Google Author snippet has captured the imagination of both the authors of the content as well as the SEO experts looking for newer ideas to optimise the web pages. In short, Google Author Snippet is a small code that helps Google Search Engine in identifying and assigning the author to the content. The programmers use two kinds of codes to introduce author snippets into the web pages: Rel=”Author” and Rel=”Publisher”, the former assigning content to the author and the latter to the company or business. These snippets are integrated with the author’s Google+ profile
SEO Advantages of Google Author Snippet
The SEO advantage of the author rich snippet can be gauged from the Google search results.
- For instance, if you’ve done a Google search and clicked on a resource with an author rich snippet; and you’ve spent some time on that resource page; then Google will show you three more links to the articles contributed by the author when you click back button to go back to the results page.
- Although it’s a hidden SEO benefit of Google author snippet and entirely depends on time-on-site spent by the reader to measure the enjoyment factor, yet bloggers will surely love to explore more of the author rich snippets.
Social Advantages of Google Author Snippet
Apart from the hidden SEO benefits, the author rich snippets also enhance the social quotient of authors and bloggers.
- Your Youtube videos can actually link back to your website or blog using the author rich snippets, which Google normally doesn’t do in case of other videos.
- A picture says thousand words! If you have written a thoughtful piece, ideally, you’d like that your picture is assigned to your article to enhance your social quotient. This is what the Google Author Snippet achieves through the integration of Google Plus in the search results.
- If you are an expert in your field, adding an author rich snippet certainly brings in that extra credibility to the content.
- If you are familiar with Google’s ‘+1’ – the equivalent of socially more popular ‘likes’ – then adding Google Author Snippet certainly increases your chances of adding to those +1’s.
Undoubtedly, the author rich snippets have contributed a great deal to identifying the content with its original author. However, as an author, you must ensure that your Google Plus profile photo is of good quality with a recognizable headshot.
If you need any help getting started, get in touch with us today.