Rel = Author and Rel = Publisher Tags: A MUST HAVE!

We’ve been purposely holding off announcing “Why You Should Install Publisher and Author Tags on your Website and Blog Content” until today. Though if you are part of our Acorn University, or have been to any of our Conference Sessions this year, you already have a pretty good idea what these tags are, what they do and why we’ve been holding off making this announcement to the masses.

We’ve been watching the results in the SERPS of the sites boasting these tags for the last 6-8 weeks, and Google has been displaying them in a variety of ways. But just recently, as in the past 2-3 days, they appear to have settled a bit, that we feel comfortable SHOWING YOU WHY these tags, at this point, are important to your business.

I am including this box of space in this post because we KNOW that what I am about to share with you will more than likely be changing, yet again. As is has been for the last few months. And as always, we hesitate to recommend any new feature until we can prove to you how it will work.  But to delay sharing this information any further, may allow your competition to get a head start on  this new feature.

Once verified, your Google + profiles are considered “verified online profiles”. So to even begin discussing Rel = Author and Rel = Publisher tags, you MUST ALREADY HAVE a completed Google + Personal Profile, with an accepted “head shot” and have a Business Google + Profile established.

Not Set-Up? Watch Edubyte 30 for Personal Profile setup and  Edubyte 39 for Business Page Claim/Setup on acorn-is.com

Note: Once you've successfully had your Author and Publisher tags added to your Website and Blog, if you find that your head shot is not being used in the SERPS, or you get a message when loading your head shot that Google “cannot recognize a face” Google may not be displaying the image along side of your content. [Read More from Mike Blumenthal]

There are Three (3) Steps you will need to complete in order to allow your
Rel = Author and Rel = Publisher tags to function properly.

Step 1: Set up your Google + Business and Google + Personal Profiles correctly inside the Google + System.
Step 2: Have your webmaster CORRECTLY apply the Author and Publisher Tags to your Website and Blog.
Step 3: Test your work to make sure Google is happy with it and it displays the way you want it to.

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Part 1: Log into your Google Account
Part 2: Goto https://plus.google.com/authorshipPart 3: Enter your Domain Email Address
Part 4: Click the Signup for Authorship Button

Google will send you an email, follow the instructions in this email to verify your Authorship.

Part 5: Verify/update 2 more things in your Google+ Account:

a) On your Personal Profile G+ Page, under the ABOUT tab, make sure you include your Website and Blog in the Co-Contributor Section.  Include both the correct URL and a Title for each.
b) On your Business G+ Page, under the ABOUT tab, make sure your Business URL is visible.

Part 1: You will need to work with your Webmaster / Programmer to choose the correct solution for your Website and Blog setup.

Part 2: You will need to gather both your Business and Personal Google + ID Numbers / URLS.

a) Business – Go to your G+ Business Page and make a note of your G+ Business URL.
b) Personal – Go to your Personal G+ Page, click PROFILE on the left hand column, and make note of your PERSONAL G+ URL.

Part 3: Provide this information to your Webmaster, and request the Tags be added to your Website and Blog.

Part 4: Have your Webmaster correctly install the appropriate REL = Publisher and REL = Author Tags on your Website and Blog.

Note: If you are Acorn IS client, simply contact MarkHall@acorn-is.com or call him at 719-329-0977 x1 and request this work be done, and we'll handle it for you!

Once all the changes have been completed and indexed by Google you will want make sure that you or your Webmaster run a few tests using the Structured Data Testing Tool provided by Google.

Note: Your Webmaster can ask Google to re-index any of the pages you want to test by going into Webmaster Tools and Fetching and Submitting each page to Google to re-index ASAP.

Using the Link Below, you or your Webmaster can test your Website Home Page, Sub Pages and Blog Pages. You should see your photo appear on those pages that have been coded with the REL = AUTHOR Tag.  See the example below.

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

In addition to the Profile Image appearing in the SERPS, there are other visual changes we are currently seeing when testing our Author and Publisher Tags.  Take a moment and read through the Slide Share screens below to learn more!