AuthorSure - New WordPress Plugin Uses Rel=Author To Place Author Photo Into Google Search Results

Russell Jamieson, of DIYWebmastery and developer of the AuthorSure WordPress plugin says this is a top priority for all serious bloggers. He created AuthorSure to provide a simple method for anyone with a self-hosted WordPress site to achieve authorship.  Authorship markup can be added manually, but AuthorSure makes it easier for bloggers who prefer not to use code.

To see the live results of a blogger who is already using AuthorSure take a look at this page of search results. The author’s photo can be seen on the search engine listing.

Some months back Google announced they would implement a system to enable the recognition of true authors of online content. Too often hard-working bloggers have found that their articles were scraped by spammers who could then go on to outrank the original authors in the search engines.   Although Google’s efforts will not prevent the scrapers reproducing blog content, it will enable Google to determine the original author. And that matters when it comes to search engine ranking.

The first thing every blogger can do is create a Google+ profile. Next, the AuthorSure plugin can be installed on the WordPress blog.  Full instructions about each step are given after the plugin is downloaded as the user can sign up for the free step by step tutorial if in any doubt.

AuthorSure should take no more than 5 minutes to set up.  If implemented correctly - and this can be verified using Google’s Rich Snippet testing tool - after a few days or weeks the blogger’s photo will start to show up in the search engine results.

Verifying original work in this way helps to boost the clickability of search engine listings and marks articles as belonging to the author.

Multi-author sites can offer Authorship markup to contributor authors too - such that the site benefits but each author also gets credit for their work.

It’s early days for authorship markup but it makes sense to get in at the beginning.  Many bloggers in the SEO niche have already implemented the markup and it is certainly essential for all those in online tech-savvy markets. But the impact of having search engine results with photos in non-tech niches is bound to be noticeable as those search results will really stand out.

Contact Information

Russell Jamieson

Developer and CEO

DIYWebmastery

Contact via E-mail