What is Author Rank?
At the beginning of January we saw a flood of posts about SEO predictions for 2013, and many of them touched on Author Rank. We all know the importance of great quality content, and Google wants quality content to be seen. However, it seems that going forward into 2013 this will be affected not just by the authority of the web page and domain, but by the quality of the author.
This doesn’t mean that Author Rank will replace Page Rank, but it will be used to inform the latter in order to help rank quality content. One of the purposes of Author Rank is to verify authors of quality content in order to reduce spam and duplicate content. The more a verified author builds quality content around a certain topic, the more chances they will have of ranking higher for queries surrounding this topic.
Why should you start building Author Rank?
We know that Author Rank is being tested in order to help great quality content rank; on the flip side, it also means that spammy publishers will be easier to remove from the SERPs which is only going to help improve search results. By using Authorship you will be authenticating your content, i.e. proving you’re not spam.
However, it’s important to note that Google hasn’t specifically confirmed the use of Author Rank within the algorithm. But if you jump on board now before Author Rank is firmly established, this will help you and your content to gain authority within your niche and build up your reputation score. This will be good preparation for when Google confirms Author Rank so you wont be left behind when it’s implemented.
How do you use Authorship to start building Author Rank?
When writing content for a brand or website, in order to get the most out of Author Rank its essential to establish Authorship on a Google+ profile. It’s important to note that this must be a personal Google+ profile, as opposed to a business Google+ profile. Any content that is written should be promoted through the Google+ profile alongside any other social media platforms that is used to promote content.
One way of establishing Authorship is to verify your Google+ profile by having an email address on the same domain where your content is published. Or alternatively, you can use the “author” tag to reciprocally link your website to your Google+ profile. Once Authorship is established, you can start to build up your Author Rank. This can take time as with anything SEO related, but if quality content in a certain niche is already being created, it makes sense to utilise Author Rank – especially while youre ahead of the game.
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