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8 Reasons Why Google+ May Win the War for Social Dominance

Could Google+ cause the MySpacing of Facebook?

using google plus social network 8 Reasons Why Google+ May Win the War for Social DominanceIn its present configuration, Google+ is much different from Facebook, but that hasn’t kept people from speculating as to which platform is better and who will win the yet to be launched social media application war.

Spending a few hours over a crap table in Las Vegas years ago taught me that I was incapable of foretelling the future and I have resisted prophesying upcoming events and outcomes ever since. However, if we were to consider possibilities…

When the smoke clears and a ceasefire has been ratified, the Google+ vs. Facebook war could end up being little more than the Chevy vs. Ford or PC vs. Mac debates. On the other hand, if Google has learned anything from their past missteps Google+ could cause Facebook to follow its predecessor MySpace into the realm of forgotten space.

The Facebook Argument

The main argument we hear from Facebook defenders is that from Buzz to Wave, Orkut to Voice, Google has failed in their previous attempts to launch a social media product. They claim that Facebook will find it easy to counter any Google threat, but I believe this is where their line of reasoning is vulnerable so here’s my two cents.

  • Google owns the global search market. What do you use for search?
  • Google owns online video, a critical gear in the social machine.
  • Google owns almost 25% of the browser market.
  • Google owns sophisticated cloud-based business applications that will enhance their G+ business offering TBA.
  • Google provides some of the best tools and resources for webmasters and web surfers alike.
  • Google’s embedded base of Gmail users and toolbar integration will jumpstart user acceptance.
  • Google’s greatest advantage is what they have learned from Facebook’s and their own mistakes; knowing what not to do can often provide a tactical advantage far more valuable than knowing what to do.
  • Google has a world-class team of computer programmers and behavioral scientists designing a platform using a clean slate (no legacy code) and guided by some of the top marketing brains in the universe.

From a business perspective where the goal is to drive traffic to a website, Google+ in conjunction with the +1 button will obviously be incorporated into the ranking algorithm so adoption and participation is a must. You have to ‘Like’ (pun intended) Google’s odds of being able to out-Facebook Facebook.

It has only been around for a month so like everyone else I am new to Google+ but so far I like what I am seeing. I find it far more intuitive to use than Facebook was in the beginning. It seems to have a more professional feel to it than Facebook and as a Gmail user, I like the toolbar inclusion.

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The Case for Building Backlinks

If you don’t have links pointing to your website, Google will not take your site seriously. PERIOD!  In other words, if no other website on the Internet sees value in linking to your site, Google will virtually ignore you.

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998, the core metric used to establish the value of a website were the number of links pointing to it.  Their theory was simply that links were essentially votes for a site’s significance.  If you had 100 websites dealing with blue widgets, the site with the most links had to be the best site about blue widgets.

Remember, this is an automated process; a software robot (or spider) crawls a web page and follows every link emanating from that page. There is no human interaction, no site judging panel that decides which blue widget site is the best. The Google algorithm ranks a site’s value using hundreds of parameters that include everything from compliant HTML, the age of the domain, proper SEO, external links and dozens of other weighted factors.

Links pointing to your website are still extremely important.  In fact, it is rumored that although Google provides a method for site submission, they prefer to discover your website by following a link from another site.  Links are very cheap insurance that contribute to your ranking in search results.

How to get quality backlinks

To obtain links by hand is a grueling, time consuming process. To get links via an automated submission tool is no longer effective and in some instances can actually hamper your efforts. Face it, you need backlinks and you need a reliable process to achieve good results. If you are looking for a cost-effective way of building quality backlinks, watch this video.

If you have read my book or attended one of my seminars you already know how important links are for improving search results and generating traffic. Find out what hundreds one-way links can do for your website?

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Content or links – which comes first?

A reader made a comment on a previous post and asked some great questions that I’m sure many of you have, so I thought I’d answer his questions in this post.  Bob wrote…

What do you think of the Bluehost deals for SEO? I just signed up for their $99/month service for one keyword. They will put a 4 page wordpress site up for me and start creating links to it. They do 3 keywords for $199.

I’m reading SEO for Dummies now and may get your ebook as well. Am I better off writing my own keyword-rich content (or hiring freelancers to do it on Fiverr, iFreelance,etc) and learning to do links myself. I have plenty of time and little money. Thanks,

Bob, you asked some excellent questions and believe it or not, you’re already doing some ‘off-site’ SEO by asking your question here and including a link to your site in the comment form.

You said that you have “plenty of time and little money”, which is a common problem many of us share. If that is the case, spending $99 or $199 per month for links is not a good idea…yet.  Let me explain…

In the most recent Google algorithm update a few months ago, they targeted sites that had very little content, or redundant content. Hundreds of thousands of websites virtually disappeared from the Google index, or found themselves on page 98,000.

We need to remember that Google’s goal is to provide what it believes are the best results for a particular search query. A website with little or no content will not rank well regardless of the number or quality of links pointing to it. So, that should answer your question about Bluehost’s linking deal.

At the risk of shameless self-promotion, Bob, I would strongly encourage you to get a copy of my book before you start paying for links or any other SEO services. In my book, I discuss basic page design and critical SEO factors that you need to include, and I hate to tell you that your site is not scoring well at this moment.

‘Local Search’ is one of Google top initiatives and the only piece of information on your page is a phone number. Unfortunately, that phone number is part of a graphic and Google can’t see that your phone number is area code 650.

You have two images on the page and your primary logo image is named, “he_logo.jpg”. Renaming that image to something such as, “san_mateo_electric.jpg” would give Google more information to index.

The only text on your entire page is www.HillsboroughElectric.com and that doesn’t give Google enough information to display your site in results for any search query.

As to creating content for your website, I would encourage you to do this personally before you consider outsourcing.  Nobody knows your business or industry as well as you, so share that information on your site.

Once you feel that you have the basics covered, feel free to outsource, but know that you will need to rewrite almost everything you get from such a source. With the exception of some excellent talent in the Philippines, most outsource firms employ people where English is a second language and most articles will read that way.

Bob, you’re on the right track, but you need to do things in the proper order. You don’t want links before you have some content posted. In fact, you really don’t want to do anything proactively until your site can stand on its own explaining who you are, what you do and where you’re located.

My book, the SEO & Social Media Marketing Guide was written with people like you in mind. People who know they need a website, but can’t afford to hire a professional firm and are not sure where to start or what to do. This is why I offer a “No questions asked guarantee!”  If my book doesn’t meet your expectations – get your money back.  Just one idea could make you thousands!  But, I want you to take 60 days to review my book and decide if this information isn’t worth much more than the cover price.  With no risk, you have nothing to lose!

Best of luck to you, my friend and thanks for taking the time to comment on this blog.

PS: I love the look of your site so far and the pic, now you need to feed Google with a bunch of keyword-rich text.

PPS: If you need links, how about 650 one-way links…see this.

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+1 for the Weiner story?

In my previous article I talked about Google’s new +1 button and this is a short follow up. Using the Drudge Report’s headlines, I clicked through to most of the stories on today’s page.  My purpose was to see if any of the websites were using the +1 button yet.

The funny thing was that of all the stories, I could only find one that was utilizing Google’s new voting button. In Google’s defense, this social rating system is less than a week old, but we’re used to seeing webmasters jump when Google sets a guideline. The only story I found using the +1 button was “Weiner on wife support” (New York Post)

weiner wife support google plus one +1 for the Weiner story?What I found most interesting was that as popular as this news story has become, 321 people Liked it on Facebook, 40 Tweeted about it but only 2 people clicked the Google +1 button. I would not draw conclusions at this stage, but I found it odd that most online agencies hadn’t yet launched the +1 button and the only instance of it being used was surprisingly low.

Anyway, no conclusions or conjectures…I just thought this was interesting and wanted to share it with you. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and ask if you are planning to add the +1 button to your website or blog? Leave a comment below and BTW, be sure to Like, Tweet or +1 it…(we need a new term for “plus one” – any ideas?)

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