Rel=author: Which Google+ profile do I use (personal profiles or profiles set up under company email domain)?
-
Since our organization uses Google Business Apps, everyone in our org has a Google account under our company's domain name. When Google+ came out a lot of our employees set up two separate Google+ accounts (one under their work email address and one under their personal email address). Some people use one account more than the other.
I'm about to set up rel=author on our blog, but I'm not sure which profiles to link to: personal account, business account or the account the individual uses the most?
-
I think it's possible that the company would "lose out," but that's not necessarily the case.
If I have successfully convinced the algorithm that I am an expert on widget maintenance, my articles about widget maintenance will get a rankings boost. Then I leave the widget-maintenance industry. The algorithm still believes that I'm an expert in that niche ... for a while, at least. It's quite likely that the algorithm's confidence in my expertise will decay over time if I no longer engage with that niche. My AuthorRank may drop, and the content I authored may no longer get the AR rankings boost. How far the content would fall in the SERPs depends on how much it was relying on that one ranking factor.
-
I don't see why an account tied to a particular e-mail address would have an advantage in establishing AuthorRank. But keep in mind, we're all still guessing here.
G+ does have a one-account-per-person rule. I have no idea how much they enforce it. Considering how aggressively they enforce the no-pseudonym rule, I would guess that they take all of their rules pretty seriously.
-
In the context of this question and conversation, what about using rel=publisher for the brand voice and rel=author for specific individuals?
Katie, what happens if someone who has built up great Author Rank via their personal account leaves the company. It seems the company would lose out in that scenario. Very curious to know everyone's take. From personal experience I can tell you that connecting one's personal Google account to a specific brand can make for a big mess when someone moves to another company.
-
Thanks for the clarification and reply. I've updated my original question, as you were correct, I meant rel=author set up.
From what I understand then is that it's best to link to active Google+ profiles. I guess I was also curious if there were any SEO benefits to linking to a domain-based account, but it sounds like it really is more based on active accounts that speak.
Does anyone know if Google has made any statements on having multiple Plus accounts? My assumption is that they'd rather people have one identity. It has caused great confusion within our organization. No one knows which profiles to really use.
Luckily, not many people have started using the domain-based accounts at our organization, so I think I'll go ahead and encourage our employees to use their personal accounts moving forward.
-
This is all related to another question I had about Authorship / AuthorRank:
Google Webmaster Tools will show you author stats for the sites that you are a verified contributor to. So if you have GWT linked to the same account your Google+ profile is on, you can see your own authorship stats.
But what about a corporate or client's site that you're working on, with multiple contributors? Is there a way of monitoring the impact that all your contributors' AuthorRank is having?
A common scenario will be websites commissioning content from freelancers with high AuthorRank. As the client or the agency, how will we monitor the impact of that AuthorRank without access to each individual's GWT?
This would make a very handy addition to SEMoz's Research Tools...
-
I agree....
Something else to consider....
If you are a great author but your employer has you writing quick and dirty summaries to stay within budget then you don't want to stink up your personal reputation by claiming them.
-
I think the terminology here may be a bit muddled.
AuthorRank is not something you "set up on your blog." It's a ranking factor that Google has patented and may be implementing some time soon. The thing you set up on your blog is the rel=author markup.
I'm not correcting you to be pedantic, but because it's important that you understand what AuthorRank actually is so you can make the best decision. AuthorRank is basically the answer to the question "How much should I trust what this author has to say about this subject?" Google will determine that based on your social profile on Google+. If you want Google to think you're a trustworthy expert on widgets, you need to engage with other widget enthusiasts and widget experts on Google+, and they need to engage with you.
You can use rel=author to connect your content to an inactive Google+ profile, and that will give you a pretty picture on the SERP and maybe help with CTR, but it will not help with AuthorRank. AuthorRank will only come from an active Google+ profile.
I'm not sure if it's a good idea or a bad idea to keep a personal G+ account and a professional G+ account. On the one hand, if all you use your professional G+ account for is engaging in your niche, that could be a strong sign that you're really into that subject. On the other hand, if your professional G+ account never has any off-topic, personal activity, that could ping Google as inauthentic.
-
This is a great question. I just read a blog post by Tom Critchlow about how Distilled uses Google+ for all internal communications and that they had to deal with the same issue. Here's a link to the post http://tomcritchlow.com/private-google-plus-engagement
I would set up AuthorRank on the blog from the business account, have everyone use their personal accounts for internal communications and just make sure that everyone's circles are set up accordingly. In other words, you want blog readers circling the business account circle for the blog, not necessarily individual's circles.
I'd love to hear what other people think because I think there is mass confusion over this specific issue.
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
-
How can i use multiple domain for one website?
Dear Experts, I want to make an online store like www.abc.com and I have a plan to buy 3 more domains like www.abc.co.uk, www.abc.com.au, www.abc.ae and redirect all domain to main domain which is www.abc.com but I want If somebody search from UK so He/she will see www.abc.co.uk domain in search result and If somebody search from UAE so He/she will see www.abc.ae domain in search result and same for other extension. How can I safe from duplication multiple domain for one website What would be the SEO strategy should i follow I am hoping a positive reply from your side Thanks
Technical SEO | | jfdagborrbg0 -
New domain wipes out domain authority
A client wanted to change their domain name, which we have now done. The site content itself is exactly the same. We put 301 redirect links in so that Google searchers would redirect from the old site to the new one. However Moz then said that it couldn't crawl the old domain because of the redirects and advised creating a brand new campaign for the new domain. We have done this but now Moz says that the domain authority of the new site is 2 (it was 14 on the old domain). Specifics are:
Technical SEO | | mfrgolfgti
old domain: https://ryemeadcleaning.co.uk
new domain: https://ryemeadgroup.co.uk So basically it seems like we're starting again from scratch with the new domain and all the SEO from the old domain has been lost? Have we done it wrong?0 -
Can I use a 301 redirect to pass 'back link' juice to a different domain?
Hi, I have a backlink from a high DA/PA Government Website pointing to www.domainA.com which I own and can setup 301 redirects on if necessary. However my www.domainA.com is not used and has no active website (but has hosting available which can 301 redirect). www.domainA.com is also contextually irrelevant to the backlink. I want the Government Website link to go to www.domainB.com - which is both the relevant site and which also should be benefiting from from the seo juice from the backlink. So far I have had no luck to get the Government Website's administrators to change the URL on the link to point to www.domainB.com. Q1: If i use a 301 redirect on www.domainA.com to redirect to www.domainB.com will most of the backlink's SEO juice still be passed on to www.domainB.com? Q2: If the answer to the above is yes - would there be benefit to taking this a step further and redirect www.domainA.com to a deeper directory on www.domianB.com which is even more relevant?
Technical SEO | | DGAU
ie. redirect www.domainA.com to www.domainB.com/categoryB - passing the link juice deeper.0 -
Domain not ranking in Google
https://www.buitenspeelgoed.nl/ is a domain acquired by our client. Previously this website was on http://www.buitenspeelgoed-keupink.nl. With the old domain they were ranking top 30 on 'buitenspeelgoed' in google.nl. Now with the new exact match domain they aren't ranking any more (for months). However, the website is indexed, as you can see on http://1l1.be/nz I don't know what to do anymore. Need some advise. What we allready have done the last months: made adjustments to the 301-redirects (this was originaly setup wrong by the webdesigner (de) optimized the homepage on 'buitenspeelgoed' (strange is the fact that the Moz robot can't access the site). Checked the robots.txt to see if the website was blocked for Google Checked the meta robots to see if the website was blocked for Google Disavowed some spammy (old) links which linked to the old domain Checked Search console > Fetch as Google if there isn't any Malware of some kind (and to see if Google can access the site) Checked Search consol to see if there manual spam actions (isn't the case) Checked for duplicate content by copy/paste some texts in Google and see if any other results are showing up (isn't the case for most of the texts) Please let me know what we can do.
Technical SEO | | InventusOnline0 -
Will doing a 301 redirect for one domain to another give the latter domain the formers links?
I have some websites that I built a few years ago that are still in existence, but I no longer have access to the sites as they weren't hosted by myself. These sites all carry a "Designed by Me" text on the footer with a link to my (now old) website. I have since done 301 redirects on the domain names that are used in the footers of these sites so they link directly to my new site. However, will these websites now show up on Google Webmasters for example as external links to my site?
Technical SEO | | mickburkesnr0 -
Best strategy for redirecting domain authority from an acquired site...?
Hi all, I'm an in-house for a company that made several acquisitions last year prior to my starting. I'm just now hearing about several loose-ends websites that belong to companies that have been absorbed by us. The question is how to best approach the task of utilizing that site's domain authority to our site's benefit. There is already a link to the homepage in the header of the site in question (our logo's right under theirs) so we're already getting some linkjuice. Looks like the whois information never changed. Here are the options I'm considering: 1. Blanket redirect (all of their pages there into our home page) - not ideal. 2. Targeted redirect (try to "connect the dots" between content pages with similar subjects/keyword relevance - better than #1, but is it worth the extra effort? 3. More linking (add more strategically placed and keyword optimized links back to our site) - also more work, but certainly do-able if the consensus is to leave the site up. 4. Any other suggestions? Thanks for your help everyone!
Technical SEO | | TGViaWest0 -
Keyword in Domain or not?
My on page optimization grade is an "A" with the following factors; Factor Overview <dl class="scoreboard clearfix"> <dt>Critical Factors</dt> <dd>4 / 4</dd> <dt>High Importance Factors</dt> <dd>7 / 7</dd> <dt>Moderate Importance Factors</dt> <dd>8 / 9</dd> <dt>Low Importance Factors</dt> <dd>11 / 11</dd> <dt>Optional Factors</dt> <dd>5 / 5</dd> </dl> The main thing I appear to be missing is keywords in my URL. How truly important is that in today's SEO world and how much time or ranking would be lost if I do not have control to change the external links to my website if I decided to migrate to a keyword relevant url?
Technical SEO | | classa0 -
I am Posting an article on my site and another site has asked to use the same article - Is this a duplicate content issue with google if i am the creator of the content and will it penalize our sites - or one more than the other??
I operate an ecommerce site for outdoor gear and was invited to guest post on a popular blog (not my site) for a trip i had been on. I wrote the aritcle for them and i also will post this same article on my website. Is this a dup content problem with google? and or the other site? Any Help. Also if i wanted to post this same article to 1 or 2 other blogs as long as they link back to me as the author of the article
Technical SEO | | isle_surf0