If you've been following along with the most recent changes to the Google algorithm updates, one of the key changes that has been made is the emphasis on higher quality content.
No longer are you able to throw up keyword stuffed content and expect to rank well. Instead, you must start focusing on making your content both readable as well as shareable. If the visitors to your site aren't gaining from your article, you're now likely to find that specific page sinking in the rankings.
One of the ways that Google set out to accomplish this is through the Google Authorship feature which is part of Google Plus.
Let's look at what this is all about so that you can understand how to use it to your advantage.
What Google Authorship Is
Google has introduced Google+, which is the social network of Google and along with it, the authorship program. Now, when an author publishes online, they can create a reciprocal link from the page where their content and their Google+ profile.
This lets Google (and everyone else) know that you are the owner of a particular piece of content.
As a website owner, if you have authors writing for you who have built up a strong Google+ author profile, it could really help to increase your site rankings. Essentially, this is Google's way of grading you by monitoring your work and as your grade increases, so does the level of trust that your content receives from Google.
With more trust comes more traffic as your posts will have a competitive edge in terms of ranking and due to your name being attributed to the content, you'll start to build a following. Your audience will then begin sharing and linking to your content, which will only bring growing levels of traffic to your website and further increase your following while at the same time helping to eliminate poor quality content from the web. Genius!
Setting Up Google Authorship
In order to take advantage of this program, you need to go about setting things up correctly. You'll need to create a Google plus profile, and then on any content that is created by the author of that profile, create a link back to your Google Plus page and add a link to your Google Plus page to the page where the content is.
You can either do this using a 3-link method where you link to the author's biography page on the same website or a 2 link method where the content contains a small author bio section at the bottom of the post, which then links to their own Google plus profile.
Another way to go about setting this up through email verification. This can be done by linking the author byline to an email address, which can then be used to verify the author's Google plus profile.
So there you have the need to know facts about Google Plus and Authorship. If you want to maintain high site rankings in the search engines and attract more traffic through organic search and a social following, it is a process that you should consider setting up right away.
Many trusted SEO experts are claiming that Authorrank is going to be 'one of the biggest game -changing future additions to Google's algorithm', so make sure you aren't missing out.
About the Author
Rachel Diamond is a digital marketing specialist for Up Search, a leading digital marketing agency based in Manchester.