Back in October I talked about Google authorship for the first time. If you follow that link, you’ll see an example of what it can do for you, but for those who are new to this concept, it allows for the possibility of people actually seeing your image next to a search term if it comes up during a Google search. If someone knows you it’s even better, but if not they might visit your link just because there’s a picture next to it. It can enhance your online presence greatly… isn’t that pretty cool?
What I’m finding out is that many people aren’t sure how to do it, or haven’t done it. Goodness, I knew about it, yet I figured out yesterday that I hadn’t completed it for all of my blogs; what a moron! I’d have slapped myself if I could have gotten my hands in the right position. lol
In any case, this is a quick tutorial, and the video below, with my Hot Blog Tips Hangout buddies, will talk more about it and its importance, and you can hear me giving this same advice there if you hate reading everything.
First, you have to have a Google Plus profile; without that, none of this will work. Once you have that, or if you already have that, you come back to your blog and, if you have WordPress software as your platform, you go into your User profile. I’m betting that most of you haven’t been there since you created your blogs. You’ll see what’s below, although in a totally different color:
Notice that last category saying Google+? You copy your Google profile About page link into this space. This is what G+ will be looking for when it goes to verify that it’s you. If you have multiple writers on your blog, if you enter this for each of them and they put their profile information in it’ll show them in search results as well.
After you’ve done that, go back to your Google profile and look at your About page. It looks like this:
The email address you have here has to match the email address you have on your blog associated with that blog. If you notice, since I have 5 blogs, I have 5 email addresses. What you don’t see here is the word “verify” next to each email address, since I’ve already done that. You’d click on that word and it will send an email to that address with a link in it. You’d click on that link, then come back to your profile where you’ll see this:
That’s when you know you’re good to go. It can take anywhere from a week to 3 weeks before your image finally shows up next to your content, but the first time you see it will make you happy. And, if you didn’t go back to that other post, know that during a search your image will only come upon the first post you’re found for, even if you’re showing for all the listings. I guess even Google only wants to see us just so much. 😉
There you go; easy peasy. If you want more, watch the video below; we’re always entertaining:
http://youtu.be/lzP2zFmjL68
Hello Mitch! Thank you for this Google Authorship post. Somehow my Gravatar was appearing on my posts in the Google search results without verifying my email address on Google plus. Also, I did not include my Google plus link in the WordPress user name section. I don’t know how it still worked. I did register on Gravatar dot com, and I made sure to include: by Sam Martinez in every blog post. This is probably the reason it appeared in the Google search results without including how many Google Circles I was in. I made all the necessary corrections today. Thank you!
Sam, if you only have one account I think you’re good because G+ usually verifies the first email address you give it. I ran into a problem where I already had an email registered to them, but when I purchased a HTC phone it superseded that email address and I had to go through the process of trying to get it verified again. Hated that!
Thanks for the reminder Mitch. The last time I checked it hadn’t been rolled out to Australia so I’ll give it a go again – maybe we’re included now!
I hope so Sue, but I hadn’t known it blocked anyone in Australia; that makes no sense at all.
Are you using a plugin to get that Google+ box because it’s not showing on my profile at all?
Nope, no plugin Sire. Just showed up after one of the WordPress updates on its own. It’s possible that your theme blocked the changes; I’ve had that happen to me with other stuff.
Nope, seems to be a plugin issue. Man, there’s always something isn’t there?
Sire, that makes no sense. I have it on all my blogs. Thing is, you don’t have access to it until after you’ve created and saved the profile. Then when you go back into it the sucker’s there.
Nice and easy-2-apply tutorial, thanks for sharing! I’ve already used this technique on my older blog, connecting your G+ profile to your blog allows you to show your profile pic in the search results next to your link, and it doesn’t work only under the WP platform. Btw, it’s such a cool thing to generate some extra traffic to your site, I think I’m going to apply it on all of my blogs, like you did!
Obviously I think it’s a smart thing to do Peter. Good luck with it.
Hi Mitch,
It took almost one month for my site to have Google authorship verified. But finally, I can see my photo on results of the articles. But I cannot see my photo for the pages I created. Any tips?
A couple of things Naser. One, maybe the site you’ve linked to here isn’t your blog, and if you’re not set up there it’s just not going to work. Two, I did find you on Techblazes, and I noticed your G+ link ends with ?rel=me; that’s not supposed to be there, and that might be what’s messing you up.
I have set it up for some of my sites but then I don’t want the full list because sometimes in online business with multiple sites on multiple niches I do want them to stay different. Moreover privacy is also an issue.
Keral, just asking, but if you have an online website, not a squeeze page mind you, where you’re adding content and hoping people will see it, read it, and share it, you’ve pretty much already given up privacy. With Google+, you give people only the information you want them to have. Sure, you have to add a couple of things required by G+, but you don’t have to show the public any of that. Still, you do have a privacy concern in general, and I have things I won’t share with people as well.
this is the feature I used within 1 week when google launched it self… I love it since it is very helpful to users to recognize the authors.. I must thank google for such as things
I hope they’re listening to your thanks. lol
I tried doing so for different authors, it wasn’t working. I.e rich snippet wasn’t showing their pictures. What did I do wrong ?
For it to work properly those folks have to have verified their email addresses with Google Plus; it’s not just on you. I ran into that problem with one of my sites where I was having problems verifying an address, but it finally came through. So, if they haven’t verified their addresses, which could mean they don’t have their own blog because that’s how one verifies an address, then it won’t work.
Thanks for this helpful tutorial. I have implemented Authorship according to your tutorial. Richsnippet Tool is showing my verified Google Authorship. How much time will it take to appear in Google Search ?
As I said Mohanraj, it could take from 1 to 4 weeks for it to show up. As long as you’re verified, you should be good.