Google's rel = auth | Help Desk | Yakezie Forums

Post edited 8:13 am – April 5, 2013 by Club Thrifty

We have our setup. However, from what I understand, Google will only use the authorship in a search if they feel that it is beneficial to the user (searcher). You can use the Structured Data Testing Tool to see if you''ve set it up properly.

As far as driving traffic, I'm not so sure it will do that. However, if your authorship is deemed to hold high value, either through high quality posts at your site or other sites, it can affect where you rank in search engines. It helps to give your posts social authority, which can affect PR, click through rates, etc.

Hope that helps!

Have you double checked the user Google+ address that you would have placed in the user section of your dashboard?

I think you are right about the user name not matching up. That could be causing the problem. Part of the issue is that Google wants you to put your name to your stories in order to use the authorship markup. So, that could be the issue. Unfortunately, I'm not tech savvy enough to help you out much further.

I personally think Google Authorship is going to be a game changer that will affect all bloggers.  I'm going all in and making sure my authorship is recognized on my blog and everywhere that I contribute blog posts.  Definitely take the time to make sure it's setup properly.

Thanks Jeff and John.  Sounds like I need to continue working on it.  Glad this is something I am looking into sooner than later.

John, I may send you a message shortly to see if you can help troubleshoot.

It would depend on how the contributor article is done.  Some sites give you a sign-in.  You might be able to put your G+ profile in your profile there.  For other cases you could link your G+ profile in an author bio.  Just make sure to link to your name and use the rel="author" code.  Also make sure your G+ profile links back to the guest post site in your 'Contributes To' section.

Jeff Rose said:

I personally think Google Authorship is going to be a game changer that will affect all bloggers.  I'm going all in and making sure my authorship is recognized on my blog and everywhere that I contribute blog posts.  Definitely take the time to make sure it's setup properly.

Personally, I'm not so sure. I'm sure Google Authorship helps if you are looking to make a connection. But when I'm searching, 9 times out of 10, I'm looking for information. I personally don't care where that information comes from as long as it is accurate and answers my question. And frankly, I'm unlikely to visit that site again after I've found what I wanted.

Edward Antrobus said:

Personally, I'm not so sure. I'm sure Google Authorship helps if you are looking to make a connection. But when I'm searching, 9 times out of 10, I'm looking for information. I personally don't care where that information comes from as long as it is accurate and answers my question. And frankly, I'm unlikely to visit that site again after I've found what I wanted.

Other than a bit of flare in your search result that might get people to click, authorship isn't about the person searching. Google has already laid out a few hints that verified authors have posts that G is more likely to trust, and that there could be an AuthorRank that could end up being the next PageRank.

They definitely do want the isolated communities… they want to know when an author is an expert in personal finance, and will rank that post based on that, no matter what site that author is writing on. However, a post on fashion advice by that same author might not rank as well if they are not seen as an authority on the subject.

But whether you like where Google is heading or not, why not play the game? There's lots of things Google has been doing that I don't like, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go without 80% of my traffic just to spite them ;)

I have a page (honestly, I don't use it much), but the post have to link to a profile.

There are times that I am more likely to choose a search result because of the photo. For example, if I was searching for something and I see Greg and Holly's photo, I know what to expect and will likely click that before a post without a photo.

I'm thinking of adding this to a site as well, thanks for the info so far.