My presentation on why Authorship and Author Rank, as well as some speculation on how Google will measure it. Given at Pubcon South on April 24th, 2013.

1. Authorship and Author Rank
The Interaction with Social Media

2. First Off... Who Am I?
 Co-author: The Art of SEO
 CEO: Stone Temple Consulting
 SEO
 Social Media
 Content Marketing
 Twitter: @stonetemple
 Google +:
 +Eric Enge
 +Stone Temple Consulting

3. Rel=Author in Search Results

4. Some Argue That it Increases CTR

5. Matt Cutts
It’s just the case that that
picture is just more likely to
attract attention. It’s just a
little more likely to get the
clicks, and you now, it’s
almost like an indicator of
trust.”
Google’s
Matt Cutts
October 7, 2012

6. It Might, but …
• It is hard to prove
• The real benefits?
– Powerful branding is certainly one
– It’s a statement of expertise
• The real focus should be on establishing
authority
And …………

7. Matt Cutts
“The idea is you want to have
something that everybody can
participate in and just make
these sort of links, and then over
time, as we start to learn more
about who the high quality
authors are, you could imagine
that starting to affect rankings.Google’s
Matt Cutts
October 7, 2012

8. Eric Schmidt
“Within search results,
information tied to verified
online profiles will be ranked
higher than content without
such verification, which will
result in most users naturally
clicking on the top (verified)
results. The true cost of
remaining anonymous, then,
might be irrelevance.”
Google’s
Eric Schmidt
The New Digital Age

9. Building Your Authority With Humans
• Be an Expert
• Create Great Content
– Humans use social signals to help identify this
– Engagement (comments) as well
• Have other experts interact with you online
• Help people
• Write for high authority sites

10. Matt Cutts
“By doing things that help
build your own reputation, you
are focusing on the right types
of activity. Those are the
signals we want to find and
value the most anyway.”
Google’s
Matt Cutts
July 9, 2012

11. Engagement

12. Social Sharing Volume Per Article

13. Comment Volume

14. Social Event Volume Over Time

15. Average Share Volume Per Article

16. Authority of Publishing Sites

17. Author Comparison on the Same Site

18. Google Plus Activity
147,863!
978 +1s
734 Shares

19. The Synergy We’re Looking For
Traffic, Links & New Subscribers
Shared on
Social Networks
Helps Drive
New Followers,
Fans, Friends

20. The Synergy We Are Looking For – Step 2
(Influencers)
(Your Stuff)
(Sharing)

21. Three Link Method
Google Profile
Author
Page
Rel=“me”
(Other Profiles)
Rel=“me”
Rel=“author”Individual
Post

22. Two Link Method
Google Profile
Site Home Page
Contributor To Link
?rel=“author”
at end of URL Individual Post

23. Google Profile Setup
Use with 2
Link Method
Use with 3
Link Method

24. EMail Method
Google Profile
Site Home Page
Contributor To Link
Profile verified
Email address in the
Post attribution
Individual
Post

25. Structured Data Testing Tool

26. Thank You!
Eric Enge
• eenge@stonetemple.com
• @stonetemple
• + Eric Enge
• + Stone Temple Consulting
• (508) 485-7751
• www.stonetemple.com