Google News: SEO becoming more social with Google +1

For those of you who haven't heard already. Google just announced the launch of Google +1, link here. In summary this lets people vote for links in the SERPS that they like. This can be shared with your network of Google friends and will most definitely be an indicator of quality at some point in time if not immediately.

This is part of Google's aggressive movement towards blending their SEO algorithms of On-page SEO factors, external link quality, and now Social Metrics.

We already see correlation between social metrics and SEO right now.

So what does this all mean to SEO? I believe web sites that already have high quality design, content, and good rankings will further improve their rankings. Sites that also aggressively use social media marketing will dominate their industry. Low quality sites be bumped down as this becomes more popular.

What I would take away from this:

• Hopefully you're already one step ahead of the game by focusing on your SEO. The only way to get the Google likes is if someone sees your URL in the SERPS or on the web.
• Review your web site design and usability; If you haven't read much about web usability I recommend reading Jakob Nielsen's book "Prioritizing Web Usability" if you haven't already. This will help you understand how people browse the web and shop.
• Get serious about adding content to your landing pages, blog, or article pages and focus on quality instead of quantity.  Blog posts and articles should use imagery, graphics, and illustrations. Landing pages should have more then just keyword rich content at the bottom of your site. It should convey quality and genuinely be helpful to your visitors.
• Get off the fence about social media marketing. Tracking ROI through social media is difficult but SEO is becoming more and more social every day. We provide turn-key social media marketing services now. We can post for you, grow your fans and followers, and get people with huge friend lists to re tweet and share your content.
• Don't worry. Google isn't going to make any sudden changes. We don't have one client that will lose out from these changes. Everyone we work with will undoubtedly benefit from this.