Worthless links drag down a Web site's ranking. Strong link profiles help a site build authority. Having a tool to find the links requires marketers to walk a fine line between black and white search engine optimization (SCO).

A report from BrightEdge found that Google+ is attracting more top brands to its network, with 75 of the top 100 U.S. businesses maintaining presences on the site. However, only 15 million Google+ users have placed one of these companies in a Circle, compared with 481 million Facebook users who have Liked at least one brand.

The slow but unstoppable rise of Google+ continues but while G+ is acquiring a large number of users it’s so far struggling to encourage them to engage, according to data released by the research firm BrightEdge today.

A new study of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ tracked the ongoing evolution of brands interacting with consumers and concludes that while growing, Google+ is still definitely playing second fiddle to Facebook and Twitter. But with the SEO benefits Google+ can deliver, brands may not care.

The number of people following the top 100 brands in the Google+ social network rose 54% to 12 million in the past two months, according to a study released Tuesday. The top 10 brands have more than 9 million followers, accounting for 75% of the Google+ total follower base.

While Google pursues better and fresher content with it’s recent Wildfire acquisition, its Google+ platform must also innovate to match user engagement levels comparable to Facebook and Twitter. A SocialShare Report from BrightEdge shows that Google+ is gaining momentum with big brands like Visa, H&M and Red Bull creating Google+ pages and bringing their followings with them. These brands, however, are not necessarily fostering consumer interaction.

A new social media report conducted by BrightEdge, specialists in SEO, has found that leading brands such as H & M, Toyota and Red Bull find Google+ to be an increasingly important home for their brands.

Fewer “top brands” are using Facebook and Google+ today than eight months ago. But it’s not a huge decline and may just represent the normal coming and going of online brand activities.

Three out of four of the Top 100 brands are now on Google+. In the past two months, Visa, Hermes, and Wells Fargo have all joined the Google+ network with their own fan pages. Growth is slowing, but that’s to be expected, given the astronomical adoption rate among big brands when Google+ was first introduced.

Are you missing an opportunity to fully understand and take advantage of the impact of local on search engine rankings? A new whitepaper from BrightEdge shares insights into how Yelp.com optimizes for local and highlights best practices for marketers.