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This is a shortened version of my talk for Cardiff Internet, carried out the following day for colleagues at Box UK. Just like the main talk, it covers rel="author" and includes information on its benefits, how to implement it and even contained a live demo showing implementation via WordPress and the Yoast SEO plugin. Copy & paste this link to see a screen capture video of the live implementation demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVg9-5tqjIU
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Getting Your Face In Googlerel="author" implementation – Box UK Tech Talk
What is rel="author"?Introduced: June 2011
Type of markup in the form of a rel attribute
In short: it ties your Google+ profile to pages/posts that you’ve authored
What are the benefits?
Increases click-through rate (CTR)!1
1) http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/04/27/want-a-150-boost-in-traffic-then-use-this-idiot-proof-guide-to-google-authorship-markup/2) http://www.blueglass.com/blog/using-authorship-markup-to-increase-click-through-rates-in-the-serps/
3) http://www.seobodybuilder.com/marketing-conversion/click-through-rate-increased-with-rel-author/4) http://www.marketingtechblog.com/rel-author-ctr/
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-author-photos
Personal branding2
Pro tip:Use the same avatar on all sites & social
networks
+
Increases rankings…?3
Scrooge McSchmidt image source:http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/blog/eric-schmidt-google-verification/
“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.” (emphasis added)
Eric SchmidtExecutive Chairman, Google
From his upcoming book:The New Digital Age
How do you implement rel="author"?Google recommends two ways on its Support page:
Author information in search resultshttp://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986
Link Google+ using averified email address
1
So for http://seono.co.uk...Email address on the same domain:
e.g. [email protected]+
“a clear byline identifying you as the author
(for example, "By Steve Morgan")”
Pros: Easy to do!Cons: Only works for sites where you have an email address (e.g. your own blog)+ unreliable (not guaranteed)
Add the ?rel=author link parameter2
On any post you write,add a link to your Google+ profile with
?rel=author at the end of the URL, e.g.https://plus.google.com/109807087957970967076
?rel=author
Pros: Requires a little more effort, but…Cons: Google takes it as a much stronger hint!
Code in the page header3
*Not recommended!* Google no longer suggests this as a
method of implementation
(...but it’s still good to know)
Put this in the <head> section of a page:<link
href="https://plus.google.com/[yourpageID]" rel="author" />
Pros: Easy on to do site-wide!Cons: Gets messy if it’s a multi-author blog
Also…Add the site to the ‘Contributor to’ section of your Google+ profile’s About page:
Test it!Check it’s working with Google’s
Rich Snippets Preview Tool:http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
LIVEDEMO
(woo!)
Track it!Get (rough) impression/click data from
Google Webmaster Toolshttps://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/labs-author-stats-1
Home > Labs > Author stats
Additional reading:The ultimate rel="author" implementation guide (IMO):http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/how-to-implement-rel-author
A case study I’ve written – what happened when I had two authors attached to one page:http://seono.co.uk/2013/02/20/confusing-google-a-rel-author-case-study/
In summary: bad things happened…!
Any questions?
(Kudos to Gafyn, Craig and Dayle for volunteeringtheir blogs for the implementation demo!)
