You open a new browser window and you type in the search bar for widgets. You get back 500 pages containing 67483 results. Feeling overwhelmed, you begin scanning through the first page of results. Everything look the same, until you see a result with a picture and a name to the right. You take notice because none of the other results have this. It wasn’t the top listing but you click on it anyway. The listing just got a click that might not have happened if the author of that particular link wasn’t using Google Authorship on their site.
Google Authorship is a powerful tool for recognition within Google’s search results. It provides a fantastic way to stand out from your competition in the crowded search results page. If you contribute writing online, setting up Google Authorship should definitely be done. It doesn’t take long to setup. The benefits are well worth the time investment.
Before you setup Google Authorship you must first have a few things in place.
First, you will need to make sure you have a Google+ account setup. Google automatically sets up a Google+ account when you register a new Google account. Or if you already have a gmail or YouTube account and have used it recently, chances are Google has already created a Google+ account for you. The second item you will need is at least one website/blog that you contribute to.
Step 1- Setting Up Authorship With Google+
Log into your Google+ account and go to your Profile. Under the About page you will see a Contributor to section.
Do not get this confused with Other Profiles or Links. These are separate and serve different functions. To add the website/blog that you contribute to, click on the Edit button at the bottom of the section . Within the editing mode, click on Add Custom Link in the Contributor to section. You should link to the main Blog section of the website. Click on Save when done adding the link.
Next, you will have to verified your Google+ email address in order for Google to recognize and associate you with your content.
Google provides a page to automate the verification process, however, to do it this way you are required to provide an email address with the same domain as the one being claimed. If you are using a gmail account or another email address you can verify it within your Google+ profile by clicking on the Verify link next the email address. After you click on the link, Google will send you a verification email. You will have to click on the Verify link in the email to complete the verification process. If you do not see the email come in within a few minutes, check the junk or spam folder in your email program.
Once the account has been verified, make sure you have uploaded a clear and professional looking photo of yourself. We recommend using a colour photo with a bright background. With authorship being used more often, you want to make sure your photo stands out. To upload a photo, click on the circle image on the left within the page Cover. You can either upload a new photo or choose one in one of your albums.
Step 2 – Setting up WordPress For Authorship
Depending on what version of WordPress is installed there are a few ways to set up Authorship. Until relatively recently, WordPress required manual setup. In recent updates they have simplified the process. To help simplify the process, it is recommended to install Yoast SEO, a SEO plugin that helps with adding meta data to pages and posts on a WordPress site. You can install the plugin if you have administrator privileges. To do this, first log into WordPress, click on the Plugin link from the Dashboard. Click on ADD NEW PLUGIN and search for Yoast SEO. Click on the install button. If you do not have permission to install plugins then contact the websites admin for assistance.
Once the plugin has been installed, from the dashboard click on USERS and then YOUR PROFILE. Scroll down towards the bottom and until you see where you can enter your Google+ account. Enter your Google+ profile here. You can get the link from the address bar on your Google+ page. It should look something like this. https://plus.google.com/103294418624820015984/
This lets Google know that you are the author of the content and will associate your profile with it. Also, be sure that the name you are using in WordPress is matches exactly with the one in your Google+ page. Google is very picky about this. If the name does not match, Google may choose not to display your Author information.
In older versions of WordPress, you can accomplished this by inserting a link to your Google+ profile with in the user Biographical Info section.Write a description about yourself and include By <a href=”https://plus.google.com/103294418624820015984/” rel=”author”>Your Google+ Profile Name</a>
If you do own the site and you are the only one contributing to the site, you can add a similar code to the HTML header.
To make all this come together, write a blog post like you normally would. Make sure the blog has you include as the author. Publish the post.