Google has unsurprisingly now launched itself into the social media world. Creating its own social network Google+, or has it? Already it is being questioned, is this actually the future of search engine marketing?

Google is all about improving what they do well; they ‘search’. They have one of the largest research groups focused purely on solving search problems; it’s even in their manifesto to focus on doing their one thing well.

Could it be possible that Google+ is actually helping Google to reach their aim? Which according to Google’s co-founder Larry Page, is to make search engines “understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want.”

When logged in to Google+ your search results can be different to when you’re not logged in. Google+ uses your ‘circles’ (connections) to build up search results, this can lead to content shared within your circles being ranked higher in results, even reaching the top of the list.

In the future, this could lead to more dominant pages from within your circles outranking better-optimised pages, in the traditional sense of SEO.

Organisations have already begun targeting Google’s +1 feature, it is now possible to pay a company to ‘+1’ your organisations website.

Google as of yet have not released where Google+1 will be moving in the future. It is possible that Google+ is not about moving search engine marketing forward, or about taking over more of the search engine market. Google are showing signs of getting brands involved with Google+, in which case it will be about far more than just search marketing.

Whichever way Google+ chooses to go in the future, its already clear that it has the potential to influence the way social media and SEO are used in a huge way.