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You are here: Home / Google Plus / Google Authorship – How To Get Your Photo In The Search Results

Google Authorship – How To Get Your Photo In The Search Results

April 25, 2013 by Jan Kearney

Contents

  • What Is Google Authorship?
  • Stand Out In Search
  • How To Get Your Photo In The Search Results
  • Connect your website to your Google+ Profile
  • Related Posts

What Is Google Authorship?

There’s been a lot of noise about Google Authorship and even Author Rank over the last few weeks.  Authorship is a way for Google to know who you are and what content you have published around the web.  In its simplest form, you publish content on your website or blog.

Google Authorship has been around for a while now, since the end of 2011.  Author Rank, however, doesn’t actually exist…

Yet. 

It is a lot of speculation about what Google will do with the information we provide based on various patents they have been granted.  That’s not saying Author Rank won’t happen, just we don’t know the details yet.

Stand Out In Search

There’s a plethora of reasons why you would want to add Google Authorship to your website.  There’s 10 reasons here on this CopyBlogger post.

The one that makes people say, “How did you do that?” is your photo in the search results.  Yes, it works for local searches too!

How to get your photo in the search results

How To Get Your Photo In The Search Results

There are several ways to add Google Authorship mark-up to your website.  I’ll list just one here.

You will need:

  • A Google+ Profile
  • A clear headshot profile photograph
  • Access to your website or blog code (or a plugin to do it for you!)

This is the part where I encourage you to do as I say, not do as I do!  You do need a clear photograph as your Google+ Profile picture.  A logo just won’t cut it!  Your picture needs to be your face.

If you have not already set up your Google+ Profile, do it now.  Your profile picture needs to be a minimum of 250px x 250px.

On your Google+ Profile, click the About tab and scroll down to the Links section.  Click the edit link at the bottom of the section.

Add your details to your Google Plus profile

On the Links pop-up section, scroll to Contributor to and click Add custom link

Add a custom link to Google+ Profile

Complete the sections.  Label is your website or blog name.  URL is the address, including http://  Ensure Current Contributor is selected on the dropdown box (should be the default setting)

Add custom link to Google+ profile

Then click save.

Almost there…

Connect your website to your Google+ Profile

For WordPress websites, I recommend Yoast’s WordPress SEO Plugin because it covers a whole range of settings including connecting your site with your Google+ Profile.  The video below explains the Titles and Metas section of Yoast’s Plugin.

If you don’t want to watch the full video (it’s 15 minutes long), the Google+ part starts at 6-mins, 56-seconds and ends at 8-mins 51-seconds and I’ve put instructions below.

How to add Google Authorship using Yoast’s WordPress SEO

  1. In your WordPress dashboard menu, click on Users > Your Profile
  2. Scroll down to Contact Info, Google+ and add your Google+ Profile URL
  3. Scroll down and click save
  4. In the WordPress dashboard menu click SEO > Titles and Metas
  5. Select the Home tab at the top of the page
  6. In the Author Metadata section use the dropdown box to select the Author Profile you wish to attribute to the blog (your main profile)
  7. Click Save Settings

If you don’t have Yoast’s plugin, or WordPress for that matter, you need to add the following code to the <head> section of your website.

<link rel="author" href="[profile url]">

Your profile URL will look like this

https://plus.google.com/112274386260118523996/ – replace the number with your own G+ profile number.

Then pop over to Google’s Rich Snippets Testing Tool and check it recognises your code.

That’s it, you’re all done!

It may take a little while for your photo to show in the search results and it won’t necessarily appear for every search.  It would seem that Google prefer colour photos too – see this post on Blumenthal’s blog.

Do you need a local business website with Google Authorship?
see my local business website packages!

Over to you…

Have you marked up your website or blog with Google Authorship yet?  Have you noticed a difference in click-through rates from search?

Google Authorship - How To Get Your Photo In The Search Results by Jan Kearney
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Filed Under: Google Plus Tagged With: Google Plus for business, google search, Google+

About Jan Kearney

I believe that every business, no matter how small or how local can use the power of the web to gain more customers. I offer no bull coaching and mentoring so small business owners can strategically put the web to work for their business. I've been called a "compass" and a "navigator" and probably a few more names that aren't suitable for a profile!
Connect with me on Google+, Facebook, Pinterest

Comments

  1. Amy says

    April 25, 2013 at 10:59 pm

    This is awesome! I’m going to work on it this weekend. Thanks, Jan!

    • Jan Kearney says

      April 26, 2013 at 9:45 am

      Pleased it was helpful, Amy! Thanks for popping in 🙂

  2. Toni Nelson says

    April 26, 2013 at 1:35 am

    The first time I saw my picture next to my post I thought it was great. Makes it stand out from everyone else.

    • Jan Kearney says

      April 26, 2013 at 9:46 am

      I haven’t had the pleasure (horror!) of seeing my face in search results – I have very, very few photos online. In fact, until a few weeks ago I had the grand total on zero photos online! Yes, photo of me in search is the next hurdle to jump…

      Thanks for popping in, Toni 🙂

  3. Ginny Carter says

    April 26, 2013 at 11:09 am

    So many people ask this question of ‘how do I get my photo thingy in the search results’ and now I will have a resource to direct them to! Nice one.

    • Jan Kearney says

      April 27, 2013 at 8:30 pm

      Thanks Ginny! 🙂

  4. Joy Healey says

    April 27, 2013 at 6:06 pm

    Thanks Jan. I’ve been trying to do this for ages. Managed it on a couple of blogs, now got to get it going on my websites.

    • Jan Kearney says

      April 27, 2013 at 8:35 pm

      I’m glad the post was useful, Joy! Thanks for popping in 🙂

Meet Jan Kearney

I believe that every business, no matter how small or how local can use the power of the web to gain more customers. I offer no bull coaching and mentoring so small business owners can strategically put the web to work for their business. I've been called a "compass" and a "navigator" and probably a few more names that aren't suitable for a profile!
Connect with me on Google+, Facebook, Pinterest or Discover More About My Local Business Online…

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