Authorship markup is advanced markup data (markup data is also referred to as rich snippets) that you can create to give Google and other search engines more information about your website. Rich snippets increase the likelihood that a searcher will click through to your website from the search engine results pages.
There are many types of advanced markup data you can add to your website such as recipe preparation information, restaurant reviews, photos, product videos, etc.
In this post I’m going to cover how to add authorship markup to your website in conjunction to your Google Plus profile to increase the chances that your photo shows up next to the search results for search queries related to your website.
Below are 4 quick steps to add your photo next to the search results for your website:
1.) First, go to: Gplus.to and get a nicer version of your Google Plus URL (it’s easier to remember).
2.) With your new Google Plus URL, add a link back to your Google Plus profile from your website.
Add the code below to your website’s sidebar or footer in order to create a link back to your Google Plus profile with authorship markup. Below is an example image from my website using these instructions.
<a href= “ http://gplus.to/yourusername/about?rel=author”>+Your Name</a>
Adding this code helps tell Google that I am the author of this website’s content. If you are a WordPress user, you can add a plugin called AuthorSure that will allow you to add your Google Plus information to your website instead of having to add a link elsewhere on your site.
3.) Add a link from your Google Plus profile back to your website/blog author page.
When you log into your Google Plus account, go under the “contributor to” section and add a custom URL . This will be your link back to your website’s author page.
In this case, my author page is: http://rachelhoweconsulting.com/author/admin. Your author page may be different depending on how you have your content authorship set up. You can check how you have that set up in the back end of your content management system.
4.) Test your rich snippet with Google’s rich snippet testing tool.
Below is an example of what your result should look like if it is successful:
If you are confused about all the above, there is a great video from Matt Cutts (Google’s head of spam) on how to add authorship markup to your website:
If you need any additional help or have any questions, feel free to send me an email or leave a message in the comments section below.