If you have recently checked your category’s Google search results, you may well have been as surprised as was when I recently checked our first page placement in the ‘content marketing’ topic.

In weeks and months past, text ads would have appeared in the upper right-hand corner. Those ads still appear, but they have been bumped down by a gigantic Google+ area that features 2 content marketing gurus, Joe Pulizzi and Brian Clark.

Interestingly, the Google+ content has exactly the same prominence as the major sponsored search results that appear above the organic search results. I cannot imagine that advertisers are overly pleased by that.

Happily, Content Marketing Today still appears on the 1st page of search results. Of course, that’s a direct result of picking the right website name early on, having been around since 2007, and posting lots and lots of content about content marketing.  But, our organic search results and those of many other organizations may soon seem less important than any company or individual who is featured in that upper right-hand corner Google+ sweet spot.

Even worse, Google also encourages you to click through to a follow-up page that shows more individuals and organizations who are active Google+ users. Fortunately, we show up there, too. But, because we haven’t taken Google+ all that seriously, our presence lacks punch and pizazz.

The bottom line seems to be that Google+ must become a key part of our collective content marketing efforts. That’s not necessarily because of its intrinsic merits, but because of the way Google is leveraging its omnipotent control of upper right-hand corner of the search results page. Your search terms may not yet show that upper right-hand Google+ content, but I’m guessing that we’ll soon find it everywhere.
Yikes!

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