Great Case Study on How Google + authorship has an impact on your search rankings | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

Hi all,

I ran across this article that proves Google+ authorship is worth your time and can impact your search results.  The article is by Jeff Saur at Jeffalytics. 

http://www.jeffalytics.com/est…..authority/

We should probably be more diligent about giving a +1 to each other's posts, that would help everyone out in a big way!

Post edited 7:29 am – April 12, 2013 by OneCentAtatime

From my personal search habit, I tend to click on links where an author image shows up. This human psychology, isn't it? We like to hear a person not a machine. An Image makes us believe that I am listening to that person. 

Forget about the search order, even if a link with author image appears at 10th place, I'd click that before the first one. I am glad my posts come up with my picture. If your's is not, it's time you take action.

I tried to set this up for hours before learning that it does not work if you blog anonymously. It's unfortunate, but it makes sense. Apparently, the image must be a very clear photo of your face. Using a logo or other design does not work.

OneCentAtatime said:

From my personal search habit, I tend to click on links where an author image shows up. This human psychology, isn't it? We like to hear a person not a machine. An Image makes us believe that I am listening to that person. 

 

Forget about the search order, even if a link with author image appears at 10th place, I'd click that before the first one. I am glad my posts come up with my picture. If your's is not, it's time you take action.

Personally, I could care less about a photo. Someone can lie to your face with a smiling photo just as easily as without one. Companies aren't going to have a photo and, depending on the topic, their information can be more reliable. In those cases, I'm actually inclined to trust a post with an author image set up less. It means that it is definitely a blogger who may or may not actually know what they are talking about.

Plus, as others have brought up, it does hurt bloggers that have to be anonymous for reasons that could include legal requirements or even personal safety. There is one blog I read that is about issues in the prison system. The blog posts are written as letters that are then published by the inmate's relative. If his true identity was leaked, his life would be in jeopardy.

I installed a plugin earlier this week and believe that I have everything set up now, but my photo still isn't showing up. In the mean-time, one of my posts is still ranked #2 for it's keyword (behind DirecTV itself–it's a fantasy to believe that I will ever outrank them for a keyword with their name in it) and is getting 15% of my daily traffic.

Dr. Jason Cabler said:

I've noticed that my posts rank better when I post them on my Google + profile.  When I put up a post there, then do a google search for my keyword, it shows up very quickly, many times on the first page.

Are you signed in when you search? In that case, Google is going to adjust the rankings based on the content of your G+ profile and past search results that you clicked. When I'm signed in, I outrank DirecTV for a keyword with their name in it!

I just got around to reading the actual post. It seems like this isn't really about authorship but about social sharing on G+. In fact, he was able to find no difference in rankings from authorship.

4) Google Authorship Alone Does Not Appear to be a Ranking Factor

I was under the impression that Google Authorship alone would make my site rank, but I was unable to prove so in this experiment.

Post edited 5:53 pm – April 27, 2013 by Jenny @ FrugalGuruGuide

You can have a pseudonym, if you wish.  :)  I changed the spelling of my name to make it easier for people to remember.

I went ahead and added it for Edward Antrobus a couple weeks ago. With all the snow we got this month, I haven't exactly been busy at work! So far, not showing up.

But when I was checking this morning, I did discover something that I think is relevant to this debate on how relevant Google+ Authorship is. Authorship photos don't show up on mobile searches. I conducted over two dozen searches, including ones where I knew a picture should appear (such as the first result for "Global Wordpress Brute Force Flood). They didn't appear on the mobile version of the site, and they didn't appear when I switched to "Classic" view in my mobile browser.

That's a big deal for me because a third of my Google search visitors to my food blog are mobile. And considering that the percentage of my total visitors using a mobile device has increased from a third to half over the last year, I have no reason to believe that mobile search isn't going to be a larger and larger percentage of my search visitors as well.