Three Reasons Google Search Plus Your World Will Change Your World

Whoa. I just typed a simple search into Google as I would normally do and up pops yet another Google development.

They’re on fire these days! It’s called Google Search Plus Your World – and it delivers search results including photos and posts that are directly from your friends in Google +.  So, if I decide to search “ways to grow my business,” not only do I get standard search results, but posts written by my Google + connections show up at the top of those results when I’m logged in to Google.

Check it out.

 

Jim Connolly, a small business influencer, wrote a piece matching on my exact search terms. And because he’s in my circles on Google +, his post showed up near the top of the search results page.

What an interesting way to keep you closer to your connections. What Google said (and is universally accepted in marketing) is that people trust people who are like themselves. We’re more likely to take recommendations from our friends rather than a complete stranger. Is that true for you?  It’s natural, or word of mouth marketing — and it is a driving force of 54% of purchasing decisions.

If you don’t want to see posts from your friends in search, you can simply push the toggle button. For some, this will be a life saver, because sometimes you just don’t want to know that your Aunt Mary wrote a how-to article on “how to make illegal moonshine” when you’re searching for “party cocktails.”

What implications does this new personalized search have for your marketing efforts? Well, it changes the game completely:

1)      People are more likely to click on results from others they are personally connected with through Google +, which show up higher in search results. Major restructure of traditional SEO.

2)      Brands will have to make a larger effort to create and maintain brand pages that consumers will want to add to their circles, to more prominently display their posts in search results.

3)      If your posts show up in these personalized search results but don’t resonate with your audience, users have the option to simply toggle the results off, putting you back at square one.

Have you identified any other visible pros and cons of the new Google Search yet? Let us know in the comments section below.