It’s been a year since Google introduced the rel=author markup, but only few bloggers and web authors are using it.
In this post, I will tackle on five reasons why using rel=author will benefit your blog and how it will make your blog posts more search-engine friendly.
What is REL=Author?
Case in point: You are a writer who has published too many posts on the web with different links you cannot seem to track and manage.
The search engines don’t have a way to connect the articles from various places that you wrote for as well.
How would you be credited as author of all these posts? This is where the rel=author markup enters the picture.
The rel=author tag provides a centralized place that directs you as the author of all these articles.
Especially if you want to promote your brand and establish a name for yourself, this markup will help you be deemed as an expert of your field and niche.
Google+ and WordPress
The rel=author markup adds into your credibility level and makes you stand out as a content provider. How this happens is that by installing and adding this one liner to your HTML in your blog, your profile picture in Google+ will be linked to a centralized page where you have posted your articles.
This profile page will be like your own portfolio.
Essentially, search engines will think and recommend you to be an expert by connecting all your articles out there to your Google+ page so that every viewer can easily refer to it as a single repository.
Reasons why you need to join Google’s Authorship Program
1. Increase traffic to your website
The prerequisite is to have a Google+ page. Once you have one, make sure to complete the information in your profile page and upload an attractive headshot of yourself as the profile picture.
Remember, these will be viewed thousands of times by viewers from around the world when they search through Google. When you get this done, write the rel=author tag in every post you publish.
Also, link your byline name to your Google+ profile (the author’s page). When your authorship status begins to show up in the Google search results, you can celebrate. This means having increased chances of a click through rate and number of visits.
2. Verify yourself as the original author of published articles
Sad but true, there are countless of “scrapers” on the web who gets your content and publishes it on their own sites without attribution.
By having this one page that verifies you as the original author of all the scattered contents online, you will automatically be credited as the author. And nobody can object to it because you are the only one who has direct access to changing the tags in the article’s HTML backend codes.
The rel=author tag protects your integrity and authority by keeping your articles and their respective search engine rankings from being stolen simply.
Read more about this here
Authorship Markup, Google Plus and Niche Domination In Simple Terms For Bloggers
3. Make your content stand out
The rel=author tag highlights your name and photo around content listings in the Google search hits. Sure, this is happening right now—only when users (more particularly, your friends in Google+) are logged into Google.
Read more about this here -
Google personalized search: Who decides your visibility
With correct implementation of the rel=author markup in your posts, those even not signed in would see your name and photo beside the content. Following these will be the other rich information they can find from your profile page.
4. Additional metrics in Webmaster Tools
Google provides you with webmaster tools so that you can utilize to monitor and analyze the metrics of your posts in your blog.
So when you have installed all of the elements needed and have your contents show up in the Google results with your name and photo, the next important thing that follows is to check out this webmaster tool.
In your Webmaster Tools account, click “Labs” and you will have an overview on the number of impressions and times your content pages showed up in the results page. It will also show how many times your links were clicked and read and other useful info.
5. Be the One of the First!
Now that adding the rel=author tactic is not known and applied by every blogger or webmaster, take advantage of this opportunity to boost the rankings of your individual rankings up.
Rumor has it that in the future, Google would also assign a ranking value to your Google+ profile page based on your individual articles’ rankings. So when you have the time, add this powerful tag to your old contents as well!
Read more about it here
Author Rank: Dominate The Search Engines And Become An Authority In Your Niche
Conclusion
Right now, Google is working with WordPress and many other large website platforms to include the rel=author markup automatically in the blog posts. In this way, more people would create their own profile pages in Google+ to use the service.
In return, Google will be having more users, more awesomeness and more profits. At the same time, you will be having more followers, more credibility and more profits, too!
Celina Conner is a Yoga Instructor, an alumna of Marketing Management at Martin College Australia and a mother of a beautiful daughter, Krizia. She has a passion in cooking and formulating vegan recipes.Follow her adventures on her Twitter.
Celina
you make some great points for the ‘rel author” feature. I think the best point you made is it enhances your credibility as a content provider.
Hi Kenny,
Thank you so much for reading the article. You’re right Rel Author enhances GOOGLE’s Trust on you being a REAL blogger.
You know, there are thousands of bots out there who blogs anonymously. That’s one reason why google made this.
Sooner, ranking would depend on the Author Rank.
Celina
Gosh, I didn’t know that there are“scrapers” out there who publish your content in their sites, claiming it to be their own. I get what you mean that if you are known as the author it will stop these silly people in their tracks.
There are lots, fern!
Some, Spin your articles so that it won’t be caught by other web masters.
I’m glad you’ve been aware through my writing.
Thanks,
Celina
Celina, I have added the rel=author to my blog and article content and can report back that the results really are quite astonishing. As you say, your content is much more likely to be clicked on when you use the rel=author attribute. Thanks for writing about the rank value plans.
Hi Suzanne,
I’m glad that you followed my tips.
Now, it’s time for us to build a solid foundation on our Authorship.
Publish only the best posts, the type we’ll be proud of someday.
Good luck on you!
Celina
I’ve not started using the rel author tag but this post tells me the importance of doing that. I hope i’ll get better visibility on google with this tag
Yes, George! It will definitely help you in your rankings.
BUT if you’re content sucks, it will not really help you. It will all the more degrade you as an author.
So, make sure that what you publish is yours and at par with the quality google is looking for.
good luck!
Celina
Authorship is what every blogger will love to have but the real problem starts when they will be ranked according to the posts on their blogs and given importance according to that.Its going to be a tough competition to get a good rank for this too.
Wow! you’re a prophet.. Just Kidding!
Well, you’re right.. It would be really TOUGH soon!
Those blogs without Rel-Author will not be prioritized by google SOON!
Those with Rel-Author will be ranked depending on their relevance, quality and a lot more stuff.
Better, Build authorship NOW.
Good luck!
Celina
Hey having a rel=”author” tag is really important. But if you want to build up a brand, then its important to have rel=”publisher” tag in your head section. For this purpose you can use : WordPress SEO By Yoast : By SEO Guru Joost De Valk
Hi vivek,
Thanks a lot for your 2 cents.
I learned that from you. Haven’t heard of that hehe.
But now, I’ll research about it and would implement it soon.
Thanks,
celina
I haven’t started using “Rel-Author’ yet. Thanks for making it clear in this post Celina. I’m surely going to start using it on my blog.
Hi Ehsan,
wow! Yes, you better work on it.
Be one of the firsts!
Good Luck,
Celina
Suzan Vanegas says
Hello, I am a beginner to the whole process and I have just installed this programme and I have to tell you it is doing a great job for my blog! It has definitely increased the amount of traffic- thank you for sharing this post, it has been very useful.
Hi Suzan,
No problem! I would love to visit your blog and check on your content.
Good job on the Rel-Author!
Good luck!
Celina
Jane … This is an excellent article.
I have to admit, I did not see the important of the rel= “author” tag in my blogs.
Please continue to give us practical and useful information to help us become better communicators.
I asw the mention, by one of the commentors, about a re=”publisher” tag.
Would you be kind enough to address the uses of this tag in one of your future posts.
Thanks Jane Sheebah for reposting this article by MS. Celina Conner.
Hi Muhammed, Wow! Thanks for reading my article.
Good luck on your rel publisher jouney.
@jane I will wait for that post hehe
Thanks,
celina
I agree with the verify part.
This author tag adds to your article as the sole creator of it, and prevents from scammers to duplicate your content.
I agree!
It’s a deterrent to scammers.
It avoid our content to be copied, spun and published elsewhere.
Is the same which help showing author photo in google search results?
Yes, Nimra..
It is!
Thanks,
Celina
Celina,
I think going further this will also be marked mandatory by Google Algorithm for Web SPAM detection & I think google in a way is going to force this on bloggers.
Nimra,
Yes this one shows photo in Google Searches & If I’m right the photo will come from your Google + Plus profile
You’re right Chris!
I’ve already explained this at the top in some of my comments to others.
Celina
Hi Celina Conner,
You have share an useful tips. Having tag rel=”author” is very important. It easily indexed the pages in Google and this author tag adds to your article as the sole creator of it, and prevents from scammers to duplicate your content.
Thanks for sharing this.
You’re Right Ravi!
Good luck on your future posts!
Celina
Thank you for the reply.
It is new tag that are Update August 23rd, 2011. it is. It’s quite logical for Google to want a link from your Google profile to your author page, it makes 100% sure that you are indeed the author of that piece of content when you link to your Google Profile and back from your Google Profile to your author page.
Hi Celina,
Great post – And wow – Have it already been a year since the news on the “Rel=Author” tag from Google? Time flies – couldn’t believe it… Scary how many people still don’t have it enabled and visible on their websites and Google profile.
Yea! Sooner or later. People with rel author will surely rank better than those who haven’t enabled it yet.
I already done it, and i really like this when it appear on google serp
Great! i’m glad i Helped
Hi Celina! Thanks for sharing this awesome tip, having the ability to establish our credibility through methods such as this would definitely be beneficial. The rel=author attribute is simply remarkable.
Ultimately, I want to install this to assure my readers that my content is original and unadulterated but the other benefits you mentioned are just too hard to ignore too! Frankly, I’ve never heard of this before and I can’t wait to install! Thanks!
Really awesome results, I had done this 3,4 week before, and getting very good response and searchers love authorship enabled blogs.
That’s great!
I’m glad you learned something from my post and I helped you in some way.
Thanks a lot!
Celina
I think it is enough for a writer if he is recognized as a author because of this tag.
Hi Nawaz,
You’re right. Through the Rel-Author Tag, recognition will be given to the righteous author of a blog or an article.
thanks for your comment!
Celina
Just due to avaibility of this plugin i moved to wordpress from blogger platform…I love this plugin.,It have increased my blog traffic too!!
Regards
Mia
That’s great news Mia!
Indeed, this is an awesome plugin!
Hey Celina:
A nice post about a topic that all bloggers would benefit from knowing. When I implemented rel=author, I actually found a great set of no fail instructions from an internet marketing colleague of mine here in the states. Rel=author can sometimes be a little tricky to install; his instructions are here, if anyone is interested…
Thanks for Sharing David!
I should’ve included it in the article to give more value to its readers.
Anyway, you’ve shared it already.
Celina
This one’s a very helpful article to start with, and every blogger should definitely take a good skim and read the post. It’s very informative!
Wow! Thanks a lot Veronica!
Really Appreciate your compliments!
I’m glad it helped you.
For me, it is very important to establish yourself as a good author and content provider. This is the reason why your remark about credibility upon using “rel=feature” is an excellent one. Good job!
I agree. The Rel Author can help you only if you’ve established yourself or your name as a credible author. It can also work against you if you have established a bad reputation online.
Thanks,
Celina
Hi Celina,
Great article. Google’s Authorship verification benefits a lot. I have gone through this process and getting full benefits through it. Really a must for real bloggers.
And I agree with you that in future ranking will be based on author’s ranking.
Thank You.
Hi Veer!
Wow! Thanks a lot! I’m glad it helped.
That’s really my assumption that ranking would soon depened on author ranking.
Good luck on your authorank building.
Celina
I think I’ll have to update myself more about rel-author, thanks for sharing, very helpful article too!
Thanks a lot! i’m glad the article helped.
Celina
Hi Jane
its really wonderful article for Discussion. I appreciate this article. thanks for this wonderful article Jane.
hi Christina,
Yeap! Thanks Jane for allowing me to write the article on probloggingsuccess.
Thanks Jane!
Celina
Thanks for the salutary share-Anyone would definitely want to establish the fact that his content is not scraped or plagiarized, this way, we are also given the opportunity to establish ourselves as primary authors.
That’s another advantage of having the rel-author tag. It prompts google that the content from this certain author is legit!
Thanks,
Celina
The rel author tag can definitely give you credibility for your writings. This results to increase of traffic which gives you influence in the bloggosphere.
Exactly!
Thanks. I’m glad the article helped you.
Celina
O.o I had no idea my articles were in such danger of plagarism. Even though I’m relatively new at blogging it’s still a scary thought. Hands down what draws me to being using rel-author is the link to G+ and the credibility it will give me as a blogger.
Exactly!Thanks for the compliments. Really Appreciate it
celina
Great article,
Its all about building that credibility and becoming the ‘authority’ in your chosen area.
Thanks for sharing.
Hello Celina,
I never thought rel=author could be this important and useful. I will have this one installed right away today.