Author profiles will have a big impact on search
It is half sneaking under the radar in the Google+ drama but the ability for content creators to associate their Google profile with their content is a big thing.
The obvious angle here is that when a big name author writes on a smaller or new site that the content for that post is measured, partly, by the author's authority rather than just the platform's. That's an interesting spin for SEO. I've just written the phrase "author optimised" along with "with a bit of luck" and "never see" for a content submission of my own - but the truth is that author profiles will start to be very important.
A less obvious angle stems from the core principle of CTR. We've already seen how having a "{friend} shared this" markup in the SERPs is significant. What if you also recognise the larger author profile?
What if the author appears more than one for the keyword search? Surely that author is the expert on the subject matter at hand? Won't the clicks be pulled in that direction?
For example; here's a screen grab of a search - it's very hard not to notice Matt Cutts all over it. Here's an author who owns that search result even if he's not personally credited with the top two results. Frankly, it would be trivial for them to share the top two results as well - and if he was interested in personal branding in relation to the topic surely that would be a wise thing for this particular engineer to do?
P.S. What about "author authority" as a more attractive alternative to the awfully retro "author optimisation"?
The obvious angle here is that when a big name author writes on a smaller or new site that the content for that post is measured, partly, by the author's authority rather than just the platform's. That's an interesting spin for SEO. I've just written the phrase "author optimised" along with "with a bit of luck" and "never see" for a content submission of my own - but the truth is that author profiles will start to be very important.
A less obvious angle stems from the core principle of CTR. We've already seen how having a "{friend} shared this" markup in the SERPs is significant. What if you also recognise the larger author profile?
What if the author appears more than one for the keyword search? Surely that author is the expert on the subject matter at hand? Won't the clicks be pulled in that direction?
For example; here's a screen grab of a search - it's very hard not to notice Matt Cutts all over it. Here's an author who owns that search result even if he's not personally credited with the top two results. Frankly, it would be trivial for them to share the top two results as well - and if he was interested in personal branding in relation to the topic surely that would be a wise thing for this particular engineer to do?
P.S. What about "author authority" as a more attractive alternative to the awfully retro "author optimisation"?
