Wine & Web

Andy Crestodina@crestodina #wineweb

Google Authorship & Author Stats

What is Authorship?

Why did they create Authorship?“By seeing the person associated with the content instead of just a link, users can have an easier time engaging with the person behind the content, while at the same time more easily identifying high-quality content of interest to them.”

Sagar Kamdar, Google Product ManagerJuly 2012

Digital signature = Your picture in search results

Look, mom! It’s me!

REVIEW: Google+ Profile Setup

Google+ Jumpstart Guide: http://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/google-plus-guide

Three Methods for Authorship

Email Verification

3-Link Method

2-Link Method!

Authorship: Two Link Method

Author Box …or just a few links

Link 1: from page to profile

Connect with Andy on <a rel="author" href="https://plus.google.com/113272929328812128697?rel=author”>Google+</a>.

Link 2: from profile to page

Wait two weeks …it didn’t work?

1. Link directly to the blog post

2. Verify your email address in G+

3. Rich snippets testing tool

Change the “Contributor to” link so it links directly to the actual post, rather than the general blog address

Enter the URL or HTML here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

How to measure SEO results for ALL your posts

Author Stats

Author Stats / SEO Performance

…even for guest posts!

What’s the point? Higher CTR

Source: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-author-photos

“The final number settled down around a 35% increase in click-through rate.”

SEO Review

No rank, no Authorship…

3 Criteria for Choosing Keyphrases

Text

Search Volume

Resource: Google Keyword Tool

The phrase is highly competitive if all the sites on the first page of Google…

• Are famous (wikipedia, etc.)

• Have a higher domain authority than you*

• Have title tags that begin with the keyphrase

• Lots of AdWords ads

Competition

*see Open Site Explorer

Text

Relevance

Fun with Authorship

Be the author of your entire site

Your Picture: It’s gotta be you

"Your Profile Picture cannot include mature or offensive content. For example, do not use a photo that is a close-up of a person’s buttocks or cleavage.”

Source: http://www.google.com/+/policy/content.html

Try different pictures

Solid colored backgrounds work well

Source: Distilled.net

The identity of individual [author] responsible for content can be used to influence search ratings.

Assuming that a given [author] has a high reputational score, representing an established reputation for authoring valuable content, then additional content authored and signed by that [author] will be promoted relative to unsigned content or content from less reputable [authors] in search results.

The future of search is social.

Source: USPTO Google Agent Rank Patent (patent number 7565358)

Need more help?

Orbit Blog: http://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/google-authorship-author-stats

Wine & Web

Andy Crestodina@orbiteers #wineweb

Thank you!