wasaweb.net originally shared:
This piece is a speculative post, necessarily so, as it is a product of someone looking in from the outside, and wildly guessing what may - and may not - be happening with regard to Google+ and search rankings. I have postulated most of the points I make here in previous articles on this site (see below), and this write-up is, as it were, an end-of-the-year summation of where I stand on this issue: in my view nothing fundamental has changed, despite a lot of assertions, speculations, and debates over the course of this year, and my projections remain the same, though I hope my arguments and projections have become more refined and nuanced as the year progressed.
In a nutshell: while Google+ cannot be special in organic search, it will be an important factor in personalized search. Personalized search will become a big market. Furthermore, in personalized search connections matter and not really the raw numbers. In this respect, ranking well in personalized search is more difficult and less easily manipulable. It is not how many people follow a Google+ profile or page, but who and what follow the Google+ page or profile. I may well be wrong, and 2014 could be the year when I discover how wrong I am in writing this piece: I can only wait and see what Google does.
Previous articles (oldest first):
Google and three strands of search: organic, local, and personal (7 February 2013) - http://goo.gl/FqVgY7
Questionable experiments | Google+ and SEO (15 April 2013) - http://goo.gl/Og1N9a
Authority, authorship, and organic search | Thoughts on Google+ (14 July 2013) - http://goo.gl/meAH1H
