My Google Author Pic Disappeared
-
My Google author picture, which had been in place for a couple of years, disappeared from all SERP results recently. I checked, and rel=author attribution is valid on every post, as is the link to to the Google + authorship page (which contains a link back to the web site).
When I test URL's in the structured data testing tool the picture appears.
I'm out of troubleshooting ideas. Any suggestions welcome.
-
Hi Wayne,
You've received some solid responses. Were any of them helpful?
Christy
-
Yep there pulling authors with little G+ juice.
-
from what i hear google reduced the number of author pics shown to improve results. they only show some of the available pics. think it was a 15% decrease if i remember correctly.
-
I have noticed this problem over the past few days too. If I search in Chrome there are no author pics, but if I perform the same search in Firefox they appear. I'm not going to change anything, I don't think this is anything which requires a fix.
-
Unfortunately, sometimes we're at Google's discretion as to whether or not they want to display structured data and authorship the way that we would like them to.
Even if you have authorship set up properly, Google has no obligation to show your author image next to your content. When we set up Google authorship on our sites, we're merely suggesting to Google that we are the author of the content - it's up to them to display the image if they feel it's relevant. I've seen many SERPs where my authorship doesn't show up, but changing the keywords a bit will display the author image for the same posts.
I would give it a few days. Try using depersonalized search to see if it makes a difference. If your authorship image doesn't come back, I would unlink your site from your Google+ account, and relink it - and see if that brings it back.
-
Wayne,
The same thing happened to me for a while. I went back and went through the process of setting up authorship and soon afterwards, my picture re-appeared. In the past, I'd tried using a logo as my picture and that stopped working pretty quickly and when I changed back to my picture, it started working again. Here are some other comments regarding the loss of authorship photo topic from some well know players: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/04/12/authorship-brownouts-due-to-facerank/ . I think it boils down to eventually, the photo will probably come back by itself if it is a proper photo.
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
-
Dev Site Was Indexed By Google
Two of our dev sites(subdomains) were indexed by Google. They have since been made private once we found the problem. Should we take another step to remove the subdomain through robots.txt or just let it ride out? From what I understand, to remove the subdomain from Google we would verify the subdomain on GWT, then give the subdomain it's own robots.txt and disallow everything. Any advice is welcome, I just wanted to discuss this before making a decision.
Technical SEO | | ntsupply0 -
Google showing wrong title
Hi, Can anyone assist a newbie please? My keyword 'Security Systems' is giving me position 1 on page 1, but the title it is using is not the page title. I am assuming for some reason it has made it up, please see below. The actual title tag says - <colgroup><col width="420"></colgroup>
Technical SEO | | DaddySmurf
| Security systems | wireless | battery powered | Police Approved | CSS | Google is showing - Compound Security Systems: Wireless Security Systems | Battery ... <cite>www.compoundsecurity.co.uk/</cite>Manufacturers & suppliers of The Mosquito Device & Professional industry compliant and Police recommended battery powered wireless security systems.Contact us - Mosquito Anti-Loitering Devices - Security Equipment - Installers<iframe class="SEOmoz-iframe" src="chrome-extension://eakacpaijcpapndcfffdgphdiccmpknp/html/serpbar.html#{" settings":{"dmr":false,"dmt":false,"mr":true,"mt":true,"serp-overlay":true,"toolbar-enabled":true,"subdomain-metrics":false,"serp-panel-open":true,"toolbar-position":"bottom"},"lsdata":{"feid":1245,"fipl":315,"fmrp":4.717881718426137,"fmrr":3.169235978744307e-9,"ftrp":5.245402699173709,"ftrr":8.283399271183101e-8,"fuid":15756,"pda":47.20670031521297,"peid":1266,"pid":315,"pmrp":4.634793943915049,"pmrr":1.137485303730264e-7,"ptrp":4.949510322693934,"ptrr":1.6938187788875737e-7,"puid":15777,"ueid":510,"uemrp":4.693787066897207,"uemrr":2.520503065617982e-10,"uid":1060,"uipl":191,"ujid":1038,"umrp":4.96103855611017,"umrr":5.477715129904515e-10,"upa":55.929113684261466,"utrp":6.066855084050327,"utrr":2.1655670926371268e-10},"user":{"level":"pro","options":{},"proenabled":true,"aclurl":"http:="" moz.com="" users="" level?src="mozbar","loginURL":"https://moz.com/login","logoutURL":"https://moz.com/logout","apiRequest":"url-metrics","cols":"133146078688","expired":false,"accessId":"pro-RGFkZHlTbXVyZg%3D%3D","expires":1374249469,"signature":"M%2Bh%2FXh4OS%2BAMtT2j6kuntWSTvNI%3D","displayName":"DaddySmurf"},"serp":1,"host":"www.compoundsecurity.co.uk"}"" scrolling="no"></iframe> If anyone can tell me how to correct this, i would very much appreciate it. Regards, Si0 -
Google Analytics - Custom Variables
Hi guys, I'd appreciate any advice with this one. At the moment I'm in the process of arranging a URL re-structure. I was wondering what the best way would be to track the performance of the old URLs against new ones? We will be ammending the URLs for any new property pages which go live on our website but leaving the old URLs in play for any old properties listed. We're taking this approach for the moment so we can conduct analysis on the change. It has been mentioned to me that placing a 'setvariable' in the code of pages with the old URLs and ones with the new URLs would be a way of tracking performance. However, my knowledge in this area is a little bit grey. Any advice? Cheers, Mark
Technical SEO | | MarkScully0 -
Hit by Google
My site - www.northernlightsiceland.com - has been hit by google and Im not sure why. The traffic dropped 75% last 24 hours and all the most important keywords have dropped significantly in the SERP. The only issue I can think of are the subpages for the northern lights forecasting I did every day e.g. http://www.northernlightsiceland.com/northern-lights-forecast-iceland-3-oct-2012/ I have been simply doing a copy/paste for 1 month the same subpage, but only changing the top part (Summary) for each day. Could this be the reason why Im penalized? I have now simply taken them all down minus the last 3 days (that are relevant). What can I do to get up on my feet again? This is mission critical for me as you can imagine. Im wondering if it got hit by this EMD update on 28 sept that was focusing on exact match domains http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4501349-1-30.htm
Technical SEO | | rrrobertsson0 -
Server Vs Authority
Deciding on whether to go for a Sub directory or CC tld structure. So the tradeoff would be one server location (which can affect local rankings if the server is outside the country) VS a better passing of link authority. What factor is more important?
Technical SEO | | Tourman0 -
Do Google Always Tell You About Penalties?
Hi One of my clients has recently suffered a big decline in rankings on some of their keywords, going from positions in the top 10 to sub 50 for some of their keywords, but not all. Their website is still indexed and there is no link warning from Google. Some of their links from a previous link builder are dodgy and we have already tried to contact the other company for removal but to no avail. Any ideas where I start? So far I planning to increase the branded anchor link and add some content as the site is fairly light on content. Is it worth doing a reconsideration request and mention the bad links incase this is the problem. Has anyone seen any particular good resources on what to do when it appears you have a penalty. None of my other clients have been effected by Panda or Penguin and although I have done some general reading I need to know what action to take and get up to speed FAST! Thanks in advance. Kind regards Karen
Technical SEO | | Karen_Dauncey0 -
Google + button
Hi everyone, just noticed the default new red button go onto my website. Is there anyway to go back to the blue button or customise it? it doesn't really fit in with our colour sceheme 😞 Thanks, any info much appreciated as always.
Technical SEO | | pauledwards0 -
Domain authority and rankings?
I have a site that sits in #1 position for its keywords right now. But it only got there about 1mth ago. The site is only about 6mths old with lots of link building. I check the domain authority and its only 37/100 with the #2, #3 sites having domain authority of 57 and 82 respectively. This site has like 800+ backlinks. While the #2 and #3 sites have 20,000+ backlinks. Does it mean that my site will LIKELY drop in rankings very soon? I know there is no certainty but wld you say that it is highly probable my site will drop?
Technical SEO | | jl2550