Have you ever wondered why some plumbing companies have a picture of their face next to their website link in the search results on Google (as pictured above)? The reason is Google Authorship. They have properly setup and configured authorship on their site. In this post, I will explain what Authorship is, why it's important and how to configure it properly for your plumbing or HVAC business.
Webinar Reply Video
Below is a recording of a live training that I conducted covering "Google Authorship for your Plumbing and/or HVAC Business":
If you would like to be a part of one of our live weekly update calls, you can register by going to http://www.pluberseo.net/weekly
What is Google Authorship?
Authorship is a way for Google to show within the search results who the author of the content is on a specific page. The result shows a head shot of the author, a link to his Google+ profile, the number of Google+ circles the author is in and a link to more search results for this author.
Why is Authorship important?
- Makes your listing jump off the pages.
- Higher credibility with your listing resulting in a better click-through rate.
- Better stats available in your Webmaster tools account.
How to setup Authorship on your site
- Create personal Google+ account with head shot (www.google.com/plus).
- Add link to site in profile and add "Contributor To" link to homepage.
- Add authorship code to website.
- Test rich snippet so ensure Google is recognizing Authorship: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
1. Setup up your Google+ Profile by going to Google.com/Plus
- Try to use the Gmail account that was used to setup your Google+ Local listing (formally Google Places) if possible.
- Edit your "profile picture" to show a head-shot. Don't use a logo. Google has face recognition software and will not show your listing properly if a head shot is not used.
- 2. Edit your “about” profile and scroll to links to add a “contributor link”
3. Add the Authorship Markup code to the Head Section on your website:
- Go to the HTML of your website or have your web developer go to the HTML of your website and add the markup code in the <head> section of the code, just like adding any other tracking script
- Authorship Code:
<link rel="author" href="https://plus.google.com/xxxxxxxxxxxx/posts"/> - Replace the X’s with your Google Plus number — this unique number can be found in the address bar if you visit Google+ while logged into the system.
4. Test rich snippet to ensure Google is recognizing Authorship.
- Go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets and type in your URL.
- If it worked correctly, the snipped will show like below:
Authorship - Rich Snippet Test
Step-by-step video walk through:
Below is a video that walks you through these steps live.
If you would like to download our Google Authorship Report along with the slides from the presentation, just enter your information below and we will send it to you right away:
Please post your follow-up questions and comments in the comments box below. If you would like more ideas and techniques for marketing your plumbing or HVAC company online, please download our FREE Plumbing and HVAC Online Marketing Guide.
I think this is going to be one of the most important signals that Google uses over the next couple of years to rank content. Highly trusted authors and prolific authors are going to get a big boost.
Carmen - Thanks for your comment. I agree. Now is the time to get ahead of the competition and setup authorship for your company.
I think this is going to be one of the most important signals that Google uses over the next couple of years to rank content. Highly trusted authors and prolific authors are going to get a big boost.
Carmen - Thanks for your comment. I agree. Now is the time to get ahead of the competition and setup authorship for your company.