Social Media Today marks Google authorship as the new Yellow Pages. You remember how important it was to list your company in the Yellow Pages of the phone book. It was no secret the who’s who were right there, and getting yourself in those pages meant big things. Today we use a “cyber book” over the phone book, and getting yourself into the new Yellow Pages is a MUST for all website owners.
Why Google Authorship Will Be a Must for Your Content Strategy
“Google authorship [is] a highly effective way of connecting and promoting content on search result pages,” says Social Media Today. It’s a free service. It’s easy to set-up. It links you to your content, which builds your online authorship dynamically.
According to Forbes, CopyPress recently released a survey in which 65 percent of surveyed marketers said that Google authorship “was indeed part of their Content Marketing strategy for the year.” Recent changes in Google’s search and SEO algorithms have rolled out the red carpet for authorship in 2014. Based on current research and trends, we predict it will be a MUST for your content strategies.
Authorship Gets You Noticed
The Oxford Dictionary defines authorship as “the fact or position of someone’s having written a book or other written work.” For centuries, society has recognized the importance of authorship. Every book, magazine article, and newspaper column published has held a byline, clearly displaying authorship. Writers the world over have worked tirelessly, pouring every ounce of drive and passion they have into achieving an official byline, a symbol of their hard work making them a published and recognized author. Society recognizes the importance of authorship and protects it through laws against plagiarism.
Google authorship holds to the same honorable and timeless principles. For content creators everywhere, authorship is the official cyber-print byline, and it comes with vital marketing benefits:
- Authority
- Recognition
- Visibility
- Influence
- Clicks
- Conversions
SEO is taking a hard turn into the importance of all of these benefits. Google’s algorithms, the ones that seek out new content and the best content, are about to become bloodhounds on the scent of quality. Your content will need to be impeccable – well written, well formatted, free of grammatical and spelling errors, current, relevant, and fresh. We’re talking about the creation of something as intricate and tiresome as the articles and books of the past that went to hard press. Why wouldn’t you want a cyber-byline on such bled over work?
Did we mention Google authorship is free and easy to set-up? It’s time to take an in-depth look at this service and how to use it:
Why You Need Google Authorship
Recognition, how important is it to you? It’s a fairly accurate assumption that most of us would say recognition is very important. We want credit for our accomplishments. We want an audience to see our abilities. We want prospective businesses, employers, and customers to recognize our current talent and potential. Google authorship can make this happen.
You see, Google hands you the ability to link. Let’s say you’re a writer for SearchEngineLand.com, a Wordpress.com blog, and your personal blog (using whatever software you’ve chosen, most of which provide an automatic author biography page link to the author of each post). With a properly set up authorship, you can link all three of these back to your Google Plus account. As a result, your visual face will display beside this content when seen on a Google SERP (search engine results page).
For a more technical look at the process, check out Rick DeJarnette’s Definitive Guide to Google Authorship Markup. He’ll help you understand the technical lingo behind linking, and he walks you through some of the mistakes he made while learning how to best set up authorship. Successful linking is by far the hardest aspect to master.
SEO Advantages
We’ve brushed on authorship going hand-in-hand with search engine optimization. But let’s take a moment to list the exact optimization advantages resulting from Google authorship:
- Search results with pictures. Results that catch the eye more quickly and have a higher tendency of being clicked.
- Credible links. The creation of more credible links that result in more readers and more click through rates (CTRs). In fact, Google authorship can increase CTRs by 30 to 150 percent.
- Branding you name & face. By attaching your name and face to your content, you literally brand yourself to readers. You establish a higher level of confidence and trust. As a result, engagement between authors and readers increases.
How to Get Started with Google Authorship
Now that you understand the basic Google authorship concept, let’s talk about how easy to use it is. You can set it up in two super simple steps:
- First, create a Google Plus profile. Be sure to upload a high quality headshot and fill in at least the basic profile information (such as hometown, current location, etc.).
- Second, visit plus.google.com/authorship, sign-up using your e-mail address and verify your e-mail address.
It really is that simple. You can launch authorship in a matter of 5 minutes, or less. Once you’re up and running, you’ll have access to analytics for your content, the ability to distinguish and validate your content, the opportunity to gain Google+ followers and the capability to guide readers to you content all across the web.
Once you’ve set your authorship up, glitches can still happen. Janet Driscoll Miller, a SEO marketer, provides a fantastic authorship troubleshooting guide should you experience an unexpected or baffling hiccup.
The Key to Authorship
The golden nugget of Google authorship is your headshot. The profile photo you upload is going to become a seal, proudly displayed by every piece of content you author. Therefore, it’s important to use a photo that clearly represents you.
You produce quality, right? Then your headshot best reflects your commitment to value and hold to the standards of your content quality. On the web and in today’s marketing world, a picture is worth a thousand words and audiences will judge your content by its cover. Not to mention, research proves that photos are eye grabbers. Do not skimp on your photo or be afraid to upload one.
Authorship leads to rank, which is referred to as Google AuthorRank. Here are three vital tips to achieving a credible ranking:
- Post Relevant Content. The key to building your ranking is content. Strive to post quality content regularly on Google Plus. Be sure the content is based on your target audience. It should be content people would want to share and talk about.
- Interact. Interaction equates to activity. The most people you actively interact with via Google Plus communities and circles, the more authority you gain as an author.
- Guest Posts. Your goal should always be to reach a broader audience. One of the best ways to accomplish this goal is to write and publish quality article on credible sites. As you appear as an author across multiple websites, your authority and credibility rises. As a result, you attract a larger, broader audience and simultaneously increase brand or business awareness.
Authorship and Content Strategy
Believe it or not, your authorship ties in to your overall content and content strategy. A visual face in Google’s search engine results page is huge. It draws your audience in by catching their eye. It sets your apart from Joe-Shmoe. It establishes credibility and authority all at a glance. But just how do you harness the power of organized content? Well, it all starts with a plan, and here’s what you need to know about planning:
- It’s about more than design. We stressed the importance of your authorship headshot (the profile picture of your Google authorship account), and we did this for a very specific reason. You see, a visual presence on Google is huge! Unfortunately, not everyone takes advantage of it. Design is a huge factor of any content strategy. After all, your website will carry a theme, and that theme will carry across all of your content, from pages to social media to blogs. But a successful content strategy involves more than appearances; it involves content. Why? Because the quality of your content will determine whether anyone reads it and where Google ranks it.
- If content planning were like architecture… we would find ourselves putting a lot more time and preparation into our material. In reality, we should see our content strategy as the blueprint to our online building. If an architect wants their creation to withstand the test of time, he spares no expense. He spends ample time planning the strongest foundation, the most unique curves and the freshest approach. The Leaning Tower of Pisa isn’t still here because someone haphazardly slapped it together, and the lean turned out to be a byproduct of whirlwind construction. No, it was carefully planned.
- Let your audience be your motivation. The new marketing world is more about the audience than ever. As you begin to construct a content strategy, your audience will be your compass. Their needs and wants will guide your content topics and research. You can use social media and communities to research the most current and hard-hitting topics, and then create your own unique and fresh content to weigh in. By focusing completely on your audience, you’ll develop the kind of content people won’t stop talking about, which will propel your search engine rankings forward and result in conversion and sales.
- Visual content is king. In today’s market, visual content is king. We sprinkle visual content throughout our website, over social media and incorporate it on nearly every marketing piece we produce. So I ask you, why should Google be any different? Google authorship hands you the easy means of putting a visual face with every piece of content you release. Your audience will grow to know that face. They’ll click a link to your content just because they recognize that face. They’ll search for more content with that face because of the quality and value it represents. How can you not take advantage of such a perfect and eloquent marketing tool?
But Where Do I Begin?
Aren’t sure how to tackle a content strategy and authorship on your own? Don’t worry! There’s no shame in feeling overwhelmed, even baffled by all this technology-based stuff. In fact, I would venture to say most of us have felt exactly the way you do. So, where do you begin if you’re scratching your head, unsure of a looming mountain of technical details? Try talking to your content writers. They are the best folks to know how to set up Google authorship and content correctly, and they just might be able to do it all for you!
Hang on a second. Did you just mutter, “But I don’t have a content writer…” Well, there’s no time like the present to get one. Content writers, professionally known as Copywriters, are essential to content planning, strategies and marketing. Dare I say, the most successful businesses and brands on the web understand the value of a good Copywriter and employ at least one? A top-notch copywriter or copywriting team knows the attributes of good web copywriting and the importance of authorship nowadays.
You Can’t Grace the Cyber Book Yellow Pages without Google Authorship
Years ago, the phone book was our lifeline to the outside world. We used it to find everything. We eagerly chomped at the bit to see our name in the white pages, our business in the Yellow Pages.
Today our world has gone from paper to technology. The phone book is now a “cyber book,” firmly anchored and displayed by the mighty Google. To make it into the new Yellow Pages, you have to climb the SERP rankings. Google authorship is just one of the many tools ready to help you accomplish this goal, and it’s a tool you simply cannot afford to ignore.