Google is like, an internet God now. almost all SEO is for google. Adwords is for google. etc. 99% of all website are practically screaming "Notice me Senpai, Notice ME!"
Very true. People tend to forget there are other search engines, potential traffic from social media, etc. It was also a lot easier to rank well before the days of Panda and Penguin.
HI , FOr me g+ is not dead and he is important as facebook too .. every network has his philosphy and what work on fb not working with g+ and vice versa ... g+ is more professional network than social , fb is more social , g+ has good seo and you have a good access to the communities which are very rich of informations and share also more adaptable than fb groups .... g+ stay a fundamental network for each profesionnal want to grow his business and share it with others
I actively use Google+ in my SEO campaigns. While I do not get as much traffic from Google+ as I do from Facebook and Pinterest, the traffic I do get from my Google+ pages and by posting in groups are free and still helpful. Plus Google+ can give you a quality backlink to your site.
This isn't 100% true. Panda and pengiun basically killed all the low quality content websites and that's it.
But it was easier to rank. Back in the day you could put up a halfway decent article on Associated Content and be showing on the first few pages of Google search results for decent keywords within days. Now, it does take a bit more work than that to rank well.
Honestly speaking, social signals don't really do much if you don't have some strong PR links. At the end of the day, you need good links if you want to rank your site. Social signals like google plus are just bonus.
I'm not using Google +, but I know, that it is still alive. After reading this thread though, I have to strongly consider making an account due to the site ranking.
In terms of promotion, I've had some of my best results on Google Plus. As long as you've got good content and are posting it in front of a relevant audience, in my experience, you'll get a fair few hits.
Hi, I pretty much agree to "danasurvey" (#like) Its still alive and fit, may not be used as much as FB, but there are people out there who rely on G+ and appreciate G+ Regards
Social signals will do nothing for ranking; Been there, done that... I have put up posts, and blasted them with social signals; zero results... I have also tried google plus linking back to articles, zero results..... social signals are good to let google know that your site is active or engaged... think like google: If you have a site, and you are getting authority links, at this point, would it be a red flag for you to be getting authority links if you do not have social signals? I am sure google takes all this into consideration on ranking, but signals alone will do nothing. In my opinion, social signals are 100% worthless for common people. You would have to have a mass amount of targeted followers to get any real benefit from social media in general; think about it! You use social media, then all of a sudden, your site gets hits from all over the world.... If you are targeting world-wide visitors then great, but for niches, not so much, why? Because world-wide visitors may have no interest in your niche, then you end up with high bounce rates. There is nothing wrong with social signals, regardless if you feel that certain ones are dead or not; It is to show google that your site is engaged... nothing more, nothing less.....