By Nick Noble

What is Google+ Authorship?

Google+ Authorship has been popping up in search results for some time now. Have you noticed the thumbnail profile images of people showing up next to SERPs while doing a search on Google?  These results include a byline that is linked to the Google+ profile.  This is Google Authorship, my friends.  Google+ has provided users with a new platform to connect social and Google with new data to manipulate your search results.  Much like Facebook’s social graph search, Google+ fuses Google with social data; +1, shares, connects, and more that allows them to improve individuals search results.  With this data, Google is able to devise a new form of Page Authority, or Page Rank, called Agent Rank (AR).  Google+ Authorship, along with Agent Rank, is likely to significantly influence SEO strategy this year and in the near future. To learn more about Agent Rank and how it differs from Authorship Rank, visit www.blindfiveyearold.com/author-rank.

WHY is GOOGLE+ AUTHORSHIP IS IMPORTANT TO SEO?

1. Authorship results increase CTR, which increases SERP rankings
2. If you click on an authored result, your cookies will give you more links from that person (Assuming Positive Users Interaction Data)
3. Searches for content by author
4. G+ circles influence the search results, similar to Bing and Facebook’s use of the social graph.

PageRank (PR)  + Authorship Rank (AR) = BETTER RESULTS

“The identity of individual agents responsible for content can be used to influence search ratings.

Assuming that a given agent has a high reputational score, representing an established reputation for authoring valuable content, then additional content authored and signed by that agent will be promoted relative to unsigned content or content from less reputable agents in search results.” -Google

So what exactly is “Agent”? Agent is Google’s terminology for an author. The excerpt provided above from Google states that verified content by an author will be graded, and it is that grade that influences the rank of content in search results. Therefore, Google+ Authorship and Authorship Rank does affect rankings with SERPs and SEO. However, Google+ Authorship is not the only type of metadata markup that affects SERPs and SEO. Schema.org provides a universal markup that allows Webmaster to provide more user beneficial information on their SERP listings.  However, it is said that this practice does not currently influence rankings directly.

How to Add Google+ Authorship Tag:

1. Create a Google+ profile
2. Fill out profile information. *Remember – upload a high quality headshot.
3. Verify your profile
4. Add link to the publication in “contributor to “ section of your Google+ profile
5. Add link to Google+ profile on the articles landing page. There are two 0ptions.
   1. Link your content to your Google+ profile using a verified email address.
      1. Check that you have an email address (for example, nick@risdall.com) on the same domain as your content (risdall.com).
      2. Add a clear byline identifying you as the author to each article or post you publish on that domain (for example, “By Nick Noble” or “Author: Nick Noble”).
      3. Visit the Authorship page and submit your email address to Google.
   2. Link your content to your Google+ profile.
      1. Create a link to your Google+ profile from your webpage, like this.
      2. Add a reciprocal link back from your profile to the article(s) landing page(s).
6. Test using the Google rich snippet tool

Google+ Authorship PowerPoint

[slideshare id=17651176&w=476&h=400&sc=no]

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