It is the age of the English Major. Content has always been king, but starting last year a new term called Content Marketing arose and major outlets such as Forbes Magazine went crazy hiring writers and blasting out content. Even major brands such as Coca-Cola have stated that their new marketing strategies are based on content marketing.
Author Rank is a new part of the Google Search Engine Algorithm which measures the popularity, authority and distribution of an author’s work. Google Authorship is Google’s way of saying “let’s give some credit to those who are producing the best content on the web”.
There is another not so hidden agenda here as in order to make Google Authorship have an effect on your SEO, you must have a Google Plus Account. This clever move by Google helps drive content marketers, writers, and bloggers to USE Google plus and move away from their competitor FaceBook.
So, let’s set up Google Authorship on your WordPress Blog.
Step 1:
Create a Google Plus Account. (If you already use GMail then you are already partially there as you should see your username in the top left corner of your gmail screen with a + symbol to the left of it.
Click on that and set up your account.
Step 2:
Click on your picture on the top right corner of your Google Plus screen and click view profile.
Click on the About Tab.
Scroll way down and on the right you will see two sections Links and Contributor to.
Click edit on that section and put the link (URL) to your blog with a good “keyworded” title. Do this in both links and contributor to.
Remember to click SAVE.
In the address bar of your browser you will see a URL like this.
https:/plus.google.com/u/0/113739533599217725813/posts
Copy the number after the 0/ and before the /posts.
ALSO similar to LinkedIn Groups you should have a nice headshot uploaded as your profile image. It should be close up not from a distance you will see why in a bit.
Step 4:
Click this link:
https:/plus.google.com/authorship
Put in your Gmail or other Email Address you use as the E Mail address in your user account in WordPress.
(Google Loves Google so although there is no benefit to using your gmail email address I still suggest you use it for your account email in WordPress even if you do not plan on using that GMail address for your work or family)
Check your email and click on the verification link Google sent you.
Step 5:
Click on Plugins in your WordPress admin.
Search for Google Authorship.
I use this plug-in and have this one installed on this website.
http://marto.lazarov.org/plugins/google-plus-authorship
In your WordPress Admin, click on Users and then your profile.
Scroll down and you will see two areas for your Google Plus link.
(if you only see one this is ok.)
Put in your Google Plus link in this format
https:/plus.google.com/THATNUMBERYOUSAVEDABOVE
Now you know why I told you to save that number.
That’s it.
The result is better search engine rankings and also more clicks simply because of the visual difference in an author ranked / authorship article.
