In January 2012 Google rolled out "Search, plus Your World" which means you'll see much more of your personal content or things shared with you in the results pages. But, what does this mean for SEO? Let's take a step back and see what exactly has happened. Google has always been customizing our search results - towards the end of 2009 Google personalized results for anyone, regardless of whether they'd opted in to a previously existing feature. The feature watched what sort of sites you'd clicked on before and favored those in the results. And results have been becoming more and more personal ever since. Google turned up the social dial more by including Google+ results in searches toward the end of 2011. And now results from people in our Google+ Circles are favored. Feedback and backlash Twitter called it "bad for people" - but since it's a real competitor to Twitter's search feature, that was highly predictable. Other users have expressed dismay that the social results are given too much prominence and that Google's social search is too much, too soon. Personally, I'm not sure if I'm that bothered what people in my circles share. There's 1000 people in my circles - some of whom are web luminaries whose opinions I really respect, others are just people I'm tangentially aware of whose interests may be irrelevant to me. There are examples where it doesn't work: Google "flights London" you get a result from your circles of someone saying they watched a good movie in a flight from London. On the other hand, if you search for a "John Jones" you get the John Jones from your circles which is probably the one you're looking for. Google Search plus Your World and what it means for SEO SEOers will certainly now not be able to ignore Google+, if they ever have. This new social search will benefit those on Google+ who are followed by many users. This is big news for brands - in fact a lot of the recent Google changes have benefitted established brands. Of course the changes will only affect certain niches. Very specific niches where no community exists may escape any noticeable change. However, if your niche has a community you'll have to earn the approval of the leading influencers. As Chris Brogan, author of Google+ for Business: How Google's Social Network Changes Everything says, "Google+ posts sent to 'public' rank fairly well in Google search results. You can't get that with Facebook or Twitter these days." The freshness of Google+ results will be favored in SERPs. Post about something longtail on Google+ like "blue ice cubes" and Google it half an hour later - your post will definitely show up, this could be a quite massive advantage if you're in the right place at the right time with a certain keyphrase. The future Google+, don't forget, is going to be the future of Google. All their other products will be, to a certain extent, pointing towards Google+. Not all your Google+ circles are created equally. Some are of people you really want to listen to; some are of people you're only slightly concerned about. Going forward we may be able to specify which circles we want included in the social search. Or actually actively pick certain circles to be involved in certain searches. What on earth do we all do now? Well, presuming that you are on Google+ and engaging with it as much as you can, I would do these things. Engage with the opinion formers and those with the most reputation in your niche as by including you in their circles could put you in more circles and give you some of that reputation. Create a Google+ Page for every website you have and put a Google+ Badge on the website pointing to it. At the moment, social results from other social networks like Twitter and Facebook aren't included in the search results. It's possible that Google won't be able to get away with this if there's FTC action so don't drop these powerful social networks just yet! Set yourself up as an author in Google's eyes and get your face in Google search results. Don't forget Google+ pages can host Hangouts as well as individuals so it may be an idea to get your brands to host meet-ups. Michael Dell of Dell Computers uses Hangouts to communicate with people, if it's good enough for him, it should be good enough for us! Create and share Google+ circles. I'm not sure about this one but it could be a really good idea. Say you wanted to be an authority on SEO, create an SEO circle and share with that (other people can't see the title of the circle but Google probably can), and, more importantly, share that circle!!! But, then again, maybe the game hasn't changed that much. As a general rule, create content that people will want to share and build a powerful brand. It's good advice before and after these search changes. I was originally a web designer who discovered blogging as a great way of getting business and making money. Now my design business has expanded into content creation, SEO [http://hellomynameise.com/great-content-vs-seo], social media and internet marketing. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7190453