Authorship Info

*See how Google Authorship currently works on MyBlogGuest*:

We have talked about Google Authorship earlier: We have mentioned how Google Author Rank may influence guest blogging. We even talked about creating a perfect author picture.

This month we are returning to that topic again as we are taking some serious steps to making #MyBlogGuest authorship-friendly. The new features are being tested now and we’ll talk about them next week; this week let’s refresh the concept and the process in our minds.

In today’s chat:

Google Authorship Guest Author FAQ:

What is Google Authorship?

Google Authorship is the process of verifying the content you create and publish on the web.

How can I claim my Authorship of a guest article I wrote?

authorship-guest-post-01The process is very simple now:

  • You make sure you include the link to your guest article / blog home page on Google Plus *personal* profile / About / Contributor to section
  • You make sure your author byline within your guest post links to your Google Plus account with ?rel=author at the end {plus.google.com}u/0/103907915631843308004/?rel=author

Here’s a quick cheatsheet:

What happens when I verify the authorship of my guest article?

After you are all set, use Rich Snippets tool to make sure Google sees what it is supposed to:

Rich Snippets tool

Now just wait (from 3 days to 4 weeks usually) and your Google Plus profile photo should appear in search results like this:

Google Plus profile photo in Google results

Mind that for it to work:

  • Your name in your guest post byline should be exactly the same as your personal Google Plus profile name
  • Your Google Plus profile image should be your headshot (no logos or abstract images will make it to the SERPs)

You should also see this article in your Google Webmaster Tools labs (provided it ranks for some terms).

Google Webmaster Tools labs

How does this affect my links in guest posts?

The most obvious benefit: More exposure (and hence click-though and trust) to your content. Plus more branding for your author name. And on top of that, more transparency for your guest posting strategy (which translates into more trust to content that you produce). Google wants to see authentic people behind the content, so following their lead is the smartest move we can currently take.

Potentially, claiming your content will grow your authority and, similar to how Google now gives more exposure to brands, it will one day give higher rankings to authors it trusts!

Authorship for Guest Post Publisher:

Why would I want to publish verified content?

  • Better quality: Since the article is tied to a particular Google Plus profile, the author will care much more for it to better represent his/her name.

  • Easier to identify *authentic* authors. In most cases, verified content = *real* content. And you can easily check the author’s Google Plus profile and tell what else he/she is doing around the web.
  • Easier to network: Organize your contributors in a separate circle and create the micro-community of them: Ask them to show each other’s articles, ping them on new comments, etc
  • More regular contributors: If you create a separate contributor account for the verified author, that will be an additional incentive for the person to come back and contribute again!

Think about “reverse guest blogging” potential: Trusted and established authors will bring their “trust” with them to your blog!

Scroll up to:

Next week we’ll talk about the brand new #myblogguest feature that will make Google Authorship easier within our platform!

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Joseph

Founder at MyBlogGuest
Ann Smarty is the founder of MyBlogGuest. Feel free to contact her if you have any questions about the platform.

9 Responses to “Google Authorship for Guest Blogging (Author and Publisher FAQ) #myblogguest”

  1. Chris Gunn

    Now is sincerely the time to be pushing the development of Google authorship before it becomes such a hit that people who want to be “above” everyone else will have a harder time getting past everyone else. Get on the top now!

    Reply
  2. Nick Stamoulis of Brick Marketing

    I heard a great quote about Google Authorship in an interview by Eric Enge. He quoted Eric Schmidt of Google who said “Within search results, info tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification.” If this is coming from Google directly, it’s definitely worth setting up your authorship.

    Reply
  3. Fede Einhorn

    Thanks Ann! only me in my niche :P. Hope to see more users becoming verified authors, thus avoiding third party promotional links.

    Reply
  4. Justin Germino

    While we are at it, if these are verified authors maybe we can start including their Twitter or Facebook URL’s or fanpages that they can have listed with their WordPress profiles we are creating. I also have a plugin that emails all authors when their articles publish and this ties perfectly well to their gravatar email that is provided with the verified author Google+ URL.

    Reply

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