Google’s Matt Cutts: Once Again, +1s Have No Direct Impact On Rankings

Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, said once again that Google’s +1 data has no direct impact on their web search ranking algorithm.

Moz published a story today named Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search Rankings in which Matt Cutts responded to in Hacker News thread saying, “correlation != causation.”

He said that he is looking for the “politest way to debunk the idea that more Google +1s lead to higher Google web rankings.”

Matt then added, he debunked a similar correlation study done by Moz on Facebook likes influencing Google rankings.

In short, Matt says it isn’t surprising content with more likes or +1s have better rankings. Matt explains, “If you make compelling content, people will link to it, like it, share it on Facebook, +1 it, etc.”

“But that doesn’t mean that Google is using those signals in our ranking,” Cutts add. Matt advises, “rather than chasing +1s of content, your time is much better spent making great content.”

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