650Solutions http://www.650solutions.com WordPress Website Design for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:45:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 How Do I Get My Author Information into Google Search Results? http://www.650solutions.com/rel-author-information-google-search-results/ http://www.650solutions.com/rel-author-information-google-search-results/#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:14:25 +0000 Dan Tudor http://www.650solutions.com/?p=247 Post image for How Do I Get My Author Information into Google Search Results?

Google has been making a whole lot of changes to their search product recently, but one of the most interesting is providing a way to verify authorship. Would you like your author information showing up in search results? It is fairly easy to implement with WordPress, especially if you are using DIYThemes Thesis Theme.

A Quick Explanation of rel=author and rel=me or How Does This All Work?

Google verifies authorship in a fairly simple manner, though it currently requires use of a Google+ profile.

  • First step:  Add a link from your Google+ profile’s Other Profiles section to your author page on your website. The link can be to an author archive or an about page. Adding links to this section adds an element to the hyperlink, namely “rel=me”. Rel is a kind of data referred to as a microformat; the value you assign indicates the relationship to the linked content.
  • Second, add a link back to your Google+ profile from your author page with “rel=me” as part of the hyperlink. The fact that these two pages now point at each other is strong evidence that your identity is consolidated. Think of it this way: You have to have control of both your Google+ profile and your website in order to add these links.
  • Third Step: you’ll want to update the byline of your blog posts so that it has a hyperlink to your author page on your website with rel=”author” in the link. This associates the posts you have authored with the relationship you set up using rel=”me” in the first two steps. If you mouse over my byline above, you’ll see where it says “by Dan Tudor” is a link to my About page.

How to Add rel=”me” and rel=”author” to Your WordPress Blog

There are numerous pages explaining how you add the authorship markup to your site. I reviewed twelve different posts and the directions vary in quality of documentation. There are two standout pieces that I found.
  • WordPress with Thesis: Of all the methods I reviewed for adding authorship to Thesis, I found Marko Saric’s guide to be the easiest to use. Additionally, he uses a method to change the URL of the author page. The default author page in WordPress is an archive page for all the posts by that author. With Marko’s method, you can use another page for your author page. Just like Marko, I used my About page on my website. I find this preferable because using the default WordPress author archive exposes the login name of the author (for example: http://example.com/author/admin). By using your About page, you don’t have this issue and you get to leverage content you’ve already put a lot of effort into.
  • WordPress and other platforms:It comes as no surprise to me that Joost de Valk’s guide is the best guide to a generalized approach for adding authorship. Joost’s explanation is very complete and well documented. If Joost isn’t on your frequent readership list, signup for his newsletter. He always has something timely and useful on WordPress and SEO.

One last note: Google does not make any promises about if or how quickly this association will take place will take place in Google. So, follow all the steps and use the Google Rich Snippets tool to make sure that you did it correctly and then wait for Googlebot to notice.

 

 

]]> http://www.650solutions.com/rel-author-information-google-search-results/feed/ 4 Radiohead and What It Means to Have a Relationship http://www.650solutions.com/relationship-with-your-audience/ http://www.650solutions.com/relationship-with-your-audience/#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:28:02 +0000 Dan Tudor http://www.650solutions.com/?p=124 Post image for Radiohead and What It Means to Have a Relationship

Radiohead fans set out to video the band live from as many angles as possible and then edit it into one awesome groupsourced production. The band finds out and what do they do? Cease and desist orders from thuggish pinstriped-suited lawyers? Nope. Just the opposite.  The band provides high-quality audio to assist the fans in making their video, deepening the relationship.

Amazing.

Photo credit: Flickr user Ella Mullins

]]> http://www.650solutions.com/relationship-with-your-audience/feed/ 0 Chocomize? What Grover Cleveland Alexander Has in Common with Suzette Snider http://www.650solutions.com/chocomize-what-grover-cleveland-alexander-has-in-common-with-suzette-snider/ http://www.650solutions.com/chocomize-what-grover-cleveland-alexander-has-in-common-with-suzette-snider/#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:24:41 +0000 Dan Tudor http://www.650solutions.com/?p=83

Anyone who has ever looked at Google Trends has had a moment of slackjawed wonderment, befuddled at who or what is topping the great hive mind of search requests. Suzette Snider? Grover Cleveland Alexander? Chocomize? John Bolz? Really? How does it happen that people appear to care, and so suddenly, too? Danny Sullivan tries to get to the answer in a piece featured today on Search Engine Land, tracing the strange and perhaps nefarious tale of how Chocomize took the world’s attention by storm…or did it?

]]> http://www.650solutions.com/chocomize-what-grover-cleveland-alexander-has-in-common-with-suzette-snider/feed/ 0