Can Google+ increase your websites visibility in SERPs?

Google+ has been around for a few years now (believe it or not) and has recently overtaken Twitter in the ever brutal social media fame battle. I know, after our 2012 post that asked; ‘Is Google+ a waste of time?’, we were shocked too. 

Going back a little further, in 2011 when Google+ first started, we blogged about it as being a hip and happening platform, that was sure to take off and change the world; ever the big eyed optimists… Were we right all along?

Before the news of G+ overtaking Twitter hit, I thought it was a platform doomed for failure. Shows how little I know, huh?

Back in 2011, us Deers thought that using the +1 button like FBs’ share and Twitters’ Retweet; would lead Google to interpret the click as approval from users, showing that the page was trustworthy, ultimately tipping Google’s search engine algorithm in the sites favour. The result (so we foolishly believed), a higher ranking in the SERPs.

In hindsight it seems as though Google has just become more efficient at gathering our sensitive information (in a less intrusive way than Facebook does) and feeding our consumer nature with targeted search results based on what we like. The horror. Yes its’ Hangouts are great and its’ Circles are a fun way of sharing information with select people; but I’ve got to be honest, in terms of Google+ actually helping sites in SERPs is; for me, yet to be seen.

As web designers we constantly look for ways to increase a websites visibility so that our clients can keep up with and overtake their competitors, but so far; Google+ has not made any lasting impression in regards to SEO.