Your Guide To Setting Up Google Authorship Markup

When doing a few web searches recently, I’ve started noticing some of my results showing the author’s image and their name added to the listing.  Not only that but it shows stats on their Google+ circles and provides you to the opportunity to find more articles written by that author.  The odd thing about the results and the information was that these people were not in any of my Google+ groups and I had not ever had contact with them.  So I wondered how did they get that information to show in search results.

Well I have since found the answer to that question and I now know how I can have it show up for my articles.  This is called Google authorship markup and Google originally started releasing information about it back in June of 2011.  (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/06/authorship-markup-and-web-search.html)

The purpose behind this feature is to attribute content to the author for both authors and websites.

This is another way to truly stand out from the rest of the crowd now before everyone is doing it.  Currently only about 9% of websites are utilizing this new feature and it’s actually fairly easy to implement.  I highly recommend that you take the few minutes it will take to set this up and get it done.  I’ll walk you through how to get it setup.

How To Setup Google Authorship Markup On Your Site

When Google sees that you’ve enabled Authorship on your site, they have to go through a process to verify the trust relationship.  To participate in this program you have to do two things.

1. Google+ Profile – A verified digital identity that links to your content
2. Reference as Author – Published content references you as the author and points to your Google+ profile

There are 3 methods to having the trust relationship verified.  Google supports the following formats for verifying authorship; 3-link process, 2-link process and an email verification process.  Depending on how your site is setup you will choose from one of these three methods. We’ll look at each of the methods in detail.

The 3-Link Process

If your website has content pages that have a link to an author biography page that is on the same domain, then you would choose this option.  You might have multiple authors or even just a single author, but either way there is a separate page setup with those biography information listed.  This biography page would then link directly to the author’s biography page.

The 2-Link Process

In this configuration, you wouldn’t have a specific biography page, but instead each post or article would have a bio box at the end of the post.  In this post you would have a direct link pointing to the author’s Google+ profile.  Then on the Google+ profile page you would have a link pointing back to the websites home page.

Email Verification Process

You would use this option in cases where the author might not have control over the biography content anywhere on the content page or other situations where you don’t have the needed control.  However, the author will need to have an email account on the domain where the article is posted.  In this arrangement the article will have the authors name with a link to their email address.

Now let’s look at how you setup each of the options listed above in detail.

Step 1: Setup Google+ Profile For Authorship Markup

First of all I would assume that you have a Google+ account already setup.  If you don’t, then you need to set one up.  To setup a new profile head over to the site: https://profiles.google.com  Once you have your profile setup, continue on to complete the process.

If you already have a profile setup, there are some minimum requirements that are required by Google in order to have the process work properly.  Here are the steps you need to take to set it up.

1. Visit your profile page by going to this site: https://profiles.google.com
2. Sign into your account
3. If you haven’t already, upload a head shot photo.  You should not use any other type of image such as art, cartoons or anything else.
4. Click Continue until you get to the Finish option, and click Finish.  Click Continue to Google+.
5. Once you are back to your profile page, on the line with your name, click on Edit Profile.
6. Click on the box with +1’s on it and then select the checkbox labeled Show this tab on your profile and then hit Save.
7. Click About, then scroll down until you see Other profiles.  If you hover over the Other profiles area, it will change to a light blue highlighted box.  Double click in this box to get access to where you can add new profiles.
8. Click on the option to Add custom link at the bottom of that box.  You’ll want to add your other social network profiles here by adding a title, such as Twitter Profile and then including a link to your profile.  Click Save once you’ve finished.
9. It’s a good idea at this point to complete the other sections that are pertinent to you.  These options are not required but it could benefit you to further build up authority for your particular topic or niche.
10. Once you are finished making changes, click on Done Editing at the top of the page.
11. Leave this page up because you will need this information again and you will need to add one more piece of information to it in a minute.

Step 2: Setup Your Website For Authorship Markup

This next step depends on what option works best for your particular situation (3-link, 2-link or email verification) and website.  You only have to utilize one of the three methods on a single website, however you might have to do this for multiple websites if you post regularly there.  I’ll include instructions for each of the 3 processes below, just choose which one works for your situation.  Some of these instructions can be a little complicated if you have never worked with HTML before.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I’ll do what I can to help.

3-Link Process (Sites Using Author Bio Pages)

This option is used when the site uses a single author bio page for each author and the articles link to this page on the same domain.  The links to the author bio page should use the author’s name as the anchor text.

1. On the biography page for the author, add a link to their Google+ profile.  Make sure you use the anchor text of “Google+” on this link.
2. The link to the Google+ Profile will need the following attribute added to the link.  Add this attribute to the end of the link – rel=”me”.  So your profile link would look like the following:

<a href=https://plus.google.com/123456712345671234567 rel=”me”>Google+</a>

Just be sure to replace the code above with your Google+ 21-digit profile ID number.  You can find this number on your profile page in the URL at the top.

1. On each post where you have content that is going to link back to the Author bio page, make sure that the link includes the following anchor tag attribute rel=”author”.  The link will look like the following:

<a href=http://www.yourwebsite.com/AuthorName rel=”author”>Author Name</a>

1. Once you finished adding these links, you need to add a reference in your Google+ Profile to the website where you placed the links.  In your Google+ Profile, click on Edit Profile and scroll back down to Other Profiles.
2. Click on Add custom link and then add a label describing the website and add the URL for the Author Biography Page.  (i.e. http://www.yourwebsite.com/AuthorName)
3. Click Save when completed and then click on Done editing at the top of the page.

Do this for each Author profile page you have on your website. Once you have completed that process, skip down to Step 3: Verify Google Authorship Validity.

2-Link Process (Sites Using Bio Boxes At The End Of Posts)

This option is used when the site uses an author bio box at the end of the post that has a link back to the author’s Google+ profile.

1. In the author’s biography, add a link to their Google+ profile page.  Make sure you use the anchor text of “Google+” on this link.  Some bio boxes have buttons that can be setup to point to the profile, but I personally added in the text to my bio box just in case.
2. The link to the Google+ Profile will need the following attribute added to the link.  Add this attribute to the end of the link – rel=”author”.  So your profile link would look like the following:

<a href=https://plus.google.com/123456712345671234567 rel=”author”>Google+</a>

Just be sure to replace the code above with your Google+ 21-digit profile ID number.  You can find this number on your profile page in the URL at the top.

1. Once you finished adding the link, you need to add a reference in your Google+ Profile to the website’s home page.  In your Google+ Profile, click on Edit Profile and scroll down to Contributor to.
2. Click on Add custom link and then add a label describing the website and add the URL for the home page.  (i.e. http://www.yourwebsite.com )
3. Click Save when completed and then click on Done editing at the top of the page.

Once you have completed that process, skip down to Step 3: Verify Google Authorship Validity.

Email Verification Process

This option is used when the author is unable to edit any of the anchor text code on the website.  However there are a few requirements that might not fit every situation.  The post should have the words “By author name”, where the author’s name is the same as it is on their Google+ Profile.  The author’s name should be anchor text linking to the author’s email address, which is part of the same domain as the website.

1. Visit the following Google+ page (you must be signed into your Google+ account to do this): Link your Google+ profile to the content you create (https://plus.google.com/authorship)
2. Review the information on this page, then under option 4, add your email address.
3. Click Signup for Authorship
4. You will then receive an email from Google at that email address.  Verify your account by clicking on the link in the email.  Once this is completed, Google will add this email address to the Work section of your Google+ profile.  They will also add it to the Contributor to section.

Once you have completed that process, skip down to Step 3: Verify Google Authorship Validity.

Note For WordPress Users:  There is a possibility that WordPress could strip out the rel= tags on your links.  Personally I use the Social Author Bio plugin on my site, which adds in a bio box at the bottom of each post.  This worked perfectly for me and I haven’t had any issues using it.  When using this plugin, each user can control and edit their own profile box under Users > Your Profile > About Yourself > Biographical Info.

Step 3: Verify Google Authorship Validity

Once you have completed the step that works for your situation, you will need to validate that the configuration is setup properly.  To do this follow the following steps:

1. Go to the Google Rich Snippets Testing Tool. (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets)
2. Enter your URL of a page with an article on it that has your bio box and click on Preview. If you are using the 3-link process, use the URL for your Author Bio Page and then click on Preview.
3. Review the results to see if it passes.

If everything is setup properly, you should receive a message like the following:

Extracted Author/Publisher for this page

Author

linked author profile = http://plug.google.com/123456712345671234567?rel=author

google profile = http://plug.google.com/123456712345671234567?rel=author

author name = Author’s name

Verified: Authorship markup is verified for this page

If you see any red text here, you need to check your configuration in the steps above.  Something isn’t right.

Once you have completed that step everything should be working properly.  I have noticed that it can take some time before this shows up in the search engines.  By helping adding authorship to your site and your posts it should go a long way to building your authority with Google.  Google has often expressed their desire to identify high-quality sources of original, expert content and this just helps them further verify and trust your content.

If you have any questions about this process or want to add some helpful comments, please feel free to do so below.

Steve Eason (65 Posts)

Steve Eason is a professional blogger, internet marketer and social media enthusiast located in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina area. Find out more on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

"Subscribe to the blog"

If you like this, sign up to receive my newsletter. In the newsletter, you'll get tips and techniques that will help you build your online business. Your email address will never be shared

Tagged as: authorship, google authorship markup