Purchasing a Google Plus Profile

[Mjstout]

A client of mine has the opportunity to purchase a google plus profile from a now defunct competitor. Essentially the profile is in tens of thousands of circles, so it may be a decent idea just from a marketing standpoint. When it comes to SEO I am wondering about a few things

1. Is this against Googles rules?

2. Has there been any proof of authorship playing a role in SERP rankings? So if there was an article where the author was in 50 circles compared to the same article where the author was in 50,000 circles would it effect the rankings at all?

3. Have there been any studies done that show that the +1 (from Google Plus users) effects SERP rankings?

Sorry for all the questions, but this is an interesting opportunity. Thanks in advance!

[EGOL]

I think that any study would have to be case specific to be worth anything.  A circle with two influencers or two popes would be far more valuable than a circle with 5000 drunks.  And at the same time who YOU are and what YOU produce is going to make all of the difference.  If you are putting out crap nobody is going to pay attention to you and if they do pay attention to you it is really going to be damaging to your brand.

[Mjstout]

That is really the million $ question, right? I have been searching all over to find valuation numbers for Google+ but can;t find them. Have you (or anyone else) seen any studies with this info?

[TakeshiYoung]

It's easy to buy lots of fake circles for your page. I would verify that the 50,000 circles that the page has are indeed real people, and that content that's posted there gets real engagement. By quantifying how much engagement posts on the page get, and coming up with a dollar amount of how much that engagement is worth to your business, you should be able to determine whether the page is a good buy or not.

[Mjstout]

Good question. It is actually a business page not a profile.

[Mjstout]

I had imagined it being a bit more complicated than just switching the name. The page in question (not profile as I mistakenly wrote before) is a enthusiast group. So it would be like a widget company paying to buy a widget enthusiast group's page.

The additional power would come from the fact the widget company could promote their content to the enthusiast group. I would imagine it would also increase the circle count of the author as well.

[josh-riley]

Can't stress enough how much I agree about it being a bad investment and that just because there's people in the circles it doesn't mean any of them will stick around once it changes hands.

[TakeshiYoung]

First of all, is this a personal profile or a business profile? Because right now authorship is only for individuals, not brand pages. For your questions:

1. I have not seen anything explicitly against selling a Google account, but you might want to double check on that.

2. Google has said that authorship does not currently play a role in Google's algorithm, but many people believe it will in the near future. However, the authority of an author will likely be based on more than just circle count (where the writer writes, engagement their content receives, etc)

3. +1 do affect SERP rankings, but only for your connections that are logged into their Google accounts.

[BlueprintMarketing]

I can tell you that is probably a very bad investment.

Google's rules are very clear about being transparent with your actions on Google +

https://developers.google.com/+/policies

Google pays attention to names very closely. When you're client or friend

changes the name of the business to his and the name of the other gentlemen to his Google will find out and they will ban the site

http://searchengineland.com/will-google-penalize-chromebooks-advertorials-149452

1. yes it's very much against the rules

2. yes there's a lot of proof of authorship playing a large role (primarily on blogs) but as an individual Google dose grade you and authorship tricks like this one will not go over well. You'll most likely be penalized. I do not have any information about 50 circles compared to the same article with the author with 50,000 circles. I'm sure you can Google that however it does make a difference you have to actually be the person that gained the 50,000 Circle users. Plus the users are going to abandon him once he takes over for the person selling it.

3. There have been quite a few studies done on the impact of social media a.k.a. Google + and all the rest collectively playing a large role or small role in your search engine results. You can type better and to search on Moz and find that.

Lastly if you want to help your friend. Prevent them from doing this here is the beginning of what Google has to say about all this and it gets a little bit worse for people trying to buy their way into rankings

Google+ Platform Developer Policies

Guidelines

To help ensure your application's success as well as to promote a healthy community, we require that all Google+ API developers follow these guidelines.

<dl>

<dt>Put the user first</dt>

<dd>Build something that Google+ users will love.</dd>

<dd>Encourage useful sharing and give users meaningful choices about who they share with.</dd>

<dt>Be transparent</dt>

<dd>Be honest about the intention of your application.</dd>

<dd>Show users what you will do on their behalf and get their explicit permission before you do it.</dd>

<dd>Be clear about what is being sold via your application and post your terms of sale.</dd>

<dt>Respect user data</dt>

<dd>Keep users' private information private, in accordance with your privacy policy.</dd>

<dd>Use any data you collect to improve users' experience.</dd>

</dl>

I hope I have been of help,

Thomas