Do you want your photo displayed on search results in google for any articles you write on your blog?
By having your photo displayed it will improve the click through rate and will also help with your personal branding.
In this article we explain in more detail what author rich snippets are and how to set them up.
What is Author Rich Snippets?
Google allows you to add additional information to your article so that your picture is displayed alongside the article in the search results.
To set this up you will need a Google plus profile. As part of the search results it will display the amount of people that have you in Your Google circles.
Your Photo and Google Plus Circle Information Displayed
What are the main advantages of having Author Rich Snippets?
- A listing with an image in the listing is going to capture more attention than one without it so click through rate should be higher.
- Displaying the amount of times you are in circles could increase the perception of you as an author if the number is high!
- It is good for personal branding as your image is displayed in more places.
How do you set this up?
a). You can link your Google + account with your email address
If you have an e-mail address which has the same domain name as the website with the content you can link your e-mail to this content. You do this by going to the Google authorship page and entering in your e-mail address.
Linking Your Email to a Google Plus Account
To make this work, you need a clear headshot in your Google Plus profile. Also, ensure that your posts include the author’s name (e.g., By Ian Cleary) and that this name matches the one on the Google Plus profile.
b). Linking your content to your Google Plus profile
For any posts you write you can add an additional line of HTML to them that links your content to your Google + profile.
For example:
Ian Cleary
Replace the link with to the google plus profile with your own. This is displayed in the browser window when you are on your profile page:
Your Google Plus profile id
Also change the author to your name (which should match up the profile name of the user).
You also need to a link to your website from Google plus.
Linking Your Google Plus to Your Website
This is really essential for everyone to set up. Have you set it up yet? Have you seen any improvements in click through?