Google Authorship – How the Tech Giant is Humanizing Your Online Presence

In our incredibly high-tech world where information seems to move at the speed of light, communication still brings us closer together and can make us feel more human. When reading digital information, you want to know that a knowledgeable person created that content – after all, there’s a lot of junk out there. Enter Google Authorship.

Google Authorship strives to separate the quality content creators from subpar writers that simply slap words together. For the Web surfer, Google Authorship ties a byline and sometimes an image next to qualified search results, giving that entry a human connection. Known as a “rich snippet”, this is a trusted signature for your work and can increase click-through rates.

Google Authorship ties to your Google+ profile in order to create real connections between Web content and its creators. Google uses this connection to identify quality content from the cruddy kind. For companies that don’t want a single individual be its “author”, they can implement Google Publisher instead. That means the byline would be the brand name – this can be set up in the same manner as individual authorship.

Google Authorship is a fantastic opportunity and should be connected to the website pages and blogs that you own. For content that is being published externally – for example, if you’re guest blogging on another website – make sure the publisher completes the link on their site by giving the “rel-author” tag back to the writer’s Google+ page. Keep in mind, this is not relevant for publishers that use NoFollow or NoIndex for their content.

Bottom line: When you write great content – whether independently or through Brandpoint – you should always consider Google Authorship. Brandpoint lets clients do so free of charge. Not sure how to use your G+ for Google Authorship? Here are six simple steps to do so:

Not sure how to use your G+ for Google Authorship?

Here are six simple steps to do so:

1. Log in to your Google+ account at http://plus.google.com.
2. Select “Profile” from the drop-down menu on the top left of the screen.
3. On your profile page, select the “About” tab and scroll to the bottom of the page. There you will see a “Links” box.
4. In the “Links” box, click on “Edit.” This will bring up a box that will allow you to add a “Contributor to” entry.
5. Enter a label and the main URL of the site.
6. Click “Save.”