Rel=publisher
-
Hi there,
One of the things I want to get my department to do is pursue Google Authorship. I don't think assigning a person with rel=author is the best idea for us, so I am going with the rel=publisher option. Are there any other actions I should take - aside from having good content that will be +1'ed by Google - to ensure that I am taking full advantage of the benefits of having strong Google Authorship?
Thanks,
Sarah -
Absolutely; you should implement it anyway. Even if Authorship doesn't turn out to be as important as it was first thought it would be, it is another signal to Google.
-
Good point. I've taken that approach that if I use it well, it'll work well and until it's replaced and not working - will continue to.
But as with all things SEO ... one always needs to pay attention to what's going on around you.
-
I saw that too Linda, and will be keeping an eye on that. Am I right to assume there's no harm in implementing it anyway? By the time we get to that point, it may be moot.
-
There is some question about the fate of Google Authorship; in fact AJ Kohn says that the Authorship Project at Google has been abandoned and Google will be using other ways to extract identity from pages.
http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/authorship-is-dead-long-live-authorship
-
Thanks! I'll start the conversation with our content team then. I think the ends justify the means.
-
I've always used it as a "this person is responsible for this content" which helps clarify things. Yes having an author deemed an authority helps of course but on the other side, they'll never be an authority if they don't start somewhere and your own blog is a good spot to work from as a starting point.
Re: taking inspiration from the work of others, as long as that person or work is getting credit for it (i.e. stat sources noted, etc.) then there's nothing wrong with it. That author write that piece so they get the credit. the author of the stats (for example) will get the credit for their work on their own site (re: authorship).
This is of course opinion as content ownership has a whack of grey areas but if you know your sector, what you can and can't ethically do, and properly credit your sources in the post - you shouldn't have any problems.
-
Thanks Dave, that does help!
What I'd like to be able to do implement is the author tag, but I don't think associating a face with the tag is an option. We could associate it with a staff writer, but I don't know that it would be a good idea. I assume the authorship option is for experts with clout and, although our staff writer(s) would be gathering the content from such experts in our company and turning them into blogs, I don't know that it's the intent of Google Authorship. Is that frowned upon?
Using a staff writer or two could be a workaround, but I wouldn't want a staff writer to be mistaken for a virtuoso - he/she would be a conduit of good information, taken from the experts and put into nice, readable blog posts. And we'd be transparent about it - for example a Q&A with an expert published into a blog.
-
Authorship and publisher are different things. the author tag tells Google who wrote a piece, the publisher tag tells Google who owns the site and it only needs to be put on the homepage (as far as I know ... anyone have any different feedback?)
You can read about the difference at http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/02/05/the-difference-between-rel-author-amp-rel-publisher.aspx in more detail but in short ... they don't do the same thing and I don't think the publisher tag is going to do what you want it to.
Hope that helps !
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
-
Will the articles or blog-posts will get more visibility and do better in ranking by publishing them in different formats like videos?
Hi all, I just wonder how much the different formats of an actual content will bring more ranking improvement or visibility for an article or blog-post or landing page. If a topic has been created in video and slides, will that helps landing page at Google technically? Thanks
Social Media | | vtmoz0 -
Should rel=publisher tags (pointing out at Google+ Business page) only go on the homepage?
Hello, I've just read... “Publisher tags should only go on the most significant page of your site, usually the homepage.” Is this correct?
Social Media | | McTaggart0 -
Rel=publisher
I've had the rel=publisher set up correctly for months now and verified it using the Google rich snippet tool. For some reason when I search my site/brand the Google+ profile will not show? Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to have it show up? Thanks!
Social Media | | TP_Marketing0 -
Installing rel=publisher
Hi, I want to add rel=publisher to my website. According to Google support I should use the following tag - Add to homepage - [rel="publisher">Find us on Google+](https://plus.google.com/my page]) A few questions: Is this in addition to my social media button linking to my page to direct users there or should it be used instead? Where does "find us on Google +" appear on the page - or is this a hidden instruction only meant for Google? Could I add the code without the "find us on Google +" so that it would read Can this be added anywhere on the homepage (as implied by Google) or should it be on the meta head? Thanks!
Social Media | | theLotter0 -
Best strategy for Multilanguage Google+ Business Page(s) & rel publisher
Hello! I have many troubles defining a clear Google + strategy. Let's say I have one brand, say "reallycoolbarcelona" (because Barcelona is really cool!), 1 google place in Barcelona, and many websites with local ccTLD to promote the brand in different countries: reallycoolbarcelona.fr, reallycoolbarcelona.es, reallycoolbarcelona.co.uk, reallycoolbarcelona.it, reallycoolbarcelona.de. 1/ Now, how to handle that in Google+?
Social Media | | antoine.brunel
==> Shall I create one single page for all languages in Google+? (But then I cannot transfer Google Place to Google Local +?)
Then I would put the rel publisher of this page on all my websites? ==> Or shall I create one Google + page per language?
Then I would put the rel publisher of each language page on the corresponding website based on the language (french Google + page publisher on the french website only)? 2/ Now how did you manage to create a +SEOMoz page in Google+? By that, I mean a page with a clean url plus.google.com/+SEOMoz (that's so cool!) and not the scary url https://plus.google.com/b/1234567890 Thanks for enlighting my blurred mind about Google + multilingual strategies!0 -
What if an employee leaves and removes Rel=Author verification from their Google Plus profile?
What if someone leaves your company and removes your site from their Google Plus profile (under "Contributor To"). Does that kill all the rel=author on the pages written by this former employee? (Should you use the email verification with employees to avoid this scenario? Email verification is a big hassle for us.)
Social Media | | ProjectLabs0 -
Publishing Content Through a Single Persona
Hi, I have a client who's made some changes to their content strategy. They want to use a single author for all content produced and publish, to maintain a consistent identity across the web. This single author is a persona e.g. "Joe Bloggs" but this is not a real person. This works fine for creating and publish content (for their blog and outside blog posts). It allows many people to work on creating and publishing content under the same name, which for a number of reasons makes good logistical sense. The problem arises when it comes to social marketing. They have set up a Facebook and Google + profile and Facebook and Google business pages. The main issue is that they are finding it difficult to friend other people because nobody knows this "Joe Bloggs" persona. Can anybody offer advise on how to approach this kind of strategy. Thanks,
Social Media | | Leighm0 -
Facebook Shares and the rel="canonical" tag
We use canonical tags for multipart videos, using part 1 of the series as their canonical tag. The logic behind this is that if you have eight parts, it's better for part 1 to get all the link juice for the entire series, so that when someone searches for the main keyword, part 1 is the highest ranked part to appear in search results, and the link juice from every part is aggregated into that one page. The problem is the Facebook made changes to their URL sharing practices to reflect the canonical tag. So as long as the tag is used Facebook ignores the image and description from say part 2, and uses the description from part 1. Can this be waived by using Facebook Open Graph Protocol? Thanks!!
Social Media | | Tug-Agency0