Google Authorship

NOTE: Google authorship did not last long. Google has decided to get rid of it (June 2014). First Google got rid of the rich snippets so the author’s pictures would no longer show on the search page then they got rid of Google authorship totally. There was never really a clear reason. Some believe it was because it somehow took away from ad revenue.

Google authorship is a feature offered by Google that offers some pretty cool new benefits to you and your websites–as well as your content. Read more about it here!

What is Google Authorship?

Google authorship is a new way to not only prove yourself as the owner of your original content and articles–thus protecting the originality of the content and any SERP boost you may have received as a result of it–but also a way for people to get a hold of more of your content. This is because Google will list more of your content to users that have clicked on pages authored by you.

As a sub benefit, Google authorship is also a way to link people back to yourself by way of your Google + page. People reading your content can click on your Google + link and find more about you and the products or services that you offer.

Why should I use it?

The bottom line is that Google authorship is a great way to protect your content. Sometimes people will steal your content and use it on their own sites. This can cause problems, especially in the way of SEO as Google may hit you with a SERP penalty for using stolen content–even though it was yours in the first place (this is the main reason why you should use Google authorship).

Protecting your content is necessary as more and more people nowadays, being desperate for more content for their websites, will simply steal content off of your websites and use them for their own. When search engines like Google find out via their algorithms that your content is stolen (or otherwise simply generic or ‘spammy’) they can possibly cause your site to fall within the ranks of their search pages. This subsequently harms your site.

What are the other benefits?

Google will serve a list of your content to users who view your content directly from their search page. This can give people access to a lot of your content that they may otherwise may not be able to find or perhaps wouldn’t think of clicking and subsequently reading.

Allowing people to find out more about you and the products or services you offer is the whole reason you probably have a website (or use someone else’s) in the first place. With Google authorship Google goes out on a limb to list all your articles and content in a list on their search page for you. You may think of it as getting free exposure for simply leveraging Google’s new authorship feature.

How do I use it?

First, you will have to set up a Google Plus account and get yourself a Google authorship ID. This will enable you to put a link on the page of your content called a ‘byline’. The byline states your name and includes a link to your Google + account. This completes the authorship circuit and proves you’re the author of the content. You subsequently receive the benefits of Google authorship and people are then able to view your other content directly from Google’s search page.

First you will have to have a Google + account. Chances are you may already have one if you use any of Google’s products like Gmail or Google Docs. From here you will be able to create an authorship ID. After you have gotten your authorship ID you can then create a ‘byline’ that you can then include in any of your content that you post to websites elsewhere on the internet.

Here’s a step by step tutorial to help you:

There are two ways to create Google Authorship. You can sign up for authorship here: https://plus.google.com/authorship. You will have to have your Google Plus email address on all the content pages you with to claim your own.

1 Create a Google Plus Profile if you don’t already have one
○ Remember to upload a headshot and fill out some profile information.

2 Go to your website where you put the html. At the bottom of the article copy and paste the code below.
○ Where the 11111111111111’s are put in your Google Plus ID that is found in the URL for your Google Plus profile.
○ Make sure the byline contains your name

Authored by: Your Name <a href= “https://plus.google.com/11111111111111?rel=author”>Google+</a>

3 Go back into Google Plus to your Profile. Click on the About tab. Click Edit Profile. Scroll all the way down to where it says Contributor To. Click on Contributor To and Add Customer Link. Enter the title of your article and the URL. You are done. It may seem complicated but once you have done it you will find it easy to do for all your content pages.

This little piece of html code in the byline of your content will automatically deliver all of the benefits of using Google authorship

Conclusion

The benefits of using Google authorship far outweigh any convenience of not using Google authorship. Google authorship allows greater protection for your content, effectually proves you as the owner of the article in question and opens people up to more of your other content–effectively giving you greater exposure to your potential future clients and readers.

With Google authorship you will be protecting your SERP positions and better protecting your content. There isn’t really any reason other than sheer principle not to use it and it will make you appear far more professional as your picture (Google + portrait) will be shown next to your content in Google’s search pages. It’s a really cool thing!

Click Here to Read Google’s guidelines on Google Authorship

Authored by: Joan Wardzala – Expert in Vertical and Horizontal Search Engine SEO – Google+