Google authorship is steadily gaining ground. If you haven’t heard of it before it’s the little face shots that you see of people next to links after performing a search. Hopefully by now you have noticed at least a few author faces. They are pretty hard to miss.
Some people say it helps increase click through rate, and others disagree or are not completely convinced anyway. I believe that they do help draw attention. Whether someone will click on a particular link just because of an author image is definitely debatable.
Besides your image a good title and description will help, and if it appears on page one in position one to five you will obviously see a better click through rate. Nothing new there, it’s always been that way. The first couple of results always get more traffic than the ones further down the page.
What I am thinking is that if you have thought about setting up Google authorship, but just never got around to it you really should sooner than later.
This is what aGoogle authorship image looks like in search results:
As of right now there are still a lot of searches with very few author images that appear. If Google continues this for years to come, which is fairly likely the search results may eventually become saturated with author images. If that happens it will be much more competitive and difficult to draw attention.
So if there are only a few images that appear it is possible that people will be drawn to your image and link more. Down the road if all or nearly all the results on page one have an author image they won’t be so attracted to yours if you’re not in the top five positions.
If search results eventually become filled with author images, then I think most people will take the first couple of results no matter how attractive, descriptive, or catchy yours happens to be.
So if you get in on it now there is a possibility that you can draw people into your site/link a little easier than a few years down the road. This assuming it continues to gain ground, and they don’t change it too much.
On top of that there is the author rank rumor that has been floating around for a while now. Some suggest that if your articles and posts are attached to your Google Plus/Authorship it could build authority and trust, which Google may use towards search rankings.
One of the drawbacks of using it is you are forced to have a Google Plus account. Maybe that isn’t a problem for you or most people. Even though I like seeing my image in search results I don’t like being forced into something, but that’s the way it works. I have a feeling it’s about increasing Google Plus popularity and the number of users more than anything, but it’s pushed as an added perk for the writer of an article.
I am the site owner and administrator of DialMe.com. I provide help and tips for Boonex Dolphin on the main part of this website where you will also find an assortment of other resources. Here, on the blog I write about a variety of topics surrounding WordPress, technology, social media/networking, SEO, and webmaster resources.
22 comments
Hmm, I’d better add Google Authorship too. It can’t hurt if my articles are unique and I’ll use it as a test to see what impact it has on several of my projects. Thanks for sharing!
Some people say it helps, and others say not so much. I certainly don’t mind seeing author images in Google. Nothing wrong with testing it out for yourself.
Why not?
It makes me feel good when I Google my own site/article and I see my good looking face being shown next to my articles. LOL 🙂
I personally like articles that have Google Authorship when trying to search for resources to link to. These articles are most often very good and the fact that they have Google Authorships shown in SERP makes it very easy for me to recognize some of my favorite authors.
It is nice to see your own image appear in search results. One of these days I should update mine with a better picture and with one that is a little more recent. Mine seems a little dark, but maybe that is because the image is kind of small in search results.
I see a few familiar faces every now and then that I recognize too. Lots more that I am not familiar with. I do definitely notice faces and posts a little more with an author image than without.
Google Authorship is only available for blogs, as far as my knowledge is concerned. But I have seen many business websites too use Google Authorship. They’re certainly misusing this amazing feature and waiting for Google to take some action.
I use Google Authorship on non-blog sites. Generally it is just a matter of adding the markup code (link to a Google Plus account) and adding the site to the contributor area. Nothing too difficult just a matter of adding it properly and waiting for it to take effect. It could be a little confusing I guess for some, but overall it’s a pretty simple process.
So do you think, using Google Authorship on non-blog sites is good tactic. I mean isn’t it kind of MISUSING the concept?
I use it on a non-blog site where I write tutorials. I know a few people have used it on their slideshare profile too. I guess it really depends on the type of site because it may not be ideal in all situations. You could also go with a Google Plus Business page and use the publisher markup instead.
Thanks a lot for clearing my doubts about using Google Authorship.
I set mine up Ray as soon as Google announced it because I had a feeling they were headed that direction and it would benefit me if I got in early.
As you mentioned, when an image of a person is found when searching for something on Google, my eyes are definitely drawn to that first. If I read the link and description and it’s not what I want only then will I keep looking.
I had heard the rumors about author rank at the time this was released and so many people had advised me to jump on this now because Google has more ideas coming down the line that will benefit you if you get this set up.
Why wait so I went for it.
Good share here and hope that if someone hasn’t done this yet then it would be very helpful for you to do it now so that you still can stand out from the rest before it does become too saturated.
Hope your week is going well.
~Adrienne
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They draw my attention too. I don’t always choose a link with an image, but I sure do notice it. I think it really helps make you stand out at least as of now. I keep wondering though years down the road if they continue with this if we do see a lot more author images in search if you would stand out so much or not.
I know sometimes there are only a couple of images displayed in search results. When that happens I tend to pay more attention to those. When there are five or six plus I still notice, but I don’t spend as much time reviewing them.
I don’t know if Google has a plan for limiting the number of author images that will be shown say on page one of search results or not. If they don’t and they do allow ten images per page I don’t think people will be as drawn when there are so many. Right now when you see say one to four images per page I think people tend to notice more.
I created a Google+ account as soon as it was available, so adding authorship was a simple decision for me.
I don’t think this was a trick by Google to increase Google+ number. If you have Gmail, YouTube or any other Google service you automatically get a Google+ account.
I think authorship combined with author rank is about increasing search result quality. In general articles that appear with an image tend to of higher quality.
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Hello,
I set up my Google authorship immediately it was announced. I feel that Google authorship is essential to all bloggers.
Showing your image on search results will help your blog be more visible for clicks. Thanks
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Google’s is always thinking of ways to get everyone on the Internet to signup to its services. They are particularly focusing on pushing G+ up above other social media giants.
Now it’s Google+ comments, another strategy to ‘force’ users into using Google+
Well, they have the greater share of the cake. Maybe that’s the way to go 😉
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I did tried before, but see nothing. Maybe I am not waiting long enough time or miss something. I will try again on some other days, hope to see some result for this time.
I kind of think that it is a good branding of someone to better mark an impression with people about your work. And I myself, am taking this into consideration. Who wouldn’t want their face next to their name known worldwide, right?
I am sure Google is going to be using Authorship and Author Rank along with “social signals” in order to filter out the REAL or “quality” blog posts from the low quality crap.
That being said the importance of authorship for the future can’t be understated, as it is the future.
Although I’ve resisted to create a Google+ account, now I already have to recognize it’s benefits. Your photo appearing next to your blog post in the search results is a powerful tool for building up the trust which generates some extra traffic later. Thanks for sharing your inspirational experiences, I cannot wait to give it a try! I’ve just created my G+ account in the last couple of days, but I already experiences some increase in the visitors of my youtube channel, which is connected to my Gprofile:)
Well , this is a different debate that it helps or not , But it seems good for me that my picture shows in search results ,
Hi DialMe,
Thanks for sharing knowledge of Google Authorship ! Well As much I know about Google Authorship so Google Authorship is wonderful platform to use on Search Engine ! Google Authorship help to make a good reputation in Business front of People.
This is the second article that I have read today about Google authorship and I must say that I encourage it. It definitely helps authors rank better in the SERPs and also it promotes good content. Thank you for the information!
Thanks for making aware about Google Plus Authorship as well as it’s value too. Well if we change & update WordPress Blog so would we have to again setup Google Authorship.