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<\/a><\/p>\nThere has been a lot of back and forth, conjecture and even arguments regarding this change, about the reasons behind it (like many monopolies, Google doesn’t always tell its subjects the complete truth)<\/em> as well as what this will mean for authors going forward.<\/span> It has caused such contention because many of us had spent considerable time and resources building up our profiles, hoping our smiling, passport-style faces would attract more clicks.\u00a0 And for a while they did! In<\/span> a study<\/span><\/a><\/span> by Cyrus Shepard of Moz, he showed us that by simply optimising his Google+ picture, he increased organic traffic by a whopping 35%!\u00a0<\/span><\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Despite Google\u2019s announcement, the more observant among you may have noticed that there are still photos dotted sporadically throughout search results. If you look below, you can see some results I was returned for the query, \u2018blogging strategies.\u2019<\/span> At this point, it is necessary to point out that the aforementioned results (with the Authorship photos) are not leading to author-written articles.\u00a0 They are simple posts on Google+, some containing links to other sites and some not.<\/span> It seems that while a person is logged into their Google account,\u00a0a large portion of the SERP real estate is dominated by relevant Google+ posts.\u00a0<\/strong> The search engine is promoting content from its own network.<\/span><\/p>\n Another way that Google+ is being featured in SERPs is through \u2018sharing information.\u2019\u00a0<\/strong> Below is a screenshot of three results from my query \u2018Google+ in SERPs\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s changed?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/strong>The above screenshot was taken while I was logged into my Google+ account. Entering the same query while using Incognito mode, not only returns fairly different results but is completely faceless. No author photos at all.\u00a0 This difference gives us insight into Google\u2019s intentions.\u00a0<\/span> On Google+, I am connected to the two authors whose pictures are shown in these results.\u00a0 I am not connected to the two whose faces are not shown (highlighted in green). I will come back to these guys later. <\/em><\/span> What this tells us is that Google is trying to serve us up results from people we know and interact with<\/strong> (using their social network).\u00a0 This falls in line with the search engine\u2019s drive for a more personalised web. The search engine assumes that those I am connected to on Google+ are those from whom I want to hear most.\u00a0 This does make sense!<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe importance of Google+<\/b><\/h2>\n