their innovations before everyone else sees the value and starts to compete in the same space.
Read more about Google Social Search
note: Google directions are written assuming you browse in Chrome.
