Boost Your Traffic with Google Authorship

Since we’re hosting a Google+ webinar tomorrow (you can still register online), I wanted to talk about one of the benefits that Google+ offers your business – Google Authorship.

Google+ AuthorshipHave you ever done a Google search and noticed Keri Henke‘s smiling face staring back at you? Have you wondered why certain searches have pictures of people next to them and others don’t? That’s Google Authorship at work.

Pages utilizing Google Authorship have seen up to a 150% increase in traffic because the picture draws people in and adds instant credibility. You trust that if there’s a face next to the link, they probably aren’t going to serve you a side of malware with the information you’re ordering up.

If you want to add this functionality to your site, you will need to create a link from your profile to any site you contribute original content on. You also need to create a link back to your Google+ profile from that site, sort of like an electronic handshake that confirms both sides of the deal.

Setting up Google+ Authorship:

  1. Create Your Google+ Profile if you haven’t already.
  2. Under “Links” in your profile, add yourself as a “Contributor To” a specific page on your site (see image below).
  3. Copy the URL of your profile
  4. On every page of your site that you have contributed original content to, add the following code (replace the part in green with your profile URL).
    • <a href=”https://plus.google.com/u/0/103980982628840364519?rel=author“>Google+</a>
    •  Replace with your Google+ Profile LinkThe part that makes the magic happen – DO NOT DELETE IT
  5. Test the connection on Google Data Authenticator

Google Authorship - Contributor

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