Is it wise for employees to be tied to a company's content with rel=author?
-
We're an e-commerce company that sells consumer goods. We are launching a blog that will have advice, tips, etc. on topics related to our industry. I'd like for us to implement rel=author on the content. If we rel=author the content to an employee, what are the possible repercussions if that employee leaves the company? I know the markup is pretty new and hasn't been widely implemented, but has anyone dealt with this?
-
You know it Brian!
-
Dana,
I'm looking forward to seeing that happen. Hope you're composing a blog piece on that topic now: when it's announced that publisher's brand images will appear in SERPS, you'll be able to publish that news and get the lion's share of news cycle traffic.
-
You are correct. No head shot. But I have it on good authority that very soon Google will begin using a thumbnail of the brand image that's been uploaded to the Google+ brand page. They have a vested interest in doing so. It makes the SERPs more attractive and it also makes Google+ more enticing.
-
I assume rel=publisher doesn't give you the pretty headshot on the SERP?
-
This is a great question. There is a lot of confusion about rel=author. It is my understanding that for e-commerce, if the "brand" is speaking, that rel=publisher is what would be most appropriate, not rel=author. I have the same scenario on our newly revived e-commerce blog. There are times when we will want to list someone specifically as rel=author, i.e. if they are an expert on a particular subject, but most of the time we will want to post as rel=publisher. This is done by creating a brand page in Google Plus as opposed to an author page. Still, Google+ has the problem that a brand page must be attached to a Google profile, which must be an individual person, not a company. I would be very interested to hear others address this whole issue.
Dana
-
It's really not about "lazy," in my opinion. It's about time and skill. When the boss is managing the company for 80 hours a week, and isn't a talented writer, the boss has someone else write. (I say this as the writer, not the boss.)
-
Brian, that's a really good point. When they leave, they can disown the authorship if they want to. Which could conceivably happen if they leave to start their own company or go work for a competitor.
-
What EGOL said. It's a given that almost any post author will eventually write elsewhere, and in all likelihood will leave your employ at some point while the post lives on.
"AuthoredRank" is going to be more important in some industry spaces than others. I can envision some "retainer" arrangement being necessary for continued company presence within an ex-employee's linked profile. That is, once the author leave said company, there's no reason they can't delete the reference/citation from their profile and remove the value of the rel="author" altogether, and of course the rich snippet disappears. If the author achieves enough of an audience or authority, and that helps with direct or search traffic, we may just see ex-employees needing some form of contract. It is their personal profile after all...
-
If you have an employee who is a kickass author think about the effect of saying.... "We don't want to give you credit for your work."..... or....
If you have an employee who does fairly good work what is the effect of saying.... "Your name and face are going to be on this."
The psychological effect can go to your advantage or not - depending upon how you play it and the mentality of the employee.
If an employee leaves your company how will you handle that. That kickass employee could become famous and you might enjoy their success through the rel=author association.... and it could go the other way.
So, if you are the type of place who hires top quality people and treats/pays them well enough to stay with you long term then give them credit for their work. Part of being a good place for your customers is having great employees who are good at their job.
If you can't keep employees very long then you should think carefully about how you handle this and other things too.
And... if you are askin' because the boss is to lazy to write his own blog posts then he needs a kick in the pants.
-
Well, if they are the ones writing it then I would be more willing to say go for it. If somebody else is and you just want a name associated then I would not. Your best bet would be to create a Plus page for the ceo or a owner of some sorts. And associate it with that account.
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
-
+1's just Homepage or Everypage?
We just put added the little +1 button to all of our pages, and I'm curious if I should be trying to get +1's on all our pages, just the homepage or just the homepage and some of our most important pages? Also, is there any reason we should "slowly" add +1's, like google reviews? I'm sure we could get 100 - 200 of our g+ community to at least +1 the homepage if we asked and/or involved some sort of give-a-way, but I wouldn't want to get red flagged for that if it happened in a week. Granted, I'm not really sure how g+'s work in terms of SEO penalties or if there are any for things like that, but I want to double-check. Thanks for the help, Ruben
Social Media | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Did anyone's +1s disappear?
I recently noticed that all the plus ones on our company Google+ page disappeared. Now there's only Followers and Views. Does anyone know what happens to the plus ones?
Social Media | | TMI.com0 -
How can I have mistaken identity Facebook work history removed from uncooperative person's profile?
My client, a cosmetic surgeon in Lynnwood, WA was attacked earlier today on Facebook by the supposed ex-wife of a cosmetic surgeon in Arizona with whom they have no association. The other practice has a name that is close, but there is absolutely no relationship between the two. We promptly removed the comments from my client's wall and images and blocked the person who posted them. Unfortunately she has posted in her work history on her own page that she works for my client's practice and blocking her has not removed my client's name, logo or fb link from her page. This poster's comments are so tragic and bizarre I'm honestly not sure she is a real person, though the doctor she mentions in her posts does appear to have a real practice in AZ. I could not find a way to report to Facebook that she did not in fact work for my client at any time. I have so far had no response from her to my request to remove it from her About page and due to the bizarre nature of the comments, I don't well trust she'll follow through. How can I have this erroneous work history removed from this person's profile page? Facebook FAQ offered no answers. Thank you.
Social Media | | Sharla0 -
Does Pinterest's javascript removes rel="nofollow" ?
It's late and I might be seeing things disappear...but I noticed something strange with a Pin It button we added in our website: I added a rel="nofollow" to the <a href="">for Pinterest, however when I use the html inspector in IE or Firefox, and inspect the attributes of the link, 'rel=nofollow' is nowhere to be found.</a> <a href="">Did anyone notice this?
Social Media | | smarties954
Does Pinterest's javascript remove the 'rel' attribute? (looks like it's the case)
How does google treats this? Do they interpret the .js and ignore the 'rel=nofollow'? I hope it's a technical error on my end, otherwise thousands of website owners are being tricked into believing that they added a rel=nofollow, when in fact it's just being removed behind the scene.</a>0 -
My social Metrics aren't popping up in OSE
Haven't been able to see them for the last few Mozscapes. Any ideas? I did email MOZ and it was suggested I try here. Cheers! George
Social Media | | Theskimonster0 -
Is Pinterest's Embed a Pin good for SEO?
I was curious if by having Pinterest embed pins on my site will add SEO value... This would be used mainly on product pages for alternative images, closeup detail, any type of image to answer a customers question. I would accompany the pin with more text as another way of adding content to the page. Example on my site: Wicker Sofa product page with Pinterest Embed live. Also attached the screenshot of the code that is used by Pinterest pin embed widget. Hoping that extra unique content + social activity repins or follows, would help my store's SEO. Thank you for your answers in advance... 3uqUz57.png
Social Media | | wickerparadise0 -
Benefits and cons of hosting video content vs hosting via youtube
Hi if a site is hosting its own videos (not embedding them on youtube) is there less benefits then getting youtube to host it, and then embedding the youtube video. For instance: For benefits such as building channel authority, easy to rank the video in the search engines hosted on youtube, better opportunity to increase visitors and traffic and higher chance for the video to spread and rank for the keyword when hosted on youtube. What do you guys think?
Social Media | | monster990 -
Anyone do SEO for facebook business pages? I'm having trouble with timeline layout.
I am working on my facebook business page and am frustrated with the new "timeline" facebook layout which really does not make sense as a business page. I have not found a way to change it to a traditional layout and have read some posts that said facebook does not allow you to go back from timeline. Does anyone have a good layout suggestions for a facebook business page with SEO in mind? Thanks.
Social Media | | frankthetank20