The Impact of Google Authorship on SEO

The internet is more than just e-mail and LOL cats. Social media and networking sites have evolved into useful tools for businesses and professionals. Now everyone wants an online presence; it is very much about relevancy, popularity, learning and networking. For those not yet on the bandwagon, Google+ is one of these “next big things,” and it is quickly becoming a favorable tool for online sharing and more. More specifically, users of Google+ are finding the benefits of a concept called Google Authorship.

What is Google Authorship?

If you use Google as your primary search engine or even just on occasion, you may notice the new trend of pictures next to your search results. These pictures are of people with Google+ accounts who have verified with Google that they are the author of the article appearing in said results. Authorship is essentially the connection between original content published on the web and a user’s Google+ profile. For those still unfamiliar with this, in a way, it can be compared to a verified Twitter account. Authorship helps weed out the spam and gives us behind the computers the more useful, interesting and quality web content.

Its Impact on SEO

Google Authorship and SEO relate to one another in a big way. Just as keywords make an article more relevant, author rank through Google Authorship helps determine web content relevancy. Though similar, when an author has a high rank, it is more beneficial than keywords alone as users are more likely to click on results with a picture as it seems (and tends to be) more legitimate. Once content is verified by Google, sharing (+1), etc. on Google+ is what makes it more popular. The more social activity an article gets the more of an authority you become. A snowball effect in a good way, when person A posts an article then shared and promoted by someone with a higher rank (person B), it helps raise the rank of person A through extended networking. Google+ may be small compared to many other networking sites as it is still fairly new. However, more and more users are becoming engaged on the site and now is a good time for professionals to adapt and take advantage of it. SEO should not be forgotten, but paired with the use of Google Authorship for a successful relationship.

Tags: Google • Search Engine Optimization