There’s a technological revolution going on. Anyone who wishes to survive this sweeping change must do two things, and they must do it now.
If you want your website content to stay on top in Google search results, it’s time to employ the old philosophy “better safe than sorry.” The safe thing is easy to do and risk free. If you choose to ignore the digital shift, that’s when you’ll be sorry.
Don’t Be Anonymous
The digital revolution requires authorship. This means, as Google chairman Eric Schmidt warned, you remain anonymous at the peril of irrelevance.
Thanks to Google authorship, it matters who you are. When your content is linked to your portable profile, your identity helps promote your website. In turn, your content will determine just how valuable an authority you are.
Yes, content is still king. But with a mug shot, the best content gets the higher click through rates.
The results showing a human face stand out from the crowd of the other faceless SERP listings. More users will be inclined to click on the identifiable headshot, don’t you think? Your authority and and their trust are two major incentives to sign up for authorship markup.
In addition to the main headline, there are two more live links which readers can click. The first lands on the author’s Google+ profile and the second lands on a dedicated page with search results using the author’s name or the search query.
How to Get Authorship Markup
Here are the two things you need to do to grab the spotlight and stay relevant.
1. Create a Google+ account.
Getting on the Google+ bandwagon has many benefits. The number one reason to join right now is, you guessed it, authorship markup.
Remember, Google+ is not a social network. It’s organized around topics and content. Copyblogger’s Brian Clark calls Google+ “the glue that unifies Google’s various offerings into a seamless whole.” In other words, Google+ is equivalent to Google.
2. Verify Google authorship on your website.
By linking your content to your Google+ profile, your authorship – photo, name, Google+ profile link – will appear in search results for the content you create. Google walks you through the steps, making it easier than ever to implement.
Choosing a Google+ Profile Image
Think of the increased visibility your website content will receive when you link your content to a genuine human being. Now think of which photo of your fabulous face to use.
Heat map studies show that the human eye zeroes in on an image over text, and more so when there is a smiling face. When the face is gazing toward the listing (turn your head to the left when snapping the photo), the reader will also be prompted to look in that direction. Finally, when the image is large and appealing, the clicks increase.
I’m thinking I need to update mine. ASAP.
If you don’t see authorship markup results immediately, don’t worry. It seems to take a few days, and not every search result shows your picture. At most, there will be one photo per page.
Look for more to follow on Author Rank and how your SEO will be affected.