This shouldn't be a surprise, Google is shutting down Google+ due to lack of use and security concerns.
About seven years ago, Google launched its own social network called Google+. On Monday, Google announced that it will be shutting down the consumer version of Google+ in the coming months as it revealed a privacy bug.
Google said that “the consumer version of Google+ currently has low usage and engagement,” adding that “the 90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds".
Google+ and the influence of the +1 button ranking?
Before Google+ was launched, Google launched a + (plus) button for websites in 2011. It said those buttons were one of many classification signs used for search quality and ranking. Over the years, Google rejected that, and as Google+ grew (or shrank), Google said it didn't use Google+ or more as a ranking signal. It was a hot topic as studies showed evidence both ways.
In any case, with Google+ going away, you can be sure that Google+ and the +1 buttons will have no impact on rankings in the future. So This case is closed.
Google+ influenced some search results. The Google+ and +1 buttons have appeared over the years in Google search. With Search Plus Your World Google would customize your search results based on what your Google+ friends searched and selected.
Google would also show your personal assets, such as your photos, emails, flights, etc., based on your Google+ account directly in the search results. These days, Google barely uses personalization in search, as it recently admitted.
Google also showed Google+ posts on real time search when Google Real Time Search was a feature that Google had.
Google has also suggested that searchers bring conversations to Google+ over the years. This was Google's way of trying to drive conversation on its social network. Google would highlight Google+ content in search results and in Google News, even showing you what is being discussed on Google+. You would see Google+ appearing in all search results early days so often that it became a joke in the SEO community.
Let's not forget the heavy local search integration between Google+ and Google Local results. In fact, for a time, Google+ replaced Google Places, the former name of Google My Business.
Google+ had a long and slow death. As adoption lost steam over the years, Google stopped pushing Google+. Fewer and fewer Google users were posting to Google+, at least in the public commercial version.
We saw characteristics of Google sunset on Google as ad integrations, saved searches, Google+ in knowledge panels and Google local editions.
In fact, we rarely covered Google+ announcements or changes in recent years because it was a product/service that was out of sight and out of mind.
Google said that will reduce the speed of Google+ “over a period of 10 months, scheduled to end at the end of next August”, and added that “In the coming months, we will provide consumers with additional information, including ways to download and migrate their data.”
