Google +1 your website to help drive traffic to your site

In an attempt to provide more personalized search results, Google has announced the +1 button is officially available for third party websites. It works in the same way as the Facebook ‘Like’ and Twitter ‘Follow’ buttons. As a result, you will now be seeing the +1 button alongside these buttons on web pages.

When it first rolled out, users were limited to using the +1 button for search results only. During this time, Google made it clear they would be using it as an indicator of the quality of search results. This latest development looks to have even greater implications for webmasters, their website ranking and ultimately driving traffic to their websites.

According to Google, the +1 button will,

“ Give something your public stamp of approval, so friends, contacts, and others can find the best stuff when they search. Get recommendations for the things that interest you, right when you want them, in your search results”.

In order to +1 a webpage, you first need to create a public Google profile. You can do so by clicking here. This will allow people to see who recommended the webpage via the button.

Google further explains,

“…Your +1′s are public. They can appear in Google search results, on ads, and sites across the web. You’ll always be able to see your own +1′s in a new tab on your Google Profile, and if you want, you can share this tab with the world”.

But the question remains, should webmasters start adding the button to their website? I would certainly recommend so. On one hand, Google has made it clear the +1 button can influence search results. Visitors can now influence what content appears in the search results by giving a +1 rating to content they find interesting. This means websites that having many +1 clicks will provide Google an extra incentive to rank you higher for related search terms. At the same time, it will encourage people to visit your website over your competitors as it has been recommended by many people.

How do I implement this button?

To have the button appear on your website, you just need to visit Google’s +1 button code generator page to get the code. There are a few options to customize the button including size and whether to display the number of +1s your page has received, as well as more advanced options such as specifying callback functions in the form of a JSON object. Once you have customized your button, it will generate a code for you to paste onto your website.

It is clear that Google is moving away from strictly algorithm-based search results to social search results, further emphasizing how important social marketing is to Google’s ranking. They have also mentioned that the Android Market, YouTube, Blogger and Product Search will all see +1 buttons arriving soon which should influence greater adoption of the button.

While I don’t think it will have the same far-reaching impact that Facebook likes currently offer, at the very least they seem to be on the right track in providing users with higher quality results. It is clear this will impact Google’s search results and help drive traffic to websites with many +1 counts. So will you be rushing to put the +1 button on your site?