Google Author Rank
One of the more common Internet trends is blogging. Companies have found blogging to be a valuable marketing tool, and Google has been trying to showcase quality content in their search results. In fact, they have actually launched a concept known as Author Rank which could impact not only your marketing strategy but where your Web page shows up in search results. Have you heard about this concept yet?
This article is a brief overview of Google’s Author Rank and why it could be important for your business.
What is Author Rank?
This is probably one of the biggest Internet marketing and SEO terms of 2013, yet so few small businesses are aware of it. If you have a website where you post regular content like blog articles, Author Rank is something you should know about.
In order to explain this concept, you first need to look at one of Google+’s newer features: Authorship. What this feature does is enable you to link your Google+ profile page to content like blog articles that you have written and posted on the Web. Google ranks the quality of the content using an algorithm called Author Rank.
For example, if Google views you as an expert in Microsoft Dynamics because you have written a number of quality articles on a regular basis that are shared and liked, your articles are more likely to be higher ranked and will show up near the top of search results for similar topics.
If you have been searching on Google for various topics, say SEO, and seen results with people’s pictures beside them, the link is likely to an article where the writer has linked the content to their Google+ profile. Because they rank highly in that one term, their content will show in the results. This is actually Authorship/Author Rank at work.
What does this mean for my company?
There is a bit of a knock-on effect with this concept: In general, if you produce high quality content on a regular basis that focuses on a singular topic or group of topics, Google is more likely to view you as an expert.
If you are viewed as an expert and your content is shared or +1’ed, there is a higher chance that the content and your website will show highly in search results. If your site and content show higher in search results this means more exposure for your company and possibly more sales.
How to establish Authorship
Are you writing articles for your company’s blog? If you are, you should look into linking your Google+ profile to the content you create. You can do this by:
- Creating a Google+ profile (if you don’t have one already), adding a photo of you – headshots are the best – and filling out your profile.
- Going to your Profile and clicking About.
- Scrolling down to Links and clicking on Edit.
- Adding the URL of the main page of the site where your content is posted under the Contributor to section.
- Adding a link with your name to your Google+ profile along with ?rel=author at the end of the URL in each post. It should look like this: plus.google.com/233432423?rel=author.
Once you have established authorship create content and be sure that the URL is posted on each post. Over time, if the content is good and shared, you should see a rise in your Author Rank. If you would like help establishing your presence or would like to know more please contact us today.
