Do you create great content? Find out how Author Rank allows you to claim ownership of your content regardless of where you publish online, become an authority in your niche and have your avatar and name show up in the search results.
What is Author Rank?
“Google needs a better way to sift through and determine quality in an age where content can so easily be produced and distributed” – Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google.
Simply put, Author Rank is the idea that your reputation as a content creator should influence the ranking of search results.
Why is Author Rank important?
Author Rank informs Page Rank (and probably visa versa):
- If you write for an authority site, this will help you to build your Author Rank
- Author rank will not replace Page rank but it will help Google to make it more accurate
Ideally, Google is looking to see content with both high Author Rank and high Page Rank.
How to manage your Author Rank?
Gaining Author Rank will be difficult but losing it will be easier.
- This helps ensure that high ranking content creators don’t attempt to manipulate search rankings
- Content creators will have to manage both the content and people that they choose to endorse
Why content creators should aim for niche ranking?
Your author rank will be different for each topic that you write about.
- You can have a higher ranking for “Facebook” and a lower ranking for “Google”
- Links with high Author Rank on the same topic will carry more weight.
- Comments, shares and endorsements from authorities (those with high Author Rank) will carry more weight
How to claim your content?
Google needs to know that the relationship between the author and the content is real. Individual content creators will need to claim their content, through the use of a digital signature.
# Step 1. Set up a Google+ profile
Google+ is the identity platform that allows you to claim ownership of your content.
Content creators need to have:
- a Google + profile
- and a recognizable headshot as your profile photo
# Step 2. How to Link to your content from your Google+ profile
The next step of the verification process is to add a reciprocal link back from your profile to the site(s) you want to include.
To add links to your Google profile:
- Sign in to your Google profile
- Click “Edit profile”
- Click the “Contributor To” section on the right (depending on how many photos you have, you may need to scroll to see this section), and then click “Add custom link”.
- If you want, change the visibility of your link, and then click Save.
Note: Where you are adding a site where you are a guest contributor (like TweakYourBiz) – make sure you link to your guest author profile page and not the homepage.
# Step 3. How to link your content to your Google+ profile
Option 1: If you have an e-mail address on the same domain as your content, just sign up for authorship and verify that e-mail address.
Or
Option 2: Create a link to your Google profile from a webpage, like this:
To do this, use the following:
<a href=”[profile_url]?rel=author”>Google</a>
- Replacing [profile_url] with the your Google+ profile URL
- And the text “Google” with your name
Your link must contain the? rel=author parameter. If it’s missing, Google won’t be able to associate your content with your Google profile.
Many sites like Tweak Your Biz also allow you to add your Google+ to your profile (see below).
What you can do to help build your Author Rank?
- Make sure you have a Google+ profile and that you know how to claim your content
- Guest post and get published on authoritative wedsites
- Build connections and interactions with authority authors in your niche
- Add them to your circles on Google+, share their content and link out to them
- Aim to get circled by others to help you grow your Google social proof
Summary:
My guess it that Author Rank will become increasingly important and now Google have the ideal tool with Google plus. This represents a big opportunity for people who create great content and is a nail in the coffin of spammers and those who steal content. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
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