Is Google + really being quietly shut down? What does this mean for SEO?
-
I've recently seen & read more and more articles about Google +'s imminent shut down. How likely is that to happen and how will this affect Google Pages for Business, and overall SEO strategies? Like this article right here.
-
Here's a recent article on the subject: http://marketingland.com/googles-horowitz-no-google-plus-is-not-dead-130328
I think the whole 'authorship' and 'publisher' G+ features; linking real entities (people & organisations) to content, as a way of verifying & qualifying the content as being good quality & from a reputable source must be pretty helpful for Google so i would personally be surprised if they did away with those aspects of G+.
I know they have scaled back some aspects of 'authorship' such as removing the authors image in the SERPS but that could just be due to needing to reduce the 'computational budget/bandwidth' they allocate to it.
-
Hi Rocio!
Good topic, and while nobody can provide a definitive answer to your question at this point (except maybe someone from Google!), my take on this is that Google could be:
-
Regretting that they tied Google+ to other products and is now untying it.
-
In the early stages of preparing for some kind of major change.
It could be both of these things or neither of them. I do not see Google's local product going away any time soon, and in fact, Google just announced that they want people logging into their Google My Business dashboard to signal to Google that their pages are still active ... so I believe the local portion of this is still a cornerstone of Google's big plan. But the social side ... it's having growing pains, I think. Not sure what's up, but it certainly is worthy of thought and discussion.
-
-
Google created a monster when they moved Google Places to Google+ whatever-it's-called-today. It truly went from (not so) bad to worse. Besides the SEO trick that John Cross mentioned above, Google+ is a confusing mess. This is the first I heard about Google+ going the way of Internet Explorer, but if it's true, what are they replacing it with?
-
A few more links about this, that i was able to dig out:
http://live.theverge.com/sundar-pichai-google-mwc-2015/
and the full thing:
http://www.mobileworldlive.com/mwl-extra-sundar-pichai-svp-of-products-at-google
-
Rocio
It has been talked about for a while. I am not sure google can entirely I assume a pivot seems more in order see attached article. Appears consistent with the one you linked through to.
http://www.itpro.co.uk/strategy/24146/are-the-curtains-closing-on-google
I like google+ because of it high impact on SEO for not much extra work, and many companies do not use it. A little trick disappearing.
-
There seem to be other post floating around to the same effect.
I predicted its death a year or two ago. It's always been intrusive, hard to use, and just looks plain terrible.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google My Business Login
Is there a way to turn off the Google Security feature that kicks someone out after logging into the account because it isn't a trusted computer or in a different location?
Local Listings | | BlairKuhnen0 -
Connecting multiple locations under one Google business listing ?
I am working for a client with multiple locations across U.S. and trying to add multiple locations under one Google business listing ? Is there a any way to add multiple locations in one listing, or every location needs to have its own business listing ?
Local Listings | | singhk0 -
Best practice for setting up multiple Google Places listings?
Hello, My client has just opened up two new smaller offices which I now need to have listed on Google Places as the primary office is. How is this done (using best practice)? Thanks
Local Listings | | Martin_S0 -
Google Map Disappeared
We had a client call and report that the information in the right-hand map of the SERp for their company name was presenting inaccurate information. I immediately reported the issue through Google and two days later it was fixed and the information was appearing correctly! The following week, we created a Google My Business page for the same client to help boost their presence. Now, when typing in the same general query as we did for the previous-mentioned work, the map is not showing up at all! The map does appear when I type the company name with city and state, but not only the company name as before. The listing has been verified with the Google postcard code, etc. Any insight or work arounds on this would be immensely appreciated!!
Local Listings | | BehrDesign0 -
New google maps listing was showing & now is not
Here is a brief description of what I am doing and what happened. I recently acquired a new client who had an unclaimed google business listing. We claimed the listing and within 2 days it was showing up for its main search term on Google. Almost immediately my client was receiving new calls from the listing. Within a week the listing no longer shows up with the other listings on the home page but does show up when searching on google maps. Does anyone have a lot of experience with Google+ & business listings? If yes, what are some of the most common reasons listings might be removed, shuffled around, increased or decreased in ranking, etc. Sincerely, Garret
Local Listings | | eWebify0 -
Why I'm I ranking so low on Google Maps
About 3 months I started a website (www.guyetteroofing.com) for my roofing business in Montgomery, Alabama. The site is still a work in progress, however, because the competition doesn't really market via internet it was fairly easy to rank on Google Maps. Within 1 month the business was letter "A" in Google Maps. About 3 three weeks ago my ranking was dropped considerably, not showing up at all in letters A through G. The business is still indexed in Google Maps, but only represented by a small red dot. My website is still ranking pretty high for "roofers in Montgomery", but my position on Google Maps has all but disappeared. I have no idea what I've done to be rank so low on Google Maps but still have a solid position on regular Google Search. I've checked my citations and my NAPs, there are a few inconsistencies but nothing major. How can I rank so far below my competition if I have twice as many citations, an actual website, and a Google Plus page?
Local Listings | | billyguyette0 -
Google Services for our Multiple Entities with Multiple Locations
I need to know what is the better practice for us. We have long had one Google account for our four businesses. It was easy to manage GA, Adwords, WMT and until recently - Places. My places account is not transferred to the new My Business Locations, but I am having trouble with a few items and I am wondering if it would be better to have each of our business take on their own unique Google accounts. If I did that, would I be able to transfer GA and other ownership or would I lose all my existing data? Should I just wait to see what my listings are when i get transferred and then worry?
Local Listings | | KJ-Rodgers0 -
Local SEO citations
Hello all 🙂 I've just started doing some local SEO citation stuff, using Whitespark. I'm wondering if it's a good idea to run different searches/listings for different keywords for the same business? For example, 'digital marketing manchester' and 'website design manchester' - or would you simply just do one keyphrase? All help appreciated!
Local Listings | | Seabrook
William0