+1 button on Hubs vs Google+ Wall

1. 93

   melbelposted 12 years ago

   I know it's frowned upon for us to +1 hubs (possible SEO penalty) but what about putting hubs on your Google+ wall?
   
   I use Google+ like a maniac and post a large amount of content on my G+ wall, some of it from HubPages. Should I be watching what I post to avoid some sort of SEO penalty?

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   1. 74

      Kangaroo_Jaseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Heya Mel,
      
      You posting links to hubs on your G+ wall, or you hitting the +1 button on those hubs. I hope your not doing that to your own hubs though?

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2. 91

   Pcunixposted 12 years ago

   I'm not sure about this supposed SEO penalty for self-plussing.
   
   I wrote a longer hub about it and as I said there, I don't do it out of principle, but I find it very hard to believe that Google would care at all.
   
   It's ONE vote.  One +1 is absolutely meaningless.  Even hundreds of 'em are meaningless.
   
   I've been unable to find anything from Google that says they care about this.  That doesn't mean they don't, of course.
   
   You can put links on G+ without plussing the link.  It's that button that does both, but you don't have to use it if you believe there is a possibility of censure.

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3. 67

   tamronposted 12 years ago

   I was wondering about the +1 button because I have clicked it on my own hubs.  I seen a comment about it the other day that you should not do that but I couldn't find out why?  Does anyone no why?

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   1. 91

      Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The "why" is that Google generally doesn't like fake recommendations.  They don't like paid links, they don't like link exchanges, they don't like people who create massive amounts of backlinks to their own posts.
      
      In that vein, it might make sense that they'd see self-plussing in the same light.  However, as I explained at my hub, there is an important difference here: a plus one by itself is completely insignificant and you can't plus anything more than once with creating multiple G accounts.   As G looks at the other activity those accounts have, it is much easier for them to spot deceptive SEO building accounts.
      
      In short, I really doubt that this matters.  I do not self-plus myself just out of principle, but I would be really surprised if it caused any G reaction at all.

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4. 75

   Richieb799posted 12 years ago

   I'm still not sure how much of an impact the Plus one button has, they claimed it influences serps but I see competitors without any plus ones who rank higher..I think that like Pcunix said, you probably need hundreds

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   1. 91

      Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      No.
      
      They have said that it WILL influence SERP someday.  Not now - at least as far as we know.

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      1. 75

         Richieb799posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         You must be very thorough with your documenting of Google announcements

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         1. 91

            Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            No, I'm not.  But I have looked for that recently and have not seen anything yet that indicates they are actually using it.
            
            That doesn't necessarily mean they are not, of course.

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            1. 75

               Richieb799posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               You can't always believe what Google says either, they could tell us certain things make a difference but they might not play a big part in the Google bots actions :S

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               1. 91

                  Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Absolutely.  I agree 100%.  I'm simply pointing out that - as far as I know right now - they have only said that these will influence SERP in the future.
                  
                  It makes sense:  Google needs to get away from backlink dependence as fakery is rampant.  Plus-ones are harder to fake (harder to fake WITH VALUE, that is) so could eventually be a more valuable signal to them.
                  
                  For those who don't understand, consider that Google is aware of your activity in a logged in G profile.  A "real" user is going to exhibit much different activity patterns over a much longer period of time than would be seen by an account created only to create fake SEO juice.
                  
                  Will it be possible to program bots to act like humans would?  Sure - but can you have 10,000 of them running at once for long periods of time?  That gets much harder to do, and that's why +1's may eventually be very valuable to google.  Not one, two or even a few hundred, but when a page gets massive numbers from users who are acting like real humans and have been doing that for months or even years on end, that will mean something.

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5. 77

   skyfireposted 12 years ago

   SEO penalty ? Let me know if there is any data presented on the beneficial side.

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   1. 91

      Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      They have not yet indicated any benefit.
      
      I saw one of my pages move up a few slots as it gained Plus-ones, but I really think that was coincidental: something else moved it up.  I think the +'s were just from more traffic caused by something else entirely, probably new organic backlinks that I didn't notice (because, silly me,  I never pay attention to that).

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6. 77

   skyfireposted 12 years ago

   I noticed that the results after logging into Google and without are slightly different. After logging in to gmail or g+ or any other g service, results are influenced by the people in G+ circles and gmail contacts. I found that annoying especially while making music related queries. For example, my music related queries are in trance genre. On results page I get top results which are influenced by circle/contacts and these results are not what I want from Google. This is the reason I don't click on +1 or even share stuff on wall by using widgets. I don't know like me how many are pissed off at this type of update.

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   1. 91

      Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      As Google has made it exceptionally difficult to get unbiased SERP, I use scroogle.org to see where things "really" are.
      
      But of course that's only true for people using services like that.  Anybody else using Google will get results biased toward what the big G thinks you want to see.
      
      It makes knowing where a page really stands in Google's eyes rather hard to say.

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      1. 77

         skyfireposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yes Scroogle, that's how I'm managing things as of now.

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7. 75

   Richieb799posted 12 years ago

   Plus one doesn't seem to have taken off to the same degree as like the 'Like' button, I think Google Plus is great but people associate their Google account with Gmail and apps and not really a social thing. Well, not enough as much as Facebook in my eyes.
   
   Did you hear about those plus one exchange sites, Google caught on to them and the fake plus ones were being removed after a few hours

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   1. 91

      Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, as I explained above, I don't think fakery is going to work on this.
      
      Anyone with an interest in reliable SERP should support this.

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   2. 91

      Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Also, I'm not sure that it matters if the great unwashed hordes never go to G+. 
      
      As long as *enough* people are there and they are active enough, Google will have enough reliable data to feel comfortable in using that for SERP signals.
      
      What "enough" is, I do not know.

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