Google quickly responds to a Moz study that claims +1s lead to better search rankings.

Moz recently released a study that showed web content shared on Google+ also improved search rankings. Brafton covered the results, detailing that articles shared on the search-engine-owned social network are crawled first and that marketers can even give their other pages and networks an SEO boost by linking to them on their Google+ About pages. But brands shouldn’t immediately adjust their social marketing practices to prioritize Google+ because the search engine says the study is too good to be true.

Esteemed Search Engineer Matt Cutts quickly responded on a Hacker News thread, saying “[I’m] just trying to decide the politest way to debunk the idea that more Google +1s lead to higher Google web rankings. Let’s start with correlation != causation.”

Reiterating a point made in 2011, Cutts says there is certainly a relationship between branded content that performs well in search and on social sites. However, the correlation is that those pieces are good. It’s not that they were first published on one network or another.

“Rather than chasing +1s of content, your time is much better spent making great content,” Cutts adds.

Cutts defends his position that +1s do not contribute to better positions in SERPs, but he does not expressly say that there is no relation whatsoever.

Google has been prolific in its assertions that high-quality content creation is the only real way to rise in search rankings. Yet, while Cutts defends his position that +1s do not contribute to better positions in SERPs, he does not expressly say that there is no relation whatsoever.

It’s long since been accepted among the search engine marketing community that the benefit of participating on Google+ is SEO value. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, Google’s social network still lacks the mass appeal and membership to provide brands with compelling reasons to create internet marketing strategies around the network otherwise.

Lauren Kaye is a Marketing Editor at Brafton Inc. She studied creative and technical writing at Virginia Tech before pursuing the digital frontier and finding content marketing was the best place to put her passions to work. Lauren also writes creative short fiction, hikes in New England and appreciates a good book recommendation.