@MarkTraphagen Has Eric Scmidt Really Just Confirmed Author Rank?

For a very long time now people have had questions relating to social media having benefits on search engine ranking factors. I’ve written post in the past pertaining to some case studies that showed Twitter (Tweets) to add benefits to ones ranking and I have seen others speculate the same. Some presume that Facebook “likes” add value to ones Facebook fan page, then again I suppose it would, otherwise why would there be a such a thing as a “like”. Either way these aren’t something I would have given enough attention to. And now Google+ ? Wait a minute…

@MarkTraphagen Has Eric Scmidt Really Just Confirmed Author Rank?

It’s true — Google Plus has tons of benefits on your search ranking factors. We will discuss some of those factors a little further down the post — for now let’s just take a look at what Google Authorship really is. I’m sure that by now you’ve read a lot of articles or, at least seen a lot of articles about Google Authorship.  There has been a little bit too much confusion when it comes to Rel=”Author” and Rel=”Publisher”. I’d be surprised if the mass majority of you are even aware of how or why you should use these, and how very important they’re now becoming.

I’ve had a few people ask me to help them to get their picture to show up next to their Google listing, like they’ve seen some of the others doing. I’m personally surprised at how long this has been available, for the majority to just now be figuring out what it even is.

Google Employees have what they refer to as a privacy act. They’re not suppose to publicly discuss algorithm factors, unless otherwise given permission. So, it’s fiesable to say that it’s been a while since a Google employee has made a public statement, concerning the Google algorithm, up until now that is.

Has Eric Scmidt Just Confirmed Author Rank? - Mark Traphagen

According to +TechCrunch — Eric Schmidt says the following in his upcoming book (The Digital Age):

“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.”

So — it’s absolutely vital to clearly distinguish the fine line between Google Authorship and Author Rank”

Let’s first take a close look at Mike Blumenthal’s recent article on Google’s Local Publisher Tag

Matthew Hunt asks in a comment to Mike — re author or publisher markup? Daniel replies:

Its not a matter of either or, its a matter of both and. You want to setup the rel=”publisher” to provide a context of identifying your business website to Google and especially giving you the chance to give them the categories that your business best fits, and then tying all of that back to your NAP information that Google has on file.

You want to setup your rel=”author” markup to recognize your contribution to the content as published by the business, but recognizing that your role as a human being is larger than just your position at that business. Maybe you also have a blog, and a hobby website. If you setup the rel=”authorship” formatting on all of those sites then your online identify or persona becomes clearer to Google as whole.

That said both are needed, just like getting a yellow page listing for your business and business cards for yourself are helpful so that people can find the business but also personally connect with you as a person. - In commentsDaniel Berman offers brilliant explanation that helps clear confusion.

Google Local: Rel = Publisher Or Rel=Author? You Should Do Both