Rel=author markup in head tag
-
Between Google's confusing instruction on implementing rel=author and the volumes of blog posts, I'm sufficiently confused.
We have a bunch of writers on our site that we'd like to expose in search and connect with their content. I'd like their bylines to link to their author page rather than to their Google+ profile. So, I'm thinking this is what I need to do:
1. Have writers create a Google+ profile linking to their bio page on our site in the "contributor" section of their Google+ profle
2. Add the link rel=author tag to the of their author bio page like this
3. Link their bylines on each story to their author page like this
Is this right? I'm working with an inflexible CMS so I have to go through IT, which means I have to get this right the first time.
Any feedback/ corrections/ improvements are much appreciated.
-
As far as my understanding goes, you have most of it right, except on #2, the link should have rel=me instead of rel=author
but you are right, it is all very confusing
-
I used to try and to the whole author tag thing in the head section and it never worked. The only thing I have gotten to work is the ?rel=author at the end of a G+ profile link. Here's an idea. Why not include the author's name at the top of the news article and link it to their profile page.
Then at the end of the article have a by line about the author and link their name there to the G+ profile? Or vice versa?
-
Thanks, Daniel.
We are a news site that work very quickly in publishing content. So, we have to automate as much as possible. As I mentioned we have a rather rigid CMS and strong feelings about linking our author's bylines to their bio on our domain.
So, I'm not sure if having two links from the actual article will be super streamlined. So, knowing that there's a desire to link the author byline to their bio on our domain, am I going about it the right way or do I need to tweak my process?
Or is there a way to add the link href in the head tag as well as have the visible byline go to their on domain bio.
I know I'm making it more confusing than it needs to be.
-
There is a much easier way to do this now. Simply link the authors name to https://plus.google.com/1000000000000000000?rel=author and Google picks it up. Then they add your domain to their Contributor section of their G+ profile.
If you want their name to link to their profile page on your domain that is fine. Just use their name twice, one with a link to profile page, one with a G+ link. Or you can link their name to G+ and add a link in the bio like "click here to read more articles by john doe" or something like that.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Using Schema.org Organization Markup for Logos
Google is currently showing an old version of our company logo (sourced from a different website) in the righthand-side knowledge graph box on SERPs. I would like to try and get our current version of the logo there instead, ideally linking back to our official site. I've been looking into Schema.org's organization markup as a way to specify our preferred logo to Google. However, our obstacle is that we don't have a version of our logo image sourced directly on our homepage; it's part of a global navigation CSS stylesheet. Two questions: Is it okay to upload a new, high-res version of our logo image file to the server and apply the markup code to that version of the logo instead? This might mean that it's a non-visible element, since the new image file wouldn't technically be part of the page layout. Alternatively, should we try applying the markup via meta tags, as outlined in this article:
Branding | | Critical_Mass
http://clarknikdelpowell.com/blog/google-schema-support-for-logos-and-what-that-means-for-css/ Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!0 -
Best practice for heading structures on Ecommerce homepages
I have been doing some research into the heading structures of some of the top selling online stores in the UK. One thing that has come to my attention is that many of them do not have H1 elements on their homepage. I am presuming that because they are targeting their own brand on the homepage that they feel no need to have a H1?? Examples are: http://www.boohoo.com/ http://chainreactioncycles.com/ http://www.jdsports.co.uk/home Some of them even use the logo as a H1 such as http://www.missguided.co.uk/ Does anyone think that using the logo as a H1 would have any negative effect from a search engine perspective? Look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Branding | | PIXUS0 -
Authorship/publisher markup - Author photo vs. company logo
I'm trying to get a company logo to show up next to the search results for a search on [company name] AND a separate author photo to show next to the About page of the author of the same site for a search on [author name] There is author markup on the company's "About" page and Google's structured data testing tool shows that that page is correctly configured to show the author pic. There is publisher markup on the home page and the tool shows that the page is correctly configured to show the company logo. However, no company logo shows up in the search results for the [company name] search--just an author pic next to the "about" page for the [author name] search. if I add author markup to the homepage in addition to the publisher markup, I get the author pic showing up for both [author name] and [company name] searches. How is anyone making this work? Thanks.
Branding | | Chris.Menke0 -
Can i link my rel=publisher to a number of relevant microsites ?
We have linked our Google plus company profile to our main website and setup a rel=publisher authorship which appears and works fine in the SERPS as we regularly create Google plus posts about our industry and products. We also gain some good traffic through some of our smaller product specific micro sites so i wanted to setup our publisher markup for these also as some of our posts are relevant to these products. I setup the rel=publisher on one of these , but the Google snippet testing tool says that the rel publisher is unverified. Is this Google's way of saying i cannot use the same Google plus company profile across multiple sites My question is: Does Google not allow you to display the same Google plus rel publisher profile for multiple websites ? or is the there a problem with how i am marking up my micro sites ? has anybody tried this ?
Branding | | Antony_Towle0 -
Rel =" author" and/or Rel= "publisher" plugin
Has anyone used or know of a plugin for setting up authorship and/or publisher-ship? I have noticed that there are some plugins but I'm not sure if they are reliable. Would love to know if there's an easy way to set this up. We use All in One SEO pack, not Yoast, btw. Thanks for your suggestions!
Branding | | gfiedel0 -
How do can I compete with 60-80 Domain Authority?
As the title says, how can I compete with competitors that have a domain authority of 60-80? (Only around 2-3 major competitors) However I would like to compete with them. Is anyone else in this situation? What did you do? I've read a lot about building backlinks etc etc but surely theres more to it. I've got to rank 1500+ subcategories for my niche and it's nearly impossible to do so. Thanks to all who reply!
Branding | | Superinks0 -
Domain Authority Mind = Blown
Hi guys, I've focused on building my domain authority for a while now, it's stll low but i'm sure it'll increase. My competitors have 0 backlinks to most of there products which is good, i guess. However they have a domain authority of around 70-80. Which is really high. There product pages get a page authority from 60-70+ which means they rank very high with no backlinks. I can easily out rank them by getting backlinks but it's a very time consuming and costs quite a bit of money to out source it. My question is... is it really all about page/domain authority? I can't see any other factors that allow them to rank high for the products. Also my mind is blown as you can create a blog with a high Domain authority such as Wordpress but that doesn't mean your blog will instantly rank high right? Is there something i'm missing with there website? I'm so confused right now! Any help would be great. Main competitor is: http://www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk along with http://www.cartridgesave.co.uk (Stinkyink to be a member here actually)
Branding | | InkCartridgesFast0 -
Any reason not to use rel=author?
Hi Like everyone I've read a lot about rel=author but is there a reason not to use it? For instance, if you're running the content, as I am, for a travel company, we have individual writers writing the content and guides to cities/hotels/tours etc, but none of our competitors are using rel=auithor, so we certainly do stand out. But does the "personal" touch of rel=author dilute trust in some cases? For instance, if you're booking a specific hotel in London and you type in the hotel name looking for the best rate, do you really want to see a face you don't know beside a "corporate result"? Is anyone in an industry where rel=author is being used in conjunction with products/product reviews. It will work for Gary V and wine, but will it work everywhere? Rel=author is touted everywhere as a sure fire bet... but are there times to back off from using it?
Branding | | xoffie1