Google+ author tags and product descriptions - Can we author tag it to protect it if its custom written?

[supps]

Hello Google+ experts

We run a eCommerce (magento) site with ~140 different products.

We manufacture all of our own products and therefore the product descriptions / content is written by us for us, however there are smaller operators that can scrap it, adjust it and use it on similar products. Can we author tag our own custom product descriptions or will goggle not like this?

I have read a hand full of blog about author tags v's publisher tags, and most bloggers state that eCommerce product pages should not author tag as content is normally generic product spec information.

Our product content is fresh, custom and written by a real author it's similar to a blog post so why can't we tag it to protect it? (The descriptions include a product - Overview / Benefits / Suggested use)

If we do Author tag it will Google spank us and damage our SEO or because it fresh and custom advance are SEO?

[Christy-Correll]

Hi Steve,

You've asked some good questions! Say, would you mind opening a new thread for each one (i.e., one question at a time)? Please be as specific as possible when writing the headline for a new thread, as well as the question itself.  Thanks!

Christy

[supps]

Cheers Samuel,

So in a nut-shell "Author tags" for Blogs posts only - got it.

How about the Publisher tag option? Or is there no SEO or copy protection benefit from this option either?

My theory from all I have been reading on the topic of SEO, is SEO these days needs to honest and we need to build a community around our branding / site. So my theory is if we can tie our content to our G+ which ties it to our you tube, blogger, FB, site blog and shop etc etc then Google can easily join all the dots together are see we have an establish community, that we're active in it and then have better access to our content and keywords etc.

It's just my untested theory. FYI - I'm no SEO expert and its all new to me, maybe that's a good thing given all the changers from google. Does anyone really know whats going on and how to rank these days?

We have spend 10s of thousands with SEO companies in the past a lot of it has been a waste now given all the updates and the cost in man hours in "insurance" in cleaning up possible bad history to avoid negative SEO in the future.

Its seems the good old fashion marketing ways now prevail aka: quality products and service in the hope that the customer talks and spreads the work aka: "word of mouth", however as we're in a tech-age it's via an online social avenue.

Add to that high quality blog content with internal key links that again come with the hope someone will like, + and share it with your www related community.

I receive newsletters from the SEO companies I have used in the past and now all strategists seem focused on cleaning up back-links and then hand picking just the a hand full or quality back-links from competitors and then try and work out how to get that same link.

Apologies this has gone a little side ways from the original question but related all the same.

If any of the MOZ SEO experts are looking for a hot topic blog post here's a great heading- **The 101 to ranking in 2014: DIY guide. **Because it seems to me that SEO needs to be more personal rather than 3rd party.

I'm guessing though, if everyone did the same thing then the strategy would be less effective.

[spencerhjustice]

I agree with Samuel. I also don't think that adding an author tag would have the benefit that you want. It's not going to stop them from stealing your content and repurposing it.

[SamuelScott]

1. Can we author tag our own custom product descriptions or will goggle not like this?

Google will not like it. Google's guidelines on Google+ Authorship state the following (see the last two paragraphs especially):

What kind of pages can be used with authorship?

Good question! You can increase the likelihood that we show authorship for your site by only using authorship markup on pages that meet these criteria:

• The URL/page contains a single article (or subsequent versions of the article) or single piece of content, by the same author...
• The URL/page consists primarily of content written by the author.
• Showing a clear byline on the page, stating the author wrote the article and using the same name as used on their Google+ profile.

Can I use authorship on my site’s property listings or product pages since one of my employees has customized the description?

Authorship annotation is useful to searchers because it signals that a page conveys a real person’s perspective or analysis on a topic. Since property listings and product pages are less perspective/analysis oriented, we discourage using authorship in these cases.

I highly suggest using rel=author only on pages and/or posts that have individually-authored content such as blog posts and white papers.

2. If we do Author tag it will Google spank us and damage our SEO or because it fresh and custom advance are SEO?

It may, but we don't have a definitive answer on that. I'll refer you to this post by Dr. Pete on declining levels of authorship in the SERPs and why Google might be doing that in response to abuse of the authorship tag. Basically, I'd suggest following all of Google's guidelines and NOT use authorship on product pages or descriptions. Unfairly or not, if you want to play in Google's yard, you have to abide by their rules.