In a digital world in which anyone can build a website and claim to be a expert – Google is trying to help the great content writers stand out amongst the crowd with Google Authorship.
What is Google Authorship? It is a great way to connect your Google+ page to the content you create on the different blogging platforms that you might develop articles for.
Why should you care? When you are developing content that you would like others to view and are interested in your web site becoming an authority in your area of expertise, Google Authorship will help you do just that.
Here are a few quick steps to help you develop your Google+ Authorship.
1. Fill out your Google+ profile. Include all the information you’d like others to know about you including where you work, where you attended school, etc.
2. Link your Google+ page to the websites you develop content for. You can do this by adding the sites that you write for in the “Contribute to” section of your Google+ account.
3. Pick a great profile photo. This should be a headshot of you and, hopefully, a professionally-taken photograph as well. If you don’t have a professional photograph, a close up with a non-distracting background will work out as well.
4. Check to see if your byline matches the name of your Googe+ profile.
5. Verify you have an email address on the same domain as your content. For example, since I write for www.nextflywebdesign.com, I’d need a @nextflywebdesign.com email address to match. (Which I do)
Finally, you can check to see if it works by a quick Google search or by using the Google Webmasters Snippet testing tool.
…Looking good!