Undoubtedly, if you’re a Google searcher, you’ve probably witnessed Google Authorship in action. Authorship is a (somewhat) new program that’s been implemented by Google to help properly identify original articles and protect author’s copyright. When properly implemented, Authorship also displays a headshot of the author next to the Google result as shown left. Until recently, making your picture show up in Google results has been a process that involves either plugins or knowledge of HTML coding. Luckily, Google has recently rolled out a new method for getting your picture to show up in Google results.
The Stupid Simple Solution…
Don’t misinterpret this statement… I’m not insinuating those implementing this method are inferior to those who did it the hard way, but rather the contrary. When I implemented authorship for our site, I took a good hour out of my day figuring out how to write custom PHP code in order to make a link properly display on each page. Thanks to this new method, you’ll be saved from the monotony I fell slave to.
In order to utilize this method to make your profile picture appear next to your search results, you must first have an email address at your domain (i.e. for a site called example.com, you should have an email like yourname@example.com). If you don’t already have an email at your domain, we can assist you with the setup. Also, you must have a Google+ account. After you’ve set up these requirements, the rest is relatively easy:
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Edit your Google+ profile and add your email address (the one at your domain) to your contact information and follow the provided steps to verify it.
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Make sure all pages you want to appear with your picture on Google’s result page have a clear line with your name, such as “Written By: John Doe”, or “Author: John Doe” (formatting doesn’t matter, just make sure your name is present).
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Visit the Google Authorship Page (make sure you’re signed into your Google+ account), and type your email address (the one at your domain, not the “Gmail”) into the box presented on that page, and then click “Signup for Authorship”.
And that’s it! Rather than installing plugins for WordPress or hardcoding some PHP, you can simply submit your email to Google with this new method and be recognized for Google Authorship (non-techies rejoice!).
If you want to check to make sure that you did everything correctly, you can use the Google Structured Data Testing Tool to test your website. Simply visit the link and enter a URL that you were the author of, and if everything is hooked up correctly, you should see verification of your entry on the results page.
Original Source: The Google Support Article
If you’ve got any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments!
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