SEO, Google Authorship and AuthorRank

@StevenShattuck

AGENDA

• State of SEO

• AuthorRank

• Google Authorship / Google+

• Q&A

@StevenShattuck

@StevenShattuck

Understanding SEO in 2014

Then:

Keyword Stuffing | Exact Match DomainLink Spam / Link Building | Directories | Forum Commenting

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Now:

“Good Content” | Social Signals | Relevant LinksClean Site Architecture | Positive User-Experience

WHAT GENERATES RANKINGS?

• Links

• Social Signals

• On-Page (Technical)

• On-Page (Content)

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http://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/2013/06/27/ranking-factors-2013-google-usa/

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STUDY FINDINGS• The number of backlinks remains of enormous importance

• Social signals correlate very well with better rankings

• Keyword domains have lost relevance (don’t need keyword in URL)

• Factors like “length of text” and “number of images” correlate positively with improved rankings BUT scale does not seem to be unlimited upwardly (longer content isn’t necessarily better)

• A good technological page design is still a basic requirement for rankings in general and the existence of the keywords as well as the existence of H1, H2 and description on-page continues to be important.

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HOW IS CONTENT RANKED?

• Links

• Social Signals

• On-Page (Technical)

• On-Page (Content)

@StevenShattuck

HOW IS CONTENT RANKED?

• Links

• Social Signals

• On-Page (Technical)

• On-Page (Content)

@StevenShattuck

“Just make good content and you’ll be okay.”

- The Google

How does Google know if content is good?

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AuthorRank

“AGENT RANK” PATENT (2005)

“The identity of individual agents responsible for content can be used to influence search ratings.

Assuming that a given agent has a high reputational score, representing an established reputation for authoring valuable content, then additional content authored and signed by that agent will be promoted relative to unsigned content or content from less reputable agents in search results.”

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“We know that great content comes from great authors, and we’re looking closely at ways this markup could help us highlight authors and rank search results.”

- Othar Hansson (Software Engineer, Google)

“AGENT RANK” PATENT (2005)

@StevenShattuck

DIGGING IN TO AGENT RANKAssuming that a given agent has a high reputational score, representing an established reputation for authoring valuable content, then additional content authored and signed by that agent will be promoted relative to unsigned content or content from less reputable agents in search results.”1. high reputational score (strong personal brand / lots of followers)

2. established reputation (non-anonymous)

3. valuable content (traffic/shares)

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IN OTHER WORDS

The author of content will factor into rankings.

Expert content, written by non-anonymous authors

will rank higher than anonymous content.

Google: Agent Rank Marketers: AuthorRank

(same thing, basically)

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THINGS WE DON’T KNOW• How significant of a ranking factor it will be

• How authors will be graded (PageRank? Klout?)

• If it is truly live now or when it will go live, if ever

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GOOGLE WANTS IT“Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results.

The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.”

- Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman, Google)

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How do you identify yourself to Google?

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GOOGLE AUTHORSHIP

rel=”author”

contributor to

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GOOGLE AUTHORSHIP 1/2

http://searchengineland.com/the-definitive-guide-to-google-authorship-markup-123218

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GOOGLE AUTHORSHIP 2/2

http://www.swellpath.com/2013/09/author-rich-snippets-tutorial-2013/

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• “rel= author” tag pointing back to your G+ profile

• A link to your G+ in your author bio on-page

OR

TESTING

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

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Benefits of Google Authorship

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AUTHOR RICH SNIPPETS

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AUTHOR RICH SNIPPETS

Google+ Profile

Author Photo

Other Posts

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AUTHOR RICH SNIPPETS

Which would you click first?

Which caughtyour eye first?

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NIELSEN'S F PATTERNHigher CTR?

Ranking not as important?

http://justinbriggs.org/how-does-google-authorship-impact-ctr

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YOUR FACE MATTERS!

http://moz.com/blog/google-author-photos

35% increasein traffic!

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TEST ≠ APPEARANCE

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APPEARANCE FACTORSHow authorship is set up

+Frequency of page crawl (time)

+Frequency of publishing

+Google+ usage / profile robustness

+Individual search settings

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AUTHORSHIP STATS

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WHEN AUTHORSHIP IS BAD

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2286728/Can-Google-Authorship-Really-Cause-a-Huge-Traffic-Drop-Case-Study

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AUTHORSHIP ADOPTION

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AUTHORSHIP ADOPTION

http://moz.com/blog/googles-december-authorship-shake-up@StevenShattuck

AuthorRank and Google Authorship

will keep Google+ relevant

identity + authority

@StevenShattuck

GOOGLE+: AUTHORITY ENGINE“After Page Authority, a URL's number of Google +1s is more highly correlated with search rankings than any other factor. In fact, the correlation of Google +1s beat out other well known metrics including linking root domains, Facebook shares, and even keyword usage.”

http://moz.com/blog/google-plus-correlations

http://www.stonetemple.com/measuring-google-plus-impact-on-search-rankings/

@StevenShattuck

GOOGLE+: IDENTITY ENGINE

Google+

YouTube

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GOOGLE+ USAGE IS KEYGoogle+ posts pass link equity!

3 follow links!@StevenShattuck

AGENT RANK BLUEPRINTAssuming that a given agent has a high reputational score, representing an established reputation for authoring valuable content, then additional content authored and signed by that agent will be promoted relative to unsigned content or content from less reputable agents in search results.”1. high reputational score (readers/followers/subscribers)

2. established reputation (non-anonymous)

3. valuable content (traffic/shares)

Google Authorship

G+

Frequent Publishing

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AUTHORRANK SUCCESS

Strong, visible public persona / personal brand+

Google Authorship +

Frequent Publishing +

Google+ usage

@StevenShattuck

AUTHORRANK SUCCESS• Establish Google Authorship

• Fill out Google+ profile completely

• Verify your name

• Active use of social media - especially Google+

• Add users to circles

• Comment/+1 content

• Keep publishing good stuff!

@StevenShattuck

FURTHER READING

✤ http://raventools.com/blog/ultimate-list-of-relauthor-resources/

✤ http://moz.com/blog/how-to-prepare-for-authorrank-and-get-the-jump-on-google

✤ http://www.seobythesea.com/2011/11/agent-rank-or-google-plus-as-an-identity-service-or-digital-signature/

✤ http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/author-rank

@StevenShattuck

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Questions?