For users who weren’t entirely sure what Google’s +1 button was all about when it first launched, the picture is getting clearer, especially with this week’s launch of Google Plus. And now site owners can see the button’s effect for themselves, thanks to new metrics available in Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools.
Most significantly, a new report in Google Analytics called Social Engagement demonstrates the impact made on your site traffic by not only +1’s, but also tweets and Facebook likes. The report shows the correlation between things like +1 button clicks and the amount of time users spend on the site, for example.
Another report called Social Actions gives a centralized total of all social button clicks, whether they be +1’s, likes or tweets. A third report, called Social Pages, “allows you to compare the pages on your site to see which are driving the highest the number of social actions,” according to a post on the official Google Analytics blog.
Historically, Google’s analytics product has shown how much traffic came from referring sites like Twitter and Facebook, but never included this level of social analysis.
The +1 button data will be rolled out to Analytics users automatically, but to get data from other social sources, you’ll need to follow their instructions for enabling social tracking.
Google has also included new social-related metrics in their Webmaster Tools product. With it, site owners can see for themselves how the +1 button impacts organic search traffic to their sites. It also shows how many +1 button clicks your site has gotten as well as some geographic and demographic data about the users doing it.
