Every business yearns to be found on Page 1 of Google’s search results. That’s the reason for all the interest in local SEO tactics, Pay-Per-Click search marketing, and the search benefits of location-based social sites.
Just as your business searches for customers by providing useful, relevant content, Google also seeks to attract and please its users by producing relevant results. Google’s late initiative, Authorship, could be the single-most important SEO tool yet for content marketers.
Simply put, Authorship allows digital writers to claim their online content, while helping search users find more by the same author.
Authorship will also help build credibility for company websites as well as individual authors. Sites with authorship tags will get more traffic from searches, resulting in greater exposure to more of their content.
The Cost of Anonymity
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt alludes to the importance of Authorship in his forthcoming book, “The New Digital Age,” as quoted in the Wall Street Journal: “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.”
How To Set Up Google+ Authorship
- First go to your Google+ profile or sign up for Google+.
- Use a recognizable headshot for your profile photo.
- Make sure a byline with your name appears on each page of your content.
- Make sure your Google+ profile name matches your byline name.
- Verify you have an email address with the same domain as your content. (Don’t have an email address on the same domain? Use this method to link your content to your Google+ profile.)
- Return to https://plus.google.com/authorship and enter your email address.
If you have any type of Google account (YouTube, gmail, analytics, or any other Google product), you already have a Google+ profile by default. You just need to log in and fill it out so it doesn’t look blank. Be sure to include a professional headshot photo, since this is what search users will see next to your content.
In the “Contributor To” section of your Profile, list all the websites where your content can be found. A link to the homepage will work, but if possible, link to your author page on the website, with a bio and list of past articles. Update this page every time you add a new publisher.
For a more detailed explanation about setting up Google Authorship, check out “The Complete Guide to Google Authorship”.
Become An Authority
Remember, the root word of “authority” is “author.” By establishing your Google Authorship, you’ll be able to build your authority as an expert in your field, while also improving your search results and increasing targeted traffic to your website.