How To Use Rel Author for Higher More Visible Search Engine Rankings

In my previous article I talked about How to Get Visitors To Discover Your Great Content In Google Using the Rel=Author Tag and the top 7 benefits of implementing it. One of the greatest benefits of the Rel=Author Tag is that it not only helps your content get ranked in Google’s search engine result pages but it also get’s highlighted because your profile photo is included beside it. This makes your content stand out resulting in attracting more traffic and generating more sales.

Here’s a screenshot of how your content will appear in Google based on a Google Search

rel=author

How to implement rel=author tag on your website for single authors

1. Link to your Google Profile

Assuming you’ve already created a Google+ profile you now need to add a link to this profile on every page or post. Here’s my sample HTML code (be sure to insert the URL of your own web page).


<a href="http://www.drostdesigns.com/search-engine-ranking-factors/" rel="author">About Herman Drost</a>

rel=”author” tells Google that Herman Drost is the creator of the site.

Once you’ve linked to your Google Profile from your blog post or web page, add your post or web page URL to the links section of your Google Profile.

Read the next point for an easier way to do this.

2. Link to your domain author page

Instead of linking directly to your Google Profile from every article or post, link to the author page on the domain where you published the article.

Here are the steps:

  • Link to your author (or about ) page on every post. For example here’s the link to my about page
  • Link to your Google Profile from your author page (or add a Google badge to it).
  • In your Google+ profile add a link back to your author page.

The flow should thus be as follows:

* Your article links to the author page on the same domain.
* Your author page on the same domain links to your Google Profile.
* Your Google profile, in turn, links back to the author page.

NOTE: An alternative strategy to linking to your domain author page (if using WordPress) is to add rel=”author” to a link in your site’s menu. This means the “about page” is linked into your site’s navigation bar. Now you won’t have to link to your Google+ profile from every page or post.

3. Test your code using the “Rich Snippets Testing Tool.”
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

Don’t assume your code is working correctly. Run it through the rich snippets testing tool. See my screenshot below:

rich snippets toll

Even though the article has been cached by Google (appears in Google results pages) it doesn’t show my photo yet. I’m still waiting as this may take a few weeks.

4. Submit your authorship request

Submit your profile in this form. Google wants you to do this so they can let you know of any implementation issues however they don’t guarantee you’ll hear from them.

5. Multiple-author blogs and sites

If you have multiple authors that contribute to your website or blog you’ll need to identify the author of each individual piece of content. Click here for the guidelines

Video from Google about Authorship Markup

And now you know How To Use Rel Author for Higher More Visible Search Engine Rankings. Take action NOW to reap the benefits.

Related Articles

Rel=Author Tag – How to Get Visitors To Discover Your Great Content In Google
rel=”author” and rel=”me” in WP and other platforms

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