One of the most hotly debated issues in Social Media and SEO currently is if Google+ actually influences the rankings of your site on the search engine Google. Some experts state that Google+ has a dramatic affect on rankings and could in fact be one of the most important factors for your rankings, social media managers claim that Google+ has some affect on rankings but if it’s used in the correct way. Meanwhile other SEO experts and Matt Cutts himself claim that Google+ accounts have no affect on an SEO Campaign but who’s right?

It seems Matt Cutts is directing people to creating great content instead of running around for +1s on Google or likes on Facebook. Matt Cutts says that when you make compelling content people will then share it, like it, tweet it or +1 it. Matt Cutts claims this makes no affect on rankings as Google does not use this as part of the ranking algorithm, instead Matt recommends that you spend time making great content.

In theory it makes sense, when you make good quality content Google Loves it and people love it too. People show their love of your content by sharing it around.

But is Matt telling the truth? We have to remember that Matt Cutts works for Google and experts feel that his job is to preserve the secret of Google, like the secret KFC recipe – who knows what they use to make that coating taste so good yet still be so greasy?

Putting my Blog Writer hat on I would recommend that you continue to focus on good quality content, but with my Social Media Manager hat on I recommend that you keep an eye on social media and engage with customers. Whether it helps with your Google ranking or not it will help build customer trust and that is never a bad thing!