Google rel hell
-
So apologies in advance for this question, but:
Can someone explain whether as a site we should be using the "rel author" tag or the "rel publisher" tag?
1. We don't really need to distinguish between the people who write our content.
2. We definitely do need to establish ownership of our content, as unfortunately it has been widely copied. We are spending quite a bit of time filing DMCA notices.
3. Do we need to apply either tag to every page? Or does "del publisher" just need to be applied to the homepage to cover the rest of the site?
4. What looks better in the search results? - a person's face or a company logo?
If prefer a face, but understand we need to promote our brand.
Thanks
P
-
Hi Guys
Thanks, very helpful.
We are an ecommerce site and an information site. So I guess we will go with publisher on the homepage and author for content pages.
Though we have tried author on product pages and G displays the author photo in the results. Not sure what effect that has, but I like to see a face related to the product. (We sell information products - legal documents). It also helps our product stand-out in the results.
Thanks again.
Patrick
-
There seems to be some confusion here.
First of all, rel="publisher" is a way to connect your site to your page on Google+. This can help your page be recognized as the "official" page for your brand and make it eligible for Google Direct Connect. The rel="publisher" tag goes ONLY on your homepage. rel="publisher" will NOT get your company logo shown in the search results (at least not yet).
rel="author" is a way to link the content on your site to specific authors on Google+. This has the benefit of building up the author rank for those authors, as well as displaying author snippets in the search results. This only works with photos of people, not cartoons or logos. The author tag should go on every page where you have unique content.
This link shows you the different ways you can verify ownership:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986
Hope that helps!
-
1. What type of site are you promoting? An eCommerce site? A Brand? A consultant? An informational site.
For me, the ultimate decision would come down to what I want the "face of the company" or website to be.
For example, I may have two or three websites and am trying to build "Me" as a consultant or an expert in a particular subject matter. In that case I would definitely use "author." However, I own an eCommerce site where I want to build a brand...the people who write the content may come and go and I don't want to the article ownership (in Google's eyes) to leave with that person. I would use "publisher" in that case.
I have seen sites that successfully mix it up too. They would use "publisher" on the catalog pages and use "author" on blog type pages.
3. I would apply this to every page with unique content.
4. To me, same as question 1. If I were a consumer, I would want to see the website brand for products or catalog data but for opinions, industry expertise, consulting, etc., I would want to see a face with the content.
My 2 cents
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 to optimize my website with new Google Feature snippet fuctionality?
Recently I have interacted with Google's new Feature Snippet Functionality. Please refer to the link shared. https://www.google.com/search?q=family+health+insurance&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIN893IN893&oq=family+health+insurance&aqs=chrome.0.35i39l2j0l3j69i60l3.4692j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 I'am looking for the way to optimize my website for the same? If anyone has any clue then please help me with this. search?q=family+health+insurance&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIN893IN893&oq=family+health+insurance&aqs=chrome.0.35i39l2j0l3j69i60l3.4692j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
On-Page Optimization | | adlift0 -
How to Fix Google Webmasters Soft 404 Errors for Wordpress Site?
I am getting Soft 404 errors in my Google Webmasters Tools don't know how to fix it the site in on WordPress CMS the site is "http://appdictions.com/" i am getting errors in the http://appdictions.com/members section...suggestion to fix the issue will be appreciated..
On-Page Optimization | | preferati0 -
Google not showing the proper title
I noticed that google is not showing the proper title in the search results. If you search for PhraseExpander, the title that google reports is: PhraseExpander: Text Expander for Windows but in the title of the page I've set Text Expander for Windows - PhraseExpander Why is that? How can I make google report the proper title? Thanks. Andrea
On-Page Optimization | | nagar0 -
Google's view on geolocated results
Hello everyone, I am working on a project so the website is not online at the moment. My question is about Google's view on geolocated results : on the mainpage of the website, a bloc will be displaying local classifieds according to where the visitor is located. What will be Google's view on this bloc as it has no location ? A white empty bloc ? Bonus question : do you have any experience regarding this kind of situation ? How do you best deal with it in your opinion ? Thanks for your help ! Best Regards, Raphael
On-Page Optimization | | Pureshore0 -
Google cached snapshots and last indexed
My question is I noticed today that the snap shots of my main pages were outdated. About a month. Then I clicked on the "Learn More" link about cahced images and Google says "Google crawls the web and takes snapshots of each page. When you click Cached, you'll see the webpage as it looked when we last indexed it." I know this sounds really dumb, but does that really mean the last time Google indexed that page? So the changes I have made since then have not been taken yet?
On-Page Optimization | | cbielich0 -
Google Place Pages - Definitive Guide?
Hi good folk of SEOmoz, I've recently updated a number of place pages for my client who is an estate agent. I have to admit that they were a little keyword stuffed, but at the time my competitor; who ranks first, was filled with keywords. For example in their title it states "[company name] estate agent [location]" I thought that this was a big no-no and it should not be done? They also have keywords stuffed into categories and description. Im confused on how they are getting away with this? I have searched on the Google place page support forum and can not find a definitive guide on the exact rules. Could anybody be so kind to help me out? i.e Where to put keywords and locations in the title and categories Thankyou.
On-Page Optimization | | Lakeside0 -
How to solve Rel Canonical issue?
I have created one campaign for my website on SEOmoz. I found Rel Canonical issue for following 2 URLs. I can not understand that, what is error with that? Can any one help me to solve it? http://vistastores.com/blog/?p=1 http://vistastores.com/blog/?page_id=2
On-Page Optimization | | CommercePundit0 -
How to Resolve Google Crawling Issues for My eCommerce Website?
I want to resolve Google crawling issues for my eCommerce website. My website is as follow. http://www.vistastores.com/ Google have crawled only 97 webpages from my website. My website is quite old. (~More than 6 months) But, Google have indexed only 97 webpages. I have created one campaign over SEOmoz tool and found some errors over there. So, I just assumed that due to it Google did not crawled my website. But, I have created one another campaign for my competitor website to know actual status and reason behind it. I found that, my competitor website have more error compare to me but, Google have crawled maximum pages compare to me. So, What is reason behind it? How can I improve my crawling rate and index maximum webpages to Google? [6133009604_af85d29730_b.jpg](img src=) 6133009604_af85d29730_b.jpg 6133009604_af85d29730_b.jpg 6139706697_4e252fdb82_b.jpg
On-Page Optimization | | CommercePundit0