Google Authorship Setup | Get Your Picture On 1st Page Of Google
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Google Authorship – What Is It?
Google Authorship is a new feature that the large search engine has added to its algorithms. The purpose of the feature is to identify the author of a certain piece of content. A picture of the author will show up next to any content of theirs that appears in search engine results.
Why Should You Worry About Google Authorship?
Well, let’s think about this for a second. When you do a search result in Google which are the results you tend to look at first (other than videos)? Most likely you first look at the #1 result that popped up. Then, if you don’t like that result, chances are your eyes start getting drawn to those results with people’s faces beside them.
SO, if you set up Google Authorship people are more compelled to click on your content because of the picture.
It also allows your sites to be crawled and indexed faster. And although there has been said to be no direct search ranking benefits, many do believe that there is some SEO benefits to it, causing better search results.
How To Setup Google Authorship
Before beginning the setup process you need to make sure you have a Google+ Profile.
Profile Instructions:
- Open up your Google + Account and click on Profile > Edit Profile.
- Scroll down the page until you see a link reading ‘Contributor To’. Click the link, and then enter your name in the ‘Label’ field and your website link in the field below that.
- Click on ‘Save’ and then scroll up and click on ‘Done Editing Profile’
WordPress Instructions:
- Go to your WordPress Dashboard and click Appearance > Widgets.
- Drag a ‘Text’ box into any of the sidebar areas that you normally use for widgets.
- Copy & paste the following code into the text box. Place the link to your Google+ Profile in between the quotes where it says ‘googleplusaddresshere’. Then put your own name where it reads ‘Your Name on Google+’ and save the widget.
<a href=”googleplusaddresshere” rel=”author”> Your Name on Google+</a>
Once you’ve accomplished all that your Google Authorship setup should be complete.
How Long Before I See My Google Authorship?
Don’t panic when you don’t see your image right away, it can take up to 1-2 weeks before Google realizes the change. So just give it a little time, but if after 2 weeks you still don’t see your image, then you might have done something wrong.
If you’re Google Authorship doesn’t seem to be working, recheck your steps. Also use the Rich Snippets Tool to check and make sure that it’s working properly.
Be Ahead of The Curve
Not everyone has applied their Google Authorship to their content sites, so the quicker you do so the longer you will stand out above the crowd.