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PUBLISHED: Sep 4, 2012 5 min read

A Step by Step Guide to Google Authorship Markup

Google’s Authorship markup allows for your picture to show up next to your link in search results, authenticating your content and potentially increasing the click thru rate on your search result.Google Authorship Markup Avinash

There are several ways to implement authorship markup, but first you must create a Google+ profile.

Creating a Google+ Profile

1.  Create a Google+ profile by Signing in to your Google account.

Step by Step Google Authorship

2. Click Continue and then Continue Anyway (you can add people later on). Uploading a headshot of yourself as well as filling in your account information is an important step because it will help you earn author credit.  After you’ve uploaded a photo, click Finish.

Google Authorship Markup

3. Click Continue to Google+

4. Click Profile.

Guide to Google Authorship Markup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Click Edit Profile.

6. Click +’s.

7. Check off Show this tab on you profile and then click Save.

8.  Click About then scroll down and click Other profiles.

Guide to Authorship Google

 

 

 

 

 

9. Click on Add a custom link and then add the labels and URLs of other profiles you have, such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram.

Google Markup Authorship

 

 

 

 

10. After filling in your information, click Done editing.

Guide on Google Authorship

The 2-Link Authorship Process using WordPress:

1. Log in to your WordPress account.

2. Select Users from the left sidebar and select your username (If you have your own).

Google Authorship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. From there, scroll down to the About Yourself section and write a brief description of yourself within Biographical Info.

4. At the end of your biography, add a link to your Google+ Profile.  In order to go about doing this, go back to your Google+ profile.  Copy the 21-digit ID number in your URL into this code:

 

Check out <a href="https://plus.google.com/PasteYour21-DigitHere"  rel="author">John's Google+ profile </a>"

5. Paste the entire code at the end of your biographical description.

Google Authorship Guide

6. You can also add a photo of yourself from your Google+ profile.  After you’ve done this, click on Update Profile.

Now, you will be linking your Google+ profile to the homepage of the website your content is on.

7. Go back to the Profile tab on your Google+ account.

8. Click Edit profile.

9. Click on Contributor to.

Guide for Authorship Markup

10. Click Add custom link, and then add a label and the full URL for the publishing site’s homepage.

11.  Click Save and then Done editing.

12. Create a +1 by browsing the web and clicking this button where you see it.

13.  Go back to your Google+ profile and click on the Profile tab, and then Edit Profile again.

14. Select +1, and then click Show this tab on my profile. This will allow you to see all the content you’ve +1’d, as well as the content that you’ve identified as yours using tags. Then Save. 

Guide to Authorship on Google

Lastly, you’re going to want to check your markup and see what author data Google can extract from your page using the rich snippets tool. This tool only works with one URL at a time; therefore you will need to run this test on each page you want examined.

Because of this process, your biography as well as the link back to your Google+ account will automatically be attached to the content you write. If you happen to not have the option of creating your own personal short snippet to your content (a scenario that would exist if there were multiple authors to your site who share the same username), you will have to attach the link back to your Google+ profile on every piece of content you write. The difference between the 2-link process and the 3-link process is essentially the author biography page, which is what we will cover in the 3-link process next.

The 3-Link Authorship Process when not using WordPress

3-Link Process Google Authorship Markup

1. All of your content pages should point to your Author Bio Page. To do this, you add this link to all of your content pages:

Check out <a href="https://plus.google.com/PasteYour21-DigitHere"  rel="author">John's Google+ profile </a>"

 

2. Create a link from anywhere on your author biography page, which should be on the same website domain as your content, to your Google+ Profileusing:

<a href="{AuthorBiographyPageURL}" rel="author">Author Name</a>

3. Link your Google+ profile to your author biography page by clicking Profile and Edit Profile.

4. Click on other profiles, then Add custom link. Add the Label and URL of your author biography page.

Authorship Markup 3-Link Process

 5. Confirm your changes the exact same way you did in in the 2-link process.

Going this route, means you do not need to link every piece of individual content to your Google+ profile. Alternatively, your Google+ profile will be linked to your author biography page, and your author biography page will be linked to all of your content. However, you still need to link all of your content to your author biography page.

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