If you're creating content online, you need to use Google Authorship and Google Plus.
Google Authorship makes it easy to identify the author of a result in the SERPs (see example below). It ties a Google Plus account (right now, only personal accounts) to a web page. Google created the Authorship markup as a way to help combat low quality content and websites in search results. With Authorship, authors can build authority and trust, and this signals to Google (and users, too!) that a web page is highly credible.
Example of Google Plus Authorship on our website and Marketo's. Which results would you be most likely to click?
Our new class with Janet Driscoll Miller dives deep into why businesses should use Google Authorship, and how to implement it. Here's a quick preview of the class—3 key reasons you MUST implement Google Authorship now:
1. Maximize search visibility
Google users rarely spend more than a few seconds scanning the results from their search. Most click the top result because it requires least amount of effort. How do you stop users from simply clicking that first result? Draw attention with Google Authorship.
A recent eye tracking study by Justin Briggs proved that when search results have an Authorship profile, user’s eyes wandered further down the Google results page to a lower ranked link. In the heatmap to the right, you can see where eyes wandered on the results page. The dark red areas are where the most people looked. Notice how lower ranked results get more eye views than the high results? It's because they have Authorship. More importantly, notice that the #4 result gets more views than the top entry, effectively taking the spotlight from the top ranked result.
2. Increase click through rates
Without authorship, more than two-thirds of Google searchers click the top ranked search result. No surprise there.
When a lower-ranked result had Authorship, less than half of users click the top ranked result. Not only do you get a higher click through rate, but your competitors get a lower click-through rate, giving you a chance to capture more clicks, even with a lower ranking. The third and fourth ranking Google results saw the most benefit. With some instances, authorship has even doubled click through rates. Success!
3. It's a competitive advantage
While many leaders in search and digital marketing have been stressing the importance of Google Plus and Authorship for years, according to research by BlueGlass, only 3.5% of the Fortune 100 actively use it. Lame. If you work for a large organization, I understand may have internal hurdles to overcome in order to get Authorship implemented, but beyond that, there are no excuses. Get your strategy set now. The sooner you develop your strategy and start implementing it, the longer it will take for your competitors to catch up. And don't forget that point on increasing click-through rates—the more likely visitors are to click your website, the less likely they will be to click your competitors' sites. I know that may seem obvious to digital marketers like us, but make sure to point that out to senior management when you're selling them your Google Authorship and Google Plus strategy.
Learn how to implement Google Authorship (and a few more critical reasons why you need to).
Watch Google Authorship: Why You Need It and How to Implement It, and get step-by-step advice and instructions for adding the Google Authorship rich-snippet to your search results. Learn common pitfalls and mistakes to avoid, and why Google Authorship is not just important for content-creating brands, but the authors that write for them, too. Get instant access now.