OK, so we’ve covered what Google Authorship is, and why you should bother with using it. Now let’s discuss how to setup g+ Authorship so you too can benefit from its advantages. Fortunately there’s a few different setup approaches that Google supports. Unfortunately, some of those processes get a little “techy” with needing to know some code. There is good news, however; I will be covering, “How to Set Up G+ Authorship on WordPress” in my next post, for those who are looking for a simple solution for that very popular web platform.

This discussion covers, in a more theoretically way, three methods for setting up Authorship on various website types (those owned by you, those you participate on, and those whom others publish you on, etc.). If you’re code savvy this article should be sufficient to set Authorship up for yourself. If your still fuzzy, my next post will provide you with a practical simple approach in setting up Authorship on WordPress, where you own the domain.

G+ Authorship Steps

STEP 1 – Since Authorship is specifically and directly connected to a Google+ account, you will need to create a g+ profile. Make sure you complete your profile information and upload a good, professional looking, headshot of yourself. If you presently don’t have a g+ account, please visit Google, here: https://accounts.google.com/SignUp

STEP 2 – You will next need to help “link”, or “marry”, your g+ profile with your web authored content so that you get credit. This will allow for your headshot to show up next to your listing result in Google’s SERPs. Google supports three procedures to make this happen.

a.   THE THREE LINK APPROACH

The above diagram is a conceptual view of how to set up your own website, on a domain you own, regardless of platform (html, Jumla, Drupal, WordPress, etc.).

The ‘rel=”author”’ is what is known as a “rich snippet” that needs to be set up in the coding of your content. Please visit Google’s page on Authorship for exact coding. Also, here’s a YouTube video on rel=”author”.

 

b.   THE TWO LINK METHOD

This diagram represents how you would set up your information for Authorship on a third party site that you did not directly own, such as Blogger, WordPress.com, or membership site.

The above solution requires the same coding content that was noted in first solution, The Three Link Approach. Please visit Google’s page on Authorship for exact coding.

 

c.   THE EMAIL VERIFICATION SOLUTION

This last diagram scenario would apply to published articles from various sources, including, local news, article sites, or other online publications that restrict the number of, or prohibit, link(s) within the article or bio, but do permit you to list your email address. Here’s a link to Google’s verification page.

Regardless of where you’ve distributed your content online, if you use one the above solutions, as it applies to your publication scenario, your photo will eventually show next to the search result if, and when, your content gets indexed by Google. Unfortunately, this process sometimes can take several weeks to show results. Consequently, the best advice here is to install it and move on; or simply, “set it, and forget it.”

For immediate verification, however, you can check to see if you’ve set up your Authorship correctly. Visiting Google’s verification page, then enter the url where your article is posted, and hit your return button. If correctly formatted, your image, and associated limited info, should show on the page, underneath the tool.

That’s it for now. Good luck, and keep your eye out for our next post.

 

Also see References:

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2539557

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/google-authorship/

http://searchengineland.com/the-definitive-guide-to-google-authorship-markup-123218