Do you know what Google Authorship is?  It’s sometimes called Google Authorship Markup as well. Do you know why every successful blogger on the planet is scrambling to put their picture on Google? Trying to get photos of themselves to appear in Google’s Search Results? Do you know how to put your Photo on Google and get it to appear in Google search results? And why you must?

Do you know why the HTML codes rel”me” and rel”author” are so important? Do you have a Google+ account with a Google+ Profile picture for Google search results yet? If you don’t, you need to get one as soon as possible.  You cannot afford to ignore Google+ any longer.  The train is leaving the station…are you on board?

All these topics are linked together, and interwoven into a spaghetti tangle of information and linking networks that I have spent most of Easter, trying to untangle and get working for me. My next article will explain to you exactly how to navigate these troubled waters, and land safely on the beach of ‘I did that! Hah! Eat my Dust!’  [See the diagram of link structure and layout, in graphic below].

This article will explain

• WHY you need to Claim your online Content with Google Authorship Markup
• WHY you need to set up a Google+ Account
• WHY you need to get your mug shot photo to appear next to all your Search Engine Results
• WHY you NEED to do this TODAY, not next week or next month

Otherwise you risk being left behind, and wondering where all your Traffic went.

Why You Need to Claim Your Online Content With Google+ Authorship Markup.

Put simply, Google wants to encourage serious bloggers to ‘Claim’ their online Content in an effort to weed out the online spammers of the online world.  And you ‘Claim your Content’ by using what Google calls the Google Authorship, or Google Authorship Markup.   The word Markup is a geek term that refers to something you add to your HTML to make things happen – hopefully good things.

I don’t need to remind you that Google Rules the Online world.  So, if Google owns, runs, and promotes Google+ and Google Authorship, we need to sit up and take notice.  You don’t need to be Einstein to realize that if we sign up and do what Google wants, Google will love us and favour us over people who don’t – or can’t.

A quick word about not being able to set up Google Authorship:

Setting up Google Authorship requires many detailed steps before all the links ‘work’ together successfully.  Also, there are often several different ways of doing the same things.  Many Online ‘How To’ articles do not explain every step you need to make, or they don’t explain it properly.

Basically, it can get confusing – very confusing.  But no worries, friends!  My next article will give you a Fool-proof Cheat Sheet of step by step Instructions that explain exactly how you can do it successfully, first time – in 20 minutes…not in 4 frustrating days like I did.  Anyway, back on topic:

If we Claim our online Content with Google, Google will love us back, right?  We can choose to be included in Google’s favorites (verified Authors), or we can choose not to.

BUT, if we choose to not claim our Content and Blogs with Google Authorship, Google will assume we are not serious Bloggers, and most likely, we run low content websites or are spammers.  See?  You don’t really have a choice if you want your Blog or business to be favored by Google.

Why You Need to Get Your Photo To Appear In Search Engine Results:

Easy: It Increases Your Traffic

One big plus for Google+ Authorship is that when you set it up and get it working, you can get your photo to appear next to all your Content in Google Search Engine Results, and then you get more clicks!

People who know more about these things than I do, say that just by claiming Google Authorship, and getting your photo into Search Results, can dramatically increase your traffic from Google.

Statistics and Research have proved it: people are more likely to click on a Google Search Result if the author’s photo mug shot appears in the listing, and therefore these Authors are getting more traffic.

Some sites are claiming 150% increases in their daily visits once their photo starts appearing in Search Engine Results. You can easily find articles online, showing how Authorship plus photo doubled their Google traffic within days.

Well, that was good enough info for me, so that’s what I’ve done.  You too need to do this if you want to catch onto this latest wave of Traffic building SEO. Otherwise, you risk getting left behind, and wondering where all the traffic went.

Why You Need to Set Up a Google+ Account

A Google+ Account is a requirement for setting up Google Authorship. It is also the marketing baby of Google, and we want Google to love us by sending us more traffic, don’t we…so…we need a Google+ Account.  No question!  It’s a ‘Be Nice to Daddy’ sort of thing.  It’s also quite cool….and, I’ve found it much better and easier to drive than Facebook.

How Google+, Authorship Markup, and Your Content Are All Linked Together

Here’s how it works. 

Google Authorship Markup ties together specific, identified, and verified people (authors) to a verified Google+ Profile, to a verified email address, to a verified photo of the author, and links all of that to all your online Content, no matter where it is posted – your blogs, your Facebook Page, your Twitter account, to LInkedin, to StumbleUpon etc, and any guest blogging articles you may have on other people’s websites.

Cool eh?  Not easy…but it is cool – see next article that explains exactly how set up this verified Author network, and how to test that it’s all working ok.

Authorship Markup is the lynch pin that holds all these online parts of YOU together.  It does it through a process of identity and email verifications, plus adding specific links in specific places, that tie together an individual’s (verified) Google+ Account, with their Content, and their Photo.

Currently, and probably more so in the future, Google will be looking to reward verified Authors, and penalize anyone not…um…getting with the Google Authorship program.

My next article will show you exactly how YOU can do this easily, and not struggle for 4 frustrating days like I did.

PS. I know you lot, you will immediately go to see if my photo shows up in Google Searches. Well I will save you the bother.. hang on…that’s not right….no, please do go and check!

Disclaimer: OK, my mugshot photo is somewhere in the Google’s pipeline, but I have tested it, and it is working – I’m just waiting for Google to get it’s act together.  Apparently, that’s normal for this process.  It’s just one more of those things that Google does to show us who’s the real Boss around here.

Update: My Google Authorship systems are go!  Google took a couple of days to get it’s act together.