You probably know this already: Google + or G+ is getting more and more popular. More and more people are using it and it’s a good thing. It can be powerful also, because it helps you to link your content to you. It gives you some Authority, that’s what they call google authorship. What it really means is that you’ll rank higher, much higher in google if you link the content of your website back to your google + profile.

Here is what you need to do in order to gain Google authorship.

First, even if that sounds obvious, you need to have or create a google plus account. Then you need to use some plugins on your WordPress site (an Authorship Plugin), so it can include your G+ infos. You need to setup WordPress correctly with your G+ infos, hey otherwise how WordPress would know who you are? And finally you need to have a Theme that supports correctly G+. …Whhaaaaaattttt?

I know, you’ll tell me how do I know if my theme supports G+? First do all the setups and use google tools to verify authorship, we’ll come back to the potential Theme issue(s) later on.
Here is a link with one of our articles. This is what it should look like when you have authorship, your google + picture should appear next to your description.
Here is the tool in google : webmaster tools richsnippets : just enter your post url and find out if you have authorship or not.

If you see any warnings then, there is something you need to fix on your site. Some warnings could be linked to the authorship, some linked to the dates, … . Google will try to give you some infos to tell you what’s the problem. I don’t know all their errors / warning by heart, if you don’t know an error, just … google it 😉

How to fix those errors

Sometimes the problem can be that you forgot to fill out all your infos. It could also be because of your Theme. Google is expecting to have certain information in order to link your content to you. They want to make sure that the credits go to the right Author.
If you have a custom Theme, then ask your developer to fix it for you, it’s usually a small task for the person that did the work in the first place. If that developer is long gone, you know where to ask for some help 😉

If you are a DIYer, look at the php files and find the place where they output the vCard or the Author, that’s usually a good place to put those fixes.

Yes it can be a little bit of work, but IMO it’s well worth it.

Now we’d like to hear from you: have you setup ownership for your blog? and if not why?

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