The talk I gave at Cardiff Internet on 16th April 2013, covering rel="author". 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
1. Getting Your Face In Google
rel="author" implementation – Cardiff Internet
2. Bio
SEO since January 2009
Worked at Liberty Marketing and Confused.com
Currently working at Box UK
Soon to be a full-time, self-employed freelancer!
Also: cdfblogs.com (Cardiff Blogs) admin
Current pet project: whoseline365.com
3. 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
12. “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 Schmidt
Executive Chairman, Google
From his upcoming book:
The New Digital Age
Scrooge McSchmidt image source:
http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/blog/eric-schmidt-google-verification/
13. How do you implement rel="author"?
Google recommends two ways on its Support page:
Author information in search results
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986
14. Link Google+ using a
1 verified email address
So for http://seono.co.uk...
Email address on the same domain:
e.g. steve@seono.co.uk
+
“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)
15. 2 Add the ?rel=author link parameter
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!
16. 3 Code in the page header
*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
17. Also…
Add the site to the
‘Contributor to’ section of
your Google+ profile’s
About page:
18. Test it!
Check it’s working with Google’s
Rich Snippets Preview Tool:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
21. Track it!
Get (rough) impression/click data from
Google Webmaster Tools
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/labs-author-stats-1
Home > Labs > Author stats
22.
23. Lastly… rel="publisher"!
In short: The rel="author" for brands, not people
Ties your Google+ business page to your website
for brand-related searches
In the homepage’s <head> section:
<link href="https://plus.google.com/[yourpageID]"
rel="publisher" />
24.
25. 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…!
26. Any questions?
My blog: SEOno.co.uk
My work: boxuk.com / @boxuk
My site: morganonlinemarketing.co.uk (coming soon!)
Twitter: @steviephil
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/steviephil