Implementing Rel = Author (Simple)
About 1 month ago I implemented Rel = Author on this site, and thought I should share the method with you.
You may ask, what is Rel = Author?
Rel Author is a way for you to distinguish to the web, Google and other Search Engines who is the author of a particular piece of content.
Sometimes you may run a Google web search and see peoples faces in the Google Search results, with a Link back to their Google Plus profile.
This obviously looks professional and personalises the internet, something I think is important.
It also shows users who is the author behind the content, which in my opinion makes the user more likely to view your website.
So how do you implement Rel = Author? Today I will discuss the simple way to setup Rel = Author on your website (Next week I will discuss the advanced way).
How to Implement Rel = Author (The Simple Way)
1. Make sure you have a Google Plus profile setup
If you don’t have a Google Plus profile, signup here.
2. Add Rel = Author on the page you want to claim as your content
Goto the page where you would like to mark yourself as the author (obviously you need to be the website owner/ writer etc).
On this page – add a link to your Google Plus profile, and make the link text your name with a + on the end (maybe at the end of the article/post is a good place for this)
EG.
The HTML code for this link is: <a href=”https://plus.google.com/118077431465872596261?
rel=author”>David Cowling Google+</a>
Replace my Google Plus URL and Name with yours.
3. Add your URL to your Google Plus profile
Google Plus has a links section on the About Tab of your profile.
Add your link here pointing back to the Main website URL.
4. +1 that particular page and Homepage URL
Next thing you need to do is +1 that particular page you have added Rel = Author, or +1 the homepage URL.
5. Set the +1 Tab on your Google Plus profile as Public
Change the privacy setting of your +1 tab to Anyone on the Web
6. Check with the Rich Snippets tool this validates correctly
Goto: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets and type in the URL and check it validates correctly.
EG.
TIP:
If you are the owner of the website and want Google to recognise every page as your content, add this Rel = Author link (as per point 2) on every page of your website.
An easy place to do this is in the header, sidebar or footer. You can see my Rel = Author link in my footer on every page.
Final Step:
Tell Google you have done this by Filling out this form.
Unfortunately I can’t see my photo in the search results yet. I am hoping Google will add my photo soon because I think this will attract more users (Because I am so pretty, and it looks smart).
I have emailed Google but haven’t received a response yet. But I am not too worried as it doesn’t seem any .com.au websites have Google Plus profile pictures showing in search results. But I think it’s still a good idea to implement as Google will make this option available soon.
Next week I may will look to discuss the advanced method of adding Rel = Author to your website. For more information you can see this page on Google, and check out the video below:
Feel free to add me on Google Plus here: https://plus.google.com/118077431465872596261/posts
If you have any questions or need help implementing, let me know.
