Author rank has been a long time coming. Speculation swirled around this ranking technology for months before it was ever released, but no matter what the speculation said, all of it sounded like a doomsday approach for nearly every site on the internet. If you didn’t take the time to prepare then, though, is there anything left that you can do now? Absolutely.
Get Started. The single best thing you can do is actually get started. Learn more about author rank and how it affects the ranking of your site. Do some reading to find out which of your competitors are playing along, and which ones already have high author rankings. It will help you get some sense of what you’re up against.
Visit Google. If you haven’t already set up Google Authorship, it’s time. It will give you a chance to get a snippet in the search results, and it will also give you that initial author rank status which is essential. It will tie all of the content you create to that as you move forward.
- Start by building a public Google + profile. They’ll use it when they pull in your Author Rich Snippet.
- If you have another presence online, use the same photo that you do for every other media profile you have.
- Then go to the Contributor To section of your profile.
- Add the site you write for (like your blog or your company site). If you write for a number of sites, add as many as you like. You want Google to know who you are an associate you with that site.
- You can also adjust the settings to show where you’re currently contributing and where you have contributed in the past.
- Once you’ve done that, make sure you add an on page link option to your blog posts, linking it to the Google + profile and a rel=author query string or a head link option where you simply put your authorship in the <head> section of your page’s code.
Running WordPress? You don’t have to do anything but download the SEO for WordPress plugin by Yoast.
Connect. Already have online content out there? Great. Make use of the Rich Snippet Testing Tool, then tie the content to your account. The last thing you want is to have to start all over again. CEO Eric Schmidt’s new book went so far as to say, “Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.” Don’t let that content that’s already out there become irrelevant!
Just Write. You cannot rest on what you’ve already written to maintain or build your author rank. Instead, you better be out there and building great stuff. You want to write content that demonstrates you’re an expert in the field and improves your reputation. Relevant and valuable content is key here. The last thing you want is to ruin your rank, but you can do it pretty quickly by publishing content on blog networks, creating keyword stuffed content, or spinning articles.
Socialize. Google + means everything in terms of author rank, so give folks a reason to follow you. You’ll want to post more than once a day if it’s possible, then check on your feed and comment on anything you find interesting. Be sure you complete your About section.
A better author rank this year is a must, and while these tips can help, they’re not all you could be doing. To learn more, contact us today.
(
(
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Connect on LinkedIn
