When users search for article and blog content in Google, preference is given to posts written by authors who have a goof Google author rank. Just as Google gives page rankings to websites, authors with Google authorship account are also ranked. When your article is listed in the search results, your photo and other relevant information regarding you will also be displayed.
This will add value to your article, as users who search are known to choose these articles over regular articles. To know more about Google Authorship, click on the following link, http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/authorship/index.html.
Setting up Google Authorship
- If you have a Google+ profile, it can be used to sign up for Google Authorship. If you do not have a Google Authorship account, create one by visiting the Google+ page.
- Go to the home page of Google Authorship or http://plus.google.com/authorship and sign up with you email id.
- A verification link will be sent to the email id used for sign up.
- Click on the ‘Verify’ button to complete the verification process.
Creating Google Authorship ‘About Me’ pages
If you are the only content writer for you blog or website the process to create the ‘About Me’ page is simple. Once your Google Authorship account is setup, add the code given below within the <head> Section of your blog or website.
<link href='https://plus.google.com/u/0/116541071813355550976/posts/' rel='author'/>
Replace the reference link with your Google plus page link or change the long number to the one that matches your Google+ profile.
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| Image Licensed Under Attribution |
If you have several authors who contribute content to the website or blog, the process is a bit complicated and involved a few steps. We will discuss about that in a later post.
Testing your Google Authorship account
- After completing all the steps to setup your Google Authorship account, you can test if the installation has been successful.
- Go to the Google Structured Data Testing Tool by clicking on the following link, http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets.
- Enter your website link in the search box and click on ‘Preview’
- The Google Authorship Testing result will be displayed on screen.
Why you should set up a Google Authorship
- By signing up for Google Authorship, it will make it easy for people who are in your Google+ circles to know about the websites and blogs you contribute to. This will bring in more readers to the site and increase traffic to the website or blog.
- Google Authorship will help you page to stand out in the search results. Your profile picture will be displayed alongside the search result and will attract people towards you post.
- It is known that Google will give better rankings to websites and blogs that are associated with a Google Authorship.
- This is because Google considers that only genuine authors to sign up for Google Authorship and therefore any website or blog associated with a Google Authorship account will have content written by a legitimate author.
- As traffic and your presence increases, it will help increase your popularity as an author and articles and posts written by you will be considered to be of high quality. Therefore, any SEO post or article written by you will be given preference by readers who follow you.
Matthew AntonAbout the Author:
Matthew Anton is a SEO expert who has published hundreds of SEO posts and articles all over the internet. Matthew write regular post for http://backlinksvault.com/