indy social media breakfast - authorrank

Google Authorship, AuthorRank and Google+

Demystified@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

AuthorRank does not exist

(yet)

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

Google Authorship does exist

(and it’s awesome)

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

Understanding AuthorRank

HOW IS CONTENT RANKED?

• Links

• Social

• On-Page (Technical)

• On-Page (Content)

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

HOW IS CONTENT RANKED?

• Links

• Social

• On-Page (Technical)

• On-Page (Content)

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

How does Google know if content is good?

“AGENT RANK” PATENT (2005)

“The identity of individual agents responsible for content can be used to influence search ratings.

Assuming that a given agent has a high reputational score, representing an established reputation for authoring valuable content, then additional content authored and signed by that agent will be promoted relative to unsigned content or content from less reputable agents in search results.”

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

“We know that great content comes from great authors, and we’re looking closely at ways this markup could help us highlight authors and rank search results.”

- Othar Hansson (Software Engineer, Google)

“AGENT RANK” PATENT (2005)

DIGGING IN TO AGENT RANKAssuming that a given agent has a high reputational score, representing an established reputation for authoring valuable content, then additional content authored and signed by that agent will be promoted relative to unsigned content or content from less reputable agents in search results.”

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

1. high reputational score (readers/followers/subscribers)

2. established reputation (non-anonymous)

3. valuable content (traffic/shares)

IN OTHER WORDS

Expert content, written by non-anonymous authors

will rank higher than anonymous content.

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

Google: Agent Rank Marketers: AuthorRank

(same thing, basically)

THINGS WE DON’T KNOW• How significant of a ranking factor it will be

• How authors will be graded (PageRank? Klout?)

• If/when it will ever go live

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

GOOGLE WANTS IT

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

“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.”

- Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman, Google)

How do you identify yourself to Google?

GOOGLE AUTHORSHIP

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

rel=”author”

contributor to

GOOGLE AUTHORSHIP 1/2

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

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

GOOGLE AUTHORSHIP 2/2

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

Yoast SEO Plug-in

http://www.swellpath.com/2013/09/author-rich-snippets-tutorial-2013/

TESTING

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http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

AUTHORRANK PRE-REQ

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“The identity of individual agents responsible for content can be used to influence search ratings.”

Google Authorship (exists)

AuthorRank (does not exist)

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

Benefits of Google Authorship

AUTHOR RICH SNIPPETS

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AUTHOR RICH SNIPPETS

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

Google+ Profile

Author Photo

Other Posts

AUTHOR RICH SNIPPETS

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Which would you click first?

Which caughtyour eye first?

NIELSEN'S F PATTERN

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

Higher CTR?

Ranking not as important?

http://justinbriggs.org/how-does-google-authorship-impact-ctr

YOUR FACE MATTERS!

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

http://moz.com/blog/google-author-photos

35% increasein traffic!

TEST ≠ APPEARANCE

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

APPEARANCE FACTORS

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

How authorship is set up+

Frequency of page crawl (time)+

Frequency of publishing+

Google+ usage / profile robustness+

Individual search settings

NOT JUST WEBPAGES

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

AUTHORSHIP STATS

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WHEN AUTHORSHIP IS BAD

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http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2286728/Can-Google-Authorship-Really-Cause-a-Huge-Traffic-Drop-Case-Study

AUTHORSHIP ADOPTION

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

BRANDS TOO!

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

rel=”publisher”

verified URL

REL=”PUBLISHER”

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

Publisher Rich Snippets!

Yoast SEO Plug-in

Google+

IDEAL BLOG POST

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

rel=”publisher” (Bloomerang)

rel=”author” (Steven Shattuck)

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

AuthorRank and Google Authorship

will keep Google+ relevant

identity + authority

GOOGLE+: IDENTITY ENGINE

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

Google+

YouTube

GOOGLE+ PAGE VERIFICATION

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

https://support.google.com/plus/contact/page_verificationhttp://socialmediatoday.com/sashattuck/1181931/what-s-value-large-google-following

Verification

GOOGLE+: AUTHORITY ENGINE

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

http://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/2013/06/27/ranking-factors-2013-google-usa/

GOOGLE+: AUTHORITY ENGINE

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

“After Page Authority, a URL's number of Google +1s is more highly correlated with search rankings than any other factor. In fact, the correlation of Google +1s beat out other well known metrics including linking root domains, Facebook shares, and even keyword usage.”

http://moz.com/blog/google-plus-correlations

http://www.stonetemple.com/measuring-google-plus-impact-on-search-rankings/

GOOGLE+ USAGE IS KEY

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

Google+ posts pass link equity!

3 follow links!

AGENT RANK BLUEPRINTAssuming that a given agent has a high reputational score, representing an established reputation for authoring valuable content, then additional content authored and signed by that agent will be promoted relative to unsigned content or content from less reputable agents in search results.”

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

1. high reputational score (readers/followers/subscribers)

2. established reputation (non-anonymous)

3. valuable content (traffic/shares)

Google Authorship

G+

Frequent Publishing

AUTHORRANK SUCCESS

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

Google Authorship + Frequent Publishing + Google+

AUTHORRANK SUCCESS

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

• Create author page and author biohttps://bloomerang.co/blog/author/steven/

• Establish Google Authorship (owned and earned blogs)

• Add Google+ badge to website

• Fill out Google+ profile completely

• Verify your name

• Publish frequently (focused area of expertise_

• Active use of social media - especially Google+

• +1 button on your blog posts

THINGS TO AVOID

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

• Brand as author (“by Bloomerang”)

• “by Guest Author”

• Guest posts attributed to in-house author

• *Ghost-written blog posts

• *Outsourced content

*be careful

FURTHER READING

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

✤ http://raventools.com/blog/ultimate-list-of-relauthor-resources/

✤ http://moz.com/blog/how-to-prepare-for-authorrank-and-get-the-jump-on-google

✤ http://www.seobythesea.com/2011/11/agent-rank-or-google-plus-as-an-identity-service-or-digital-signature/

✤ http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/author-rank

@StevenShattuck | #IndySM

Questions?Slides: http://bit.ly/breakfastrank

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