Online marketers tracking Google+ developments

• Research firm eMarketer calls Google+ 'a sleeper social network'
• Google+‘s connections with search engine results pages cited by 56.4% of online marketers as likely to become 'massively influential'

MARKETERS are closely watching the growth of Google+ and its connection to search results, says research firm eMarketer.
 
According to an August 2012 study from search engine optimization (SEO) software provider SEOmoz, new developments by Google including those made on Google+, registered high as a trend marketers believe will have a big impact on the future of online marketing.
 
Changes in Google’s algorithm, such as Google Panda and Google+ were cited by 85.9% of marketers survey as likely to make authorship, site and author ownership of content more important in the coming years.
 
Additionally, 56.4% of respondents said Google+ was likely to become massively influential in search engine results pages.
 
Adoption and use of mobile and Facebook’s domination were also mentioned by 81.7% and 69.1% of online marketers, respectively.
 
In Sept of this year, Google announced that 400 million people had signed up for Google+ worldwide and that there were 100 million actively monthly users.
 
Currently, only 54.9% of online marketers worldwide said Google+ was one of their top five most-used sites for social media marketing, compared to 87.7% who cited Facebook and 82.7% who cited Twitter. Google+ did, however, come in above YouTube, which 48.9% of respondents cited.
 
The SEOmoz study revealed that compared to the other social networks, the highest percentage of respondents said they used Google+ for SEO (56.1%), and 65.9% said they used it to help with branding.
 
The eMarketer report stated that “Google+ is a bit of a sleeper social network in terms of its user numbers and usage metrics. In an increasingly integrated marketing industry, however, its impact is likely to be felt by search marketers.”
 
To read the full report, click here.