Social’s impact on search has been discussed for a while, and the update reinforces it’s influence on rankings and brand. Google+ content such as posts, pages and photos will feature prominently in search results, and the importance of social as a ranking factor will continue to rise over time. For marketers, this is a powerful way to drive SEO performance and brand image.

BrightEdge S3 delivers proven ROI forecasting, enabling SEO practitioners to quantify the impact of SEO on their business, make an informed business case to executives for further investment in SEO, and focus on opportunities that promise the maximum revenue gain or cost savings.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) no longer feature text-based results and have evolved to include image, video, social, and local results. Marketers now need to know the rank of their pages among all types of results including image, video, social, and local. Metrics and strategies based on blended rank and not just text results alone are what marketers really need to succeed in today's SEO battleground.