indy social media breakfast - authorrank
DESCRIPTION
If you've followed SEO and Internet marketing news over the past year or so, you've no doubt come across the concept of AuthorRank, which AJ Kohn says "could be more disruptive than all of the Panda updates combined." Google has stated that "the identity of individual agents responsible for content can be used to influence search ratings." In other words, Google will begin (or has begun) to consider not only content quality as the basis of search results, but also their authors. Many believe that AuthorRank will be the definitive search engine ranking factor of the future. Steven Shattuck will get you up to speed on AuthorRank, and show you how to take advantage of the many benefits of Google Authorship. What's on the agenda? We'll keep the event to 90 minutes, focusing on providing attendees with opportunities to meet each other, as well as hear valuable insight from our guest speaker. Please note that doors open no earlier than 7:30am. 7:30 AM Arrival and networking 8:00 AM Announcements & introductions 8:10 AM Presentation by Steven Shattuck 9:00 AM We're done! On with your day... Who's Presenting? Steven Shattuck, VP of Marketing - Bloomerang Steven Shattuck (@StevenShattuck) is VP of Marketing at Bloomerang, which helps nonprofit organizations to reach, engage and retain the advocates they depend on to achieve their vision for a better world. As a HubSpot Certified inbound marketer, he is a contributor to Social Media Today, Search Engine Journal, The Build Network and Business2Community. Steven has spoken at national and local conferences, and is frequently interviewed by media outlets for his expertise in digital marketing. Recipient of the David Letterman Scholarship, he graduated with honors from Ball State University in 2006 with a degree in Telecommunications and Creative Writing.TRANSCRIPT
Google Authorship, AuthorRank and Google+
Demystified@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
AuthorRank does not exist
(yet)
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
Google Authorship does exist
(and it’s awesome)
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Understanding AuthorRank
HOW IS CONTENT RANKED?
• Links
• Social
• On-Page (Technical)
• On-Page (Content)
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
HOW IS CONTENT RANKED?
• Links
• Social
• On-Page (Technical)
• On-Page (Content)
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
How does Google know if content is good?
“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.”
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
“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)
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.”
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
1. high reputational score (readers/followers/subscribers)
2. established reputation (non-anonymous)
3. valuable content (traffic/shares)
IN OTHER WORDS
Expert content, written by non-anonymous authors
will rank higher than anonymous content.
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
Google: Agent Rank Marketers: AuthorRank
(same thing, basically)
THINGS WE DON’T KNOW• How significant of a ranking factor it will be
• How authors will be graded (PageRank? Klout?)
• If/when it will ever go live
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GOOGLE WANTS IT
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“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)
How do you identify yourself to Google?
GOOGLE AUTHORSHIP
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rel=”author”
contributor to
GOOGLE AUTHORSHIP 1/2
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http://searchengineland.com/the-definitive-guide-to-google-authorship-markup-123218
GOOGLE AUTHORSHIP 2/2
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Yoast SEO Plug-in
http://www.swellpath.com/2013/09/author-rich-snippets-tutorial-2013/
TESTING
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http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
AUTHORRANK PRE-REQ
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“The identity of individual agents responsible for content can be used to influence search ratings.”
Google Authorship (exists)
AuthorRank (does not exist)
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Benefits of Google Authorship
AUTHOR RICH SNIPPETS
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AUTHOR RICH SNIPPETS
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Google+ Profile
Author Photo
Other Posts
AUTHOR RICH SNIPPETS
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Which would you click first?
Which caughtyour eye first?
NIELSEN'S F PATTERN
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Higher CTR?
Ranking not as important?
http://justinbriggs.org/how-does-google-authorship-impact-ctr
YOUR FACE MATTERS!
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http://moz.com/blog/google-author-photos
35% increasein traffic!
TEST ≠ APPEARANCE
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APPEARANCE FACTORS
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How authorship is set up+
Frequency of page crawl (time)+
Frequency of publishing+
Google+ usage / profile robustness+
Individual search settings
NOT JUST WEBPAGES
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AUTHORSHIP STATS
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WHEN AUTHORSHIP IS BAD
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http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2286728/Can-Google-Authorship-Really-Cause-a-Huge-Traffic-Drop-Case-Study
AUTHORSHIP ADOPTION
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BRANDS TOO!
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rel=”publisher”
verified URL
REL=”PUBLISHER”
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Publisher Rich Snippets!
Yoast SEO Plug-in
Google+
IDEAL BLOG POST
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rel=”publisher” (Bloomerang)
rel=”author” (Steven Shattuck)
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AuthorRank and Google Authorship
will keep Google+ relevant
identity + authority
GOOGLE+: IDENTITY ENGINE
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Google+
YouTube
GOOGLE+ PAGE VERIFICATION
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https://support.google.com/plus/contact/page_verificationhttp://socialmediatoday.com/sashattuck/1181931/what-s-value-large-google-following
Verification
GOOGLE+: AUTHORITY ENGINE
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
http://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/2013/06/27/ranking-factors-2013-google-usa/
GOOGLE+: AUTHORITY ENGINE
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“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/
GOOGLE+ USAGE IS KEY
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
Google+ posts pass link equity!
3 follow links!
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.”
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
1. high reputational score (readers/followers/subscribers)
2. established reputation (non-anonymous)
3. valuable content (traffic/shares)
Google Authorship
G+
Frequent Publishing
AUTHORRANK SUCCESS
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
Google Authorship + Frequent Publishing + Google+
AUTHORRANK SUCCESS
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
• Create author page and author biohttps://bloomerang.co/blog/author/steven/
• Establish Google Authorship (owned and earned blogs)
• Add Google+ badge to website
• Fill out Google+ profile completely
• Verify your name
• Publish frequently (focused area of expertise_
• Active use of social media - especially Google+
• +1 button on your blog posts
THINGS TO AVOID
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• Brand as author (“by Bloomerang”)
• “by Guest Author”
• Guest posts attributed to in-house author
• *Ghost-written blog posts
• *Outsourced content
*be careful
FURTHER READING
@StevenShattuck | #IndySM
✤ 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 | #IndySM
Questions?Slides: http://bit.ly/breakfastrank
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