Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

[nathanksmith]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

HI Linda,

Hope you are doing well!

So what is the best way to set up both and where should rel=author and rel=publisher appear in your website source code?


I use wordpress genesis site and have the Yoast seo plugin
**In the user section on WP there is the section to enter google Authorship link
**In the Yoast dashboard there is a place to enter google publisher link.


So when I check my source code…….I see rel=publisher only on the home page, however all my other wordpress Pages and Posts have rel=author.


Does that sound correct?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

So sorry Nathan. I have so many mind numbing G+ L problems I'm helping so many folks with, that I don't have bandwidth to even think about all the author mark up stuff. So I'm def not the one to ask. But hopefully other members will step in to help you out.

 

[David Deering]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

So when I check my source code??.I see rel=publisher only on the home page, however all my other wordpress Pages and Posts have rel=author.

Does that sound correct?

Yes, that looks right, Nathan. Personally, I'm not a fan of adding rel=author to my site's main pages (about us, contact us, services, etc), but I guess that's a personal preference. But it looks like your WordPress plugin set it up correctly, with the publisher tag on the homepage and the author tag on the rest.

 

[JustinM]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

I'm keen to add the rel=publisher tag, but I just realised that due to the architecture of my site, the same header is added to each page so the publisher tag would appear on every page.

Will this be a problem? Should I re-engineer my site to ensure the publisher tag only appears once?

Thanks in advance gurus!

 

[David Deering]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

All of the gurus are busy, so you're stuck with me, Justin. lol What kind of site is it? Is is WordPress or does it use php for everything?

 

[JustinM]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

I use PHP to assemble the pages David, so that the header (including navigation menus) and footer are uniform site-wide, which makes updates a lot easier.

I'm sure I can implement a work-around, but is it worth my time?

 

[David Deering]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

Well, you really only want the publisher tag to be on your site's main page, which is usually the homepage. But could you please tell me what's the name of your site? I'll look around and see if I can come up with some ideas.

 

[JustinM]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

Thanks David. My homepage is here.

 

[David Deering]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

Justin, I checked out your site and here's what I found: your homepage has the rel=publisher tag, and everything looks good there. Your other pages have the rel=author tag, and those look fine, too. I didn't check every single page, but I didn't see any instances where both tags appeared on the same page, so you're good there, too, because you don't want to use both tags on the same page.

I also saw that you have created a reciprocal link between your Google+ personal page and your site for the rel=author tags and have linked your Google+ Local page to your site, too. So basically, you have done what you were supposed to do and everything looks good.

Here's the one thing that I am not sure about, though: for the rel=publisher tag, usually the link between a website and a Google+ page is made through the Google+ Business page, not a Google+ Local page, as yours is. There is no method of linking and verifying a website on a G+ Local page as there is with a G+ Business page. So when I checked your pages with Google's Structured Data Testing Tool, I can see the link between your website and your G+ Local page, but it is not verified. So the question is, will the rel=publisher tag still function as intended? I'm trying to find out and will update everybody as soon as I do.

 

[David Deering]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

If you want to check your site's pages to ensure that the author and publisher markups have been set up correctly, just drag this link to your bookmarks bar. Go to the page that you want to check, click on the bookmark, and you'll see the results of Google's structured data testing tool.

Google Authorship Bookmarklet

If the author or publisher tags have been set up correctly, you should see a message that says "verified" and also see the link to your Google+ page.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

Here's the one thing that I am not sure about, though: for the rel=publisher tag, usually the link between a website and a Google+ page is made through the Google+ Business page, not a Google+ Local page, as yours is. There is no method of linking and verifying a website on a G+ Local page as there is with a G+ Business page. So when I checked your pages with Google's Structured Data Testing Tool, I can see the link between your website and your G+ Local page, but it is not verified. So the question is, will the rel=publisher tag still function as intended? I'm trying to find out and will update everybody as soon as I do.

Thanks so much David.

Justin want to warn you about something, so you tread carefully or maybe wait.

Since you have address hidden (as you should) on your Google+ Local page you can't merge with G+ Page or verify G+ Page. You may be aware of this.

But something you may not be award of is a weird catch 22 Google has going on right now. Not sure if it's a bug or what. Trying to find out and lots of folk are affected.

Basically if you create a G+ Business page so you can do authorship, good chance you'll hit this issue. Google tells you you can't edit the G+ page unless you 'verify' it. Then they lock the page so you can't do anything. Well if you verify it that means you merge with your G+ Local page - which is not supported/allowed. So then you are just stuck!

Not saying don't do a page if you want to for authorship, just letting you know things are still pretty buggy and you may hit a wall. Lots at the G forum are just tied up in knots and pretty frustrated.

 

[JustinM]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

Thanks for taking the time to look through my site David! I realise now that I had the publisher tag in my footer all along through the 'Find me on Google+' link that Google had advised me to add when I set up a G+ business page. However, in the meantime I deleted that page because I already have a +Local page. Anyway I discovered yesterday that the link was broken so I've removed the tag altogether.

Thanks for you thoughts too Linda. I think my best option right now is to avoid the publisher tag altogether and stick with authorship tag instead.

 

[David Deering]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

Glad you found the problem, Justin. I don't think that the footer link was causing a problem because Google's verification tool did show your Local page linked to your website with the publisher tag, but it was best that you removed the link to the deleted G+ page anyway. I'm still working on finding a definitive answer to the question about rel=publisher verification through a G+ Local page and I'll let everybody know when I do.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

racebum's request for help on his site moved to the support forum here:
Authorship Markup Problems

Sorry, I should have moved Justin's too to keep this important thread on topic. But his question started off more general and then turned into help.

So if anyone else wants help, keep in mind rule this rule of thumb: General questions and discussions can stay in general threads, but once you drop your link, and ask for help on your specific site, you should start a new thread in the help section.

If David or anyone can help racebum that would be great. Authorship is not my strong suit at all.

 

[David Deering]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

I just posted this on the other thread, Linda, but in case Kyle didn't see it....

Kyle, I found your problem--your author tag in the footer is missing two " marks. Here's the way it is right now:
a href="https://plus.google.com/107946926356292270132? rel=author"

Here's what it should be:
a href="https://plus.google.com/107946926356292270132" rel="author"

See it? You need to add a " to the end of ...0132 and another one before the word author. Make those small changes then check it again. It should work.

 

[Dino]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

Sorry for coming so late to the party on this thread. In case anyone is still listening...

When it comes to organic, I seem to have this figured out, but local has still got me baffled. I'm trying to find out why a competitor is getting his image to show in local search results while my client's does not.

A competitor for one of my clients has got his headshot in his local listings, not just organic. I've been trying to figure out how they're doing it. San Diego Air Conditioning & Heating Repair | HVAC Services | Carini Air

At first I thought it was because he had his blog as a home page. The odd part is that his image appears in local search results, but he is linking to his G+ business profile, which doesn't show his image. It shows his company logo. So why does his image show? Is Google pulling his authorship mark up from the blog posts because the blog post is on the home page?

I've been searching randomly for other listngs to find the solution and found this dentist in LA who has got headshot in local results as well, but she has both mark ups on the home page, but they are both linking to her personal G+ profile. Neither link to the G+ business listing, if she even has one: West Los Angeles Dentist Dr. Elaine Gorelik Call (310) 444-1445.

This is some pretty savvy stuff if I can figure out what they're doing differently. Any thoughts?

Regards,
Dino

 

[David Deering]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

So why does his image show? Is Google pulling his authorship mark up from the blog posts because the blog post is on the home page?

Yes, Dino, that's exactly what's going on there. Because his homepage is showing some of his latest blog posts and his name is linked to his Google+ profile, Google is pulling that authorship data and using it in the SERPs. If you mouse over his name at the top of one of his blog posts, you'll see that it's hyperlinked to his Google+ personal profile.

Can you post the link of your client's homepage, the one you're trying to help do the same for? We'll see if we can figure out why it's not working for you.

 

[Dino]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

Thanks, Dave.

Currently, my client's site uses blog posts as a design feature on the home page to highlight a particular service - rather than as a true blog. I'm re-designing it to give him an actual blog, but currently he's got both the publisher mark up on the home page (through the Yoast SEO Plugin) and the authorship mark up on other pages.

I should have his new site finished by the end of the weekend and will link his latest blog posts to his home page, him as the author, linking to his G+ profile. Should that do the trick?

AIRMAKERS | Air Conditioning San Diego Heating | HVAC

Regards,
Dino

 

[David Deering]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

Hi Dino. Yes, that should do the trick, but it's hard to say for sure without actually seeing it. Just keep in mind that the authorship connection is a two-way connection: you have to use the rel=author tag on the site to link to his Google+ personal profile, and link from his G+ profile to his website by adding and verifying his site in the "Contributor To" area of the About section of his profile. But feel free to come back here if you need some help.

 

[WineCountryCarpetCleaning]

Re: Critical 4 Local - Author Rank, Publisher & Author Markup - What you NEED to Know

quick question would it be exceptable (or even possible) to use the rel=publisher tag if you only have a places page?

I am sorry if this is common sense or has been covered, I own a SAB so no google plus page for me, but I would love to take advantage of rel=publisher.