How are you getting on with your Google+ account? Whether you were one of the early birds who were invited to try out the new networking service from Google or you joined with the masses last week, it's clear that already Google+ is getting a lot of people very excited. But why? At first glance it may seem as though it could be a handy networking tool, and a way of grouping different people into circles, such as family, friends, colleagues, clients and so on. But how is this really going to affect your SEO marketing strategy?

Let's go back in time a bit, back to July of this year when quietly and without any fuss Google dropped the Twitter feeds which had previously been appearing within some search results. Actually what happened was that Google's license with Twitter to display these live results expired, and they simply didn't bother to renew it. Why?

The reason is that they were already planning to use Google+ as a way of providing better and more relevant search results. In fact now that Google has launched Google+ it's likely that we're going to see changes to the way search results are displayed which puts the Panda updates into the shadows.

Adding the the human touch to search results

If you think Panda affected your search result rankings, just wait until the full power of Google+ is launched. You see, there is an inherent problem in using algorithms to generate relevant search results. No matter how complicated, they're still based on nothing but numbers, and these numbers are based on inputs which can be manipulated. The results you are shown are based on what a group of mathematicians think you're looking for. Wouldn't it be better if your search results took into account what real people think?

Google's '+1' button has been viewed until now as being little more than a Facebook 'Like' button, yet there is one significant difference - Facebook's 'Like' button doesn't affect search results. Google's '+1' button is now set to directly affect the search rankings you see. Google is taking these personal recommendations and integrating them in a way which will generate personalised search results based less on mathematics, and more on what people like you actually like.

It's clear Google+ is going to change the way we do SEO, but how do you think it will impact on your online marketing strategies? Have you already made any changes in your approach? Do you think it's likely to make much different to you?  Leave a comment below and tell us what you think.