Authorship markup is today’s very hot topic. After the launch of Google+, Google reported information regarding content on the web which verifies their own identities with the Google author. Also, it builds an exact connection of their own content on the web with the use of their Google + profile. This is Google’s way of identifying the author of a particular piece of content.
In an official video of Matt Cuts and Othar Hansson, they described that at some point Google would definitely use this as a “ranking factor” which will be known as Google Author Rank. Many people have questions about how it works. What does Google Authorship look like?
Google Authorship Mark up :The Effective way to get pictures in search results.
Many people have wondered why faces are showing up in the SERP’s. How it is possible? Wouldn’t it be amazing to see your face next to your blog posts?
This is really very interesting. Doesn’t it? The entire credit belongs to the magic of Google Authorship markup and the “rel= author” tag. It will not directly assist your ranking, but it will help you get more clicks than the other results that don’t have pictures. It adds a personal touch and people are more interested in clicking on a link that has a photo of the author. Some studies have shown about 30% – 150 % higher click through rates with Google Authorship markup.
If you are going to start Google Authorship, then you need to set up your profile in Google +. For getting more information you can also visit through the Google + jumpstart Guide.
Step 1 :- Verify Email address on Google +
You should use an email address that is associated with your blog.
Step 2 :- Link to your content from your Google + profile
Somewhere in your ‘About’ Page on your website, you should link to your Google + profile.
Step 3 :- Link from your content to your Google + profile
The above picture shows that you can be point a link from your post from the byline or author Box to your Google + profile . Make sure you add “rel= author” to the end of your Google + URL If you’re using Wordpress, you will be provided with an option related to plugins such as Author Box Reloaded, which is very easy to add the markup, image as well as icons to all the social networks.
Google Authorship : Guest post
How can you take advantage of Google authorship when writing a guest post? Make sure that blog is produced with proper HTML with a direct link to your Google + and the “rel=author” in the link.
The Authorship Process
Google needs to complete a circuit of verified trust between it and an author’s published content. If you want to participate, then you must have two things, a Google + profile (verified identity owned by Google which links to your published content) and the published content should have reference you as the author and link back to the verified digital identity.
The Authorship process mainly deals with three methods which are approved by the Google. They are as follows:
- Three Link process
- Two Link process
- Email verification process
1) Three Link process: The 3 link method is a very easy method to use. All content pages link to the author biography page, the author biography page links to the author’s Google + profile and Google + profile links to the author biography page. Don’t be confused, the picture below will help you get a better idea.
2) Two Link process: This is the method which is used for the content pages which are not linked to author biography page. It contains a mini author biography snippet at the bottom of each post. These posts will be directly link to the author’s Google + profile and the Google + profile links to the home page of the publishing web page.
3) Email verification process: The Email verification method is very useful for the authors who don’t have control over the content. In this scenario, an Author byline links to an email address by using the same domain name as the content page, then the Email address is registered and verified in the author’s Google profile.
Did you notice that one thing is common in all of the above methods? A valid digital identity in the form of an author Google + profile. There are also many more details must be addressed in authorship Mark up procedure, but all of these techniques have become significantly important to know.
Easily Add Authorship Markup to Your Website and Other Content.
To add Authorship Markup to your website and other content, there are two ways, one of is single authorship and another is multiple authors, used for blogs.
For Single Authorship : Here you need to add the attribute rel= “ author” to the link to your Google + account on the content or else into the code for your website. It goes to your < a href> code on the author bio. It will look like below:
<a rel=”author” href=”https://plus.google.com/YourProfile”>Your Name on Google+</a>
For Multiple Authorship : In this you have two ways to add rel=” author” attribute to content with multiple authorship, like blogs. If you are having multiple author pages, then you need to add two attributes separately. First add the rel=”me” to your article
<a rel=”me” href=”http://blogURL.com/author/YourName”>Your Name</a>
Then link your name on the individual bio page to your Google+ profile using the below code:
<a rel=”author” href=”https://plus.google.com/YourProfile>Your Name on Google+</a>
This is the best and easiest way to create Authorship Mark up for your website and content, but you must keep in mind that whatever authorship you create, you must use your name as the anchor text. This helps in getting your expected output, otherwise it may not be possible. Everything depends on you to create a great content and then you will be on track of getting the visibility in the SERP’s.
Take advantage of Authorship
Even if Google does a turn on Author Rank as direct factor in search rankings, getting a original boost from it is not automatic. As expressed in the Google Agent Rank patent upon which this Authorship system can be based, it can be tricky to acquire, yet easy to lose. So, it is not just a simple matter of activating author verification and then sitting back and watching your search engine rankings climb.
According to me Google Authorship one of the most exciting and fascinating ventures to ever happen in the evolution of search. Web 2.0 and Social Media took us from the age of static web pages to the age of interaction. Authorship solidifies excellent, valuable content material which is created by people, not necessarily websites.
Importance of Google Authorship Publisher
If you are having a Google publisher set up, then your company’s brand is displayed on Google Search results without any advertising. This publisher mark up tells Google who is the publisher of the content itself. Google expects each and every publisher to have a Google + business page, not a profile & from that page. Google will use this information to fetch same search result for that particular publisher.
For example, if you Google a business like TechCrunch, The New York Times, Microsoft, Google may display a large box to the right of the SERP’s which will provide clear and vital information about the business, which includes address, phone numbers, hours of operation, website link, and photos.
Click the image for a larger view. The Google local listing appears instead of the our pages. It’s just because when a business has both an online brand identity and a physical location. Customers never need to find their physical location since they are an online publication. However, you can see the “Microsoft” result , it shows the Local listing instead of their business page , because they have an often frequented physical campus.
I actually believe that Authorship has already been imperative to being able to develop a healthy search presence, and that it will grow to be a lot more powerful in the future. Those who are already on board would be considered the ‘leaders of tomorrow’!
Sanket Patel
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Google authorship mark up does help the author to get the much deserved credibility for himself and the brand he is representing. It does add a personal touch and ranks the content higher in the serps, provided you are signed in and searching on Google and the author is in your circles. This is also a great way to get information from a credible and personally known source, this has a greater impact on an users mind, personlisation is what it is known as.
Google Authorship is a better way to create an identity for ourselves in search engine results pages..
Thanks for sharing the nice information.
With Google Authorship you are also improving the quality of your website/blog, as it has been proved to improve the click-through rate and also help in SERP’s.
Thanks for the information
I havent really thought of the value of authorship guest posts until now. But think about it, it allows you to bring more clout to your profile and potentially get added to more circles. I wonder, in the future will we be asking for links for guest blogs? Or simply authorship… Google can’t frown on us asking for authorship, we are just promotion their social network right?
It’s all very well to facilitate and promote the concept of authentic authorship on the web, but it really should be done by a neutral third-party or consortium, such as w3, The confusing/annoying thing about social networks is that there dozens and dozens of them. Google + is just one of them and it should not be relied upon as the sole authority on popularity or legitimacy. How many other search engines will use Google + statistics? We should not be blackmailed/bribed into this marketing scheme (scam?) of Google’s!
Thanks for your post Sanket. I’ve read a lot of conflicting information regarding what you should use as the anchor text of the rel=author link. For example, Google’s support article says to link off of the word “Google”.
Personally, I link off of Google+ (I’ve read many articles & watched a Matt Cutts video that recommends this method) – and I haven’t experienced any issues.
Hi Sanket
I think the one where you show Steve Jobs’s SERP is not Google Publisher authorship but rather an implementation from Knowledge Graph.
https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=mashable That shows up Google+ Publisher data. You can also pull up the Google+ Publisher data by using the +brandname search . EG : jump on to google.com then search for +1800PocketPC , the search box will show a drop down with relevant Google+ Pages
I was looking for a perfect brand publisher example. Tried searching with Techcrunch, crunchbase even seomoz but nothing… You solved my search :) Thanks Saijo