Google the leading Search Engines has been making a concerted effort to Develop its Social Feature the Google +1 it is meant to rival Facebook which has a considerable lead over Google. Google has indicated publicly that it will give greater credibility to content that is associated with an established Google +1 profile . This article discusses the topic further. We are a leading UK ICANN accredited Registrar which has our own in-house Search Marketing team.
Over the years we have built and maintained a number of high profile sites of our own and for customers, we've noticed that adding images close to text catches the users eye and in doing so improves time on site and the increases the number of pages views you can expect from the same visitors. It's a great way to hold your visitors attention and it also leads to higher sales or more advertising income.
Here's an example from a popular article on our Article Alley site, see the following link
Notice how the images of the pregnant woman catch your eye?, adding this feature improved the time on page and subsequent page views by around 5%. If you are familiar with Google's Panda update then you'll know that time on page and other metrics such as the number of page views per visit are part of the Google Algorithm
What Google is doing is adding the profile picture to Search Results where the author has used their Google +1 profile to associate themselves with a particular website.
I searched on Google using the phrase "Natural Therapies for Blocked Fallopian Tubes" the first result is a website natural-fertility-info.com but what catches your eye and leads to more traffic is the profile picture of the websites owner Hethir Rodriguez
Well it comes down to several factors:-
· It is a great way for them to encourage the use of Google +1 profiles as the image used will lead to improved click through rates for those deploying this approach.
· It is also good for user experience as humans like pictures and as we have seen it works in attracting attention.
· Of course it also allows them to compete with Facebook as there is now an extra reason to create and use a Google +1 profile
· The more active a profile is, in that the more followers and circles that members makes use of the greater the likely benefit to the page linked to. We see this increasing in importance.
· There has been a lot of spam and abuse of links, and now as a way to counter this Social metrics and social signals are playing an increasing role in Search Engine Results Placement (SERPS)
· They have targeted what they consider to be shallow content and it's use in the mass marketing of content via Web2.0 sites such as Article Directories, by rewarding authors who markup their content in this way, they can give more of a reward to higher quality content, ie to Authors who take the trouble to complete the Google +1 profile and associate each site they contribute to with their account. Not so easy for someone using a mass submission approach.
You should complete your Google +1 profile and associate it with the sites you contribute to, including your own website and blogs. Plus any sites like Article Alley which you may use to promote your work.
Discount Domains has a great reputation for assisting our customers with their Search Marketing, if you need help or advice or would like to discuss how we can create a bespoke marketing proposal for your business then call us on 01952 288383
Adrian Lawrence is the author of this article and is one of the webmasters at Discount Domains https://plus.google.com/u/0/106088322856862782725/posts
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