Authorship Workshop

Paul Spreadbury, MEC

Who am I?

•My background•Head of SEO, Just Search•SEO Account Director, MEC•Clients I have worked with

Paul Spreadbury, SEO Account Director, MEC

@paulspread

What is Authorship?

• Method to verify a connection between content and a Google + account

• Way for Google to verify links are trustworthy

• More relevant data for rankings than social

• A way of adding a human element to link building

• A way of reducing duplicate content issues

Technical Implementation

• Create a Google Plus account

• Ensure you have a profile picture with a recognizable headshot

• Add a by-line on your content pages - e.g. by Paul Spreadbury

Technical Implementation - Email Verification

Google + profile pageemail:

paul.spreadbury@mecglobal.com

Authors content page on mecglobal.com

“by Paul Spreadbury” linked to

paul.spreadbury@mecglobal.com

• Check you have an email address on the same domain as the content

• Ensure the content has a by-line identifying you as the author e.g. ‘By Paul Spreadbury’

• Visit https://plus.google.com/authorship and submit your email address to Google. This will add your email to the contributor section of your Google + profile

• Use the structured data tool located at http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets to test it all works

Technical Implementation - Content VerificationGoogle +

Profile Page

Blog home page

Author’s content page

Contributor to

rel=“author”

Step 1 – Create a link to your Google + profile from your content page

-<a href="https://plus.google.com/108182861589098673464?  rel=“author">Paul Spreadbury</a>

Sept 2 – Add a reciprocal link back from your Google + profile page - Edit the contributor to section - Add a custom link - Enter the website URL

How long does it take to appear in the SERPs

• High social following• Lots of people in circles• Face may appear in SERPS very fast

(1 week)Power User

• Posts regularly• Has a reasonable social presence• Face may appear in a few weeks

Normal User

• Rarely posts• Very little social following• Post may take months to appear

Low Level

We can make assumptions, but Google will decide!

What does authorship do?

“Provides an ability to rank content based on the content owner and their online reputation”

“Makes it harder for SEOs to manipulate the system”

“Significantly improves click through rate”

Authorship – Possible ranking factors

Possible authorship ranking factors

• Number of +1s the author content receives

• The number of Google+ circles the author has

• The authority of the sites the authors content has been published to

• The author’s social metrics

• Engagement level of authors Google + Page

• Average Page Rank of authors content

As authorship also links into Google + there can be many ranking factors implemented

Or are Google simply trying to get more Google + users

Authorship and Link Building

SEO Updates - Death of low quality linksThere have been clear signs of Google devaluing links

Google Panda - Review of web content

(Feb 2012-onwards) - Pushing towards high

quality link building

Google Penguin- Over optimisation update

(April, May, Oct 2012)

Links warning issued - Google sends over

1,000,000 links warnings (19th July 2012)

Google Disavow tool - Tool for removing low

quality links, doing Google’s job for them (16th

October 2012)

How could this impact? BLOG/CONTENT PRODUCER Low Quality sites have plagued the internet Poor articles, spun content, low quality content will be hit again

POWER AUTHORS Respected authors will have a strong profile These authors will be highly sought after Agencies will need to build power author0s

BRANDS No longer can they just rely on copywriters Writers will need a social presence

LINK BUILDERS Quality content from authors will be difficult to find Relationships will be even more important

Engage off line to build authority online

Engage off line to build authority online

Link Building - Tools for the JobSEOs need to use tools to find quality content from established authors

Maintaining these relationships will become an even more important part of their strategy

Use Google Plus to find authors• Google’s going to be looking at it, so should you

Social PopularityTwitter, Facebook,

circles

Personal Information

Author bio, where they work

Writing ExperiencesPast writing

experiences, who they are authors for

Finding and engaging with key authors

• Use tools to find authors • Evaluate author by reviewing - People in circles - Twitter Followers - Contributor field - Past content• Look at other domains in your niche to find key authors• Look for high quality blogs

Finding key authors Engaging with authors

• Engage through social media• Build relationships slowly• Advise them to get authorship implemented if they haven’t already• Attend industry meet ups• Offer to speak at conferences• Comment on industry blogs and build visibility

Authorship for larger brands

Brands should invest in Content and People• Employ people passionate

about your sector

• Employ people with strong online profiles

• Post updates to Google + regularly

• Optimise the About Me section of Google +

• Don’t tie an author to any old content

• Invest in content that is interesting

• Allow staff the time to become an authority

• Specialise in your topic

area

PEOPLE

Becoming a Powerful brandSome large brands will find it difficult to highlight their people.

Large brands can be opposed to giving people credit.However, they should use their own people to build their online

profiles.

Should it be implemented as an SEO strategy

• SEOs should start implementing author rank in their strategies now

• Building author rank now will gain an advantage when Google change

• Google will continue to punish low quality content and link building

• Verifying author provides a way of punishing anonymity

• Don’t just publish posts on sites you control!

Any

Questions?