Google Authorship

[Mike Pedersen]

If we write unique content on niche-related websites, should we have our google authorship link in there, AND then point back to each of those sites from the "contributor" section of the google+ about page?

 

[Jeffrey Taylor]

Mike,

Absolutely use Authorship. There are many reasons why this is a good idea and rather than list them here. I will refer to an excellent blog post I read last month at Copyblogger.

10 Reasons Writers Should Claim Their Google Authorship Markup | Copyblogger

Make sure when linking to your G+ profile you use the rel=author tag and you list yourself as a contributor to the website you are posting to.

I post frequently on several blogs and have seen my click through rate increase as well as my rank rise.

I have placed all of my local clients on Authorship and in some industries their prominence on page one stands out because of that little photo. As you post more content in a particular industry (e.g. plumbing) Google and viewers see you as an authority in your industry.

Plus, my clients love seeing their face next to their content.

 

[Mike Pedersen]

Yeah Jeffrey, all my clients authorships are showing as well.

I just didn't know if I did that on all niche-related sites I write on if that was okay in googles eyes.

As much as they update and change, they've made a lot of people in SEO very cautious with their actions.

Thanks!

Mike,

Absolutely use Authorship. There are many reasons why this is a good idea and rather than list them here. I will refer to an excellent blog post I read last month at Copyblogger.

10 Reasons Writers Should Claim Their Google Authorship Markup | Copyblogger

Make sure when linking to your G+ profile you use the rel=author tag and you list yourself as a contributor to the website you are posting to.

I post frequently on several blogs and have seen my click through rate increase as well as my rank rise.

I have placed all of my local clients on Authorship and in some industries their prominence on page one stands out because of that little photo. As you post more content in a particular industry (e.g. plumbing) Google and viewers see you as an authority in your industry.

Plus, my clients love seeing their face next to their content.

 

[Jeffrey Taylor]

Mike,

As long as you are writing unique content it should not be a problem. Claiming Authorship for your content also tells Google you are the original Author and eliminates the content scrapers from the picture.

I am not sure if Google has a contributor limit, maybe someone else knows the answer to that.

 

[laurie]

We are trying to set up authorship for our wordpress site. Anyone know the best way to do this? We have googled it and come up with some different directions.

Also - this does not help your blog posts/website rank higher but can help with the click through rate, correct?

One last question: I have noticed people putting my blog post content on their sites and they do link back to our site. However, sometimes these sites have nothing to do with our niche. Does Google hold that against us - non-relevant sites linking to us? And if they do, will authorship help them to know we are the original author so that they don't hold it against us?

Thank you!

 

[Jeffrey Taylor]

Hi Laurie,

There are plug ins out there that can do it for you but beware, I have found some plug ins do not play well with your themes. I have my designer hard code the author rel into the footer now and it has been working great!

Although Google has not said it will help your rankings, we are finding it does. If you are ranking for keywords having the Authorship photo helps your page stand out on the SERP and will help click throughs.

The awesome thing about Authorship is that you are claiming ownership to your content. People are scraping your content, and without claiming authorship you are leaving it up to Google to decide who the author is. By claiming authorship you are helping Google know that it is your content and the scrapers who are not crediting you will suffer. Claim you content asap through authorship so you are the owner!

Hope that helps!

 

[laurie]

Thanks Jeffrey. So, I guess we won't use a plugin but go ahead and put the code in. Does the code need to be on every page and blog post you write?

Also - we are going to link to the G+ profile page and not the about us page, correct?

 

[Linda Buquet]

If you are hot for Authorship now, check out the screen shot in the post I link to here
Heat Map - Local Vs Organic - Which Listing Gets the Eyeballs & Clicks?

It's a heat map study showing how much the author image pulls clicks away from the other top local and organic listings.

Thanks Jeff. Laurie, I consider Jeff our resident expert on Authorship. It's over my head - but he gets it!

Here are the top posts that go into more detail. And yes I see conflicting info all the time about the best way to implement, but some of the posts inside this one will clarify for you.

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

 

[laurie]

Thanks Linda and Jeffrey.

We put the code into the footer so that it would be on every page. However, when we do the structured data testing tool, we're getting this message on every page of content:

Warning: Missing required field "updated".
Warning: Missing required hCard "author".

Any advice?

Thanks!

 

[laurie]

Ok, an update. We were putting in the domain name and not an individual post when we got those two errors.

Now, when we put in a url for a specific post, we get only one message:
Warning: Missing required field "updated".

This gets so confusing. We also did an email verification and I was wondering if that's good enough without worrying about putting the code in?

Our email is info@ourdomain.com and not my personal name. Does that work?

Sorry for all the questions.

 

[Fulty22]

I totally agree with Jeffery. I think it is in your best interest to include your Google Authorship wherever you contribute to a conversation, guest post or contribute.

There was actually a good Youtube video from Matt Cutts just yesterday (June 5, 2013) talking about Authorship. It is worth a look. It is pretty short.

[video=youtube_share;3QlY8ba0jYI]http://youtu.be/3QlY8ba0jYI[/video]

 

[MichaelJ]

Re: Google Authorship in Local

Is the photo in Google+ Local new? I can't remember ever seeing this before? I see little activity in the blog associated with the website. How is this done and do you think you could replace a head shot with the business logo?

 

[Thaddaeus]

His Authorship is connected to his Google+ Local page. And Google will only show your personal Google+ picture, not your Google+ Local picture. They showed business logos for a while last week, but stopped doing it.

But it does seem to make sense to show your business logo on your business listing. Who can figure out how they do what they do?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

His Authorship is connected to his Google+ Local page.

Hey Thaddaeus,

Authorship is connected to a G+ Profile page, not a G+ Local page. The reason the author photo is showing in the local results is because it is a blended result, which brings website factors into play.