Neither G+ Promises Search Value Nor Business Value - Reasons Explained!

G Plus or G Minus!

Do you think G+ has all the elements of success in social arena?Many marketers hope so at least the way G+ is being slapped on our face by Google. However, I cease to believe this, at least at this point of time! Contrary to my belief, various sources have already predicted that G+ would be a game changer. There are many experts like Bernie Borges who think so. Flooded are the websites with various analysis. One such reputed site is SEOmoz where many people have given their thumbs up opinion on G+. 


What has really caught my attention is Stuart Turner when he quotes“Every single page I”ve seen has been launched by an SEO or social media person…” published on Stateof Search.  

I would like to cite here a discussion of ‘Whiteboard Friday” by Roger Mozbot and  Rand Fishkin. They have already suggested tactics for early adopter marketers on Google plus. One of the best examples to fit in this case how SEOs/social media persons are talking a lot and come up with hypothetical analysis without discussing anything about the business value!

As an entrepreneur, anyone would love to know if G+ drives any business value more than search value. A recent report published on State of Search tells a different story contrary to what Rand Fishkin and others are talking about. To me, a clear gap exists between what top marketers predict versus what CEOs and business owners think!

Most of the businesses find almost no value in setting up their business page on G+. And, they have reasons for that.

1. Most important, Google’s own C level executives and management don’t use G+.
2. Popularity of G + insights is low in Google Insights.
3. Google seems intent on making it a vanilla-flavored Facebook copy with less chance of success
4. G+ is an early launch product that still needs varied improvements
5. Other social products like Buzz, Wave, etc. have been closed down. Orkut is an odd man out!

As a marketer, I disagree with Rand Fishkin, at least at  this point of time who thinks G+ succeeds and defines the so-called strategies for early adopter marketers! Contrary to his belief, I think G+ might not succeed unless:  

(a) Google updates their ‘MACHINE’ and ‘LOGIC’ (hard nut to crack in the current scenario) integrated with social media. Currently, Google seemingly applies more human efforts to audit than a robust automated mechanism to display a semantic search results based on ‘Likes’,  'share’, tweets, click and G+.

(b) Google stops bypassing ‘stopping words’ like ‘+(plus). For example, if you search “+Eastwood Company” and even top brands like +Samsung, +Nokia, +LG, you’d not find G plus page although such page "exists for many of these. Only Google recognizes G+ page for a very few including Pepsi, Pet Meds, etc. Further, you can check the voice search results and see SERP on Google that will sure intrigue anybody who search for G+ Page!

From SEO perspectives, if + (plus) is a stopping word that Google tends to bypass, what about the findability? The way Twitter has popularized hashtag (#) for search value, G+ has miles to go before Google introduces ‘+tag’ for G+ page of a person or brand! Can Rand Fishkin search his own brand ‘+SEOMOZ’ to discover Google plus page on Google.com? If he can’t, how can he talk about tactics of using G+ even for search value?

To me, G+ is still at beta stage with many limitations. This social site is still not well integrated with Google’s algorithm nor do any of these big guys at Google use it.
And, the so-called marketers are talking about G+ tactics for search value. At this point of time, neither can G+ promise search value nor can define business value! It would be just another area for Google to have goose laying more golden eggs!