Google Authorship 101

Last week I talked about the 6 things to focus on when marketing your brand or product on the internet.  The newest and probably least known item on that list was Google Authorship.  In this blog post I discuss what Google Authorship is, how to set it up and why it is so important to do so.

What is Google Authorship?

Google has designed a program using Google+ where original content writers are credited for the material they write in blog posts.  The blog posts can be on the writer’s own blog or on other blogs as a guest blogger.  In doing so the writer becomes tied to the blog posts allowing them more exposure on the internet and better ranking in Google’s search results.

How do I set up Google Authorship?

Google Authorship is easy to set up.  You will of course need to have a Google+ account to get started.  Once you have a Google+ account it is important to have a profile photo with a recognizable head-shot.

Whenever you write content for a blog you should make sure a byline with your name is included on each page of your content.   This is easily accomplished if the blog site is using WordPress as there are plenty of plugins to support Google Authorship that will include your byline and photo.  Your byline name will have to match your Google+ name in order to receive proper credit for the content.

You should also have an email address on the same domain as the content.  For example, I write content for nxtlvlllc.com and my email is on the same domain.  If you do not have an email on the domain that you are writing for Google offers an alternate method of linking your content to your Google Authorship account.  This involves adding a link to your Google+ profile on the content you are creating.  Again, this is easily accomplished if the blog site is using WordPress.

You will also want to link back to the blogs you are writing for on your Google+ profile.   This is all completed on the same page when signing up for Authorship but adding blogs to your Google+ profile can be done at a later time as well.

The blog you are writing for does not necessarily have to be set up to work with Google Authorship but that decreases the likelihood that your content will show up at the top of search results on Google.  I also write for the local patch blog which does not include Google Authorship but was able to link the blog to my Google+ profile.

Why is Google Authorship so important?

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has said that Google will rank content tied to Google Authorship higher in search results.  Gone are the days of link spamming, content clones and keyword stuffing.  If Google is unable to verify that your content is original and yours it could, and probably will, hurt your search results.

In the battle to secure page one results with your content, brand and/or product it is now more important than ever to ensure you are engaging your audience with content that is yours and not copied from another site.

Eric Schmidt is quoted as saying “Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.”

Key Advantages of Google Authorship:

• Better Search Results
• Increased internet traffic
• Verified Ownership of original content
• Increased brand recognition
• Content tied to photo for higher click through

This is just the beginning for Google Authorship as it is in its infancy.  As you can imagine the benefits are huge and there are more plans in the future for Authorship.  Some estimate that adding Google Authorship to your content increases traffic somewhere between 15 to 50%.  I am sure all of us would take any increase in traffic that we could get.  If you have not set up your Google Authorship profile yet I strongly suggest you get on it!