If you have spend sometime blogging or reading other blogs, chances are you’re already know about the Google+ Verified Authorship and how it’s changing the search engine.
This is a small change but when implemented properly on WordPress blogs with authored content, this small addition can have a dramatic impact on how your content appears in Google’s search results. It takes less then 15 minutes to set up the Google+ authorship verified tag in the WordPress blog.
In this article we will talk about Google+ rel=”author” tag and how to implement it on your WordPress blog.
What is Google+ rel=”Author” tag?
Google+ author tag simply adds a author image in the search results. This is how it looks when you search for our articles on Google:
This is a incredible feature that every blogger should implement on their WordPress blog. This can definitely increase the conversation and click through rates.
Adding Google+ rel=”author” tag
The first and foremost important step is to set up a Google+ profile, because Google fetches your image from your Google+ profile. Once you have created an account, fill your profile and upload a high quality image.
The next step is to add the name & url of the blogs you’re contributing to… in your profile.
Next thing you need to do is to go to your WordPress blog and add the following code in your theme’s <head> section and make sure to replace your profile id with mine.
For Single Author Blog
<link rel="author" href="https://plus.google.com/102528880818701085766/about" />
Once you completed all this, wait for Google to re-crawl your pages & blog posts and show your face next to it.
For Multi-Authors Blog
If you’re running a multi authors blog like me, then you’d need to add an additional field in the author page. Add the following code to the theme’s function to add the Google+ field in the profile area.
<?php
function my_new_contactmethods( $contactmethods ) {
// Add Twitter
$contactmethods['google'] = 'Google+';
return $contactmethods;
}
add_filter('user_contactmethods','my_new_contactmethods',10,1);
?>
Next step would be linking the google profile that includes the rel=”author” attribute, through the author bio section, using the following code:
<?php echo $curauth->google; ?>
Now you’re done! Open Google’s Rich Snippets testing tool to make sure you’ve properly configured rel=”author” for any pages you author.
Have you implemented the Google+ rel=”author” tag? What are your thoughts on the Google+ verified authorship? Please let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for this post, as many new bloggers are facing problems in verifying Google Authorship. Hope it will help them.
You’re always welcome, my friend. Thanks so much for the great support.
Have a great weekend, bud.
Hello, thanks for this post. Question for you.
I am trying to follow your instructions for multi-author blog.
I added your function to my functions.php in my theme. I then added
https://plus.google.com/102528880818701085766/about (with my number) in my Author profile inside wordpress.
I’m not sure if that is what goes in that field or not.
Also then you say to add google; ?>
But where does this go?? I would think it would go in my single.php but that does not seem to work.
Once you have added an extra field in the profile page, add the google+ link.
After that, add the following code in author box area to show the G+ profile.
Author box is located in the theme’s single.php file.
I hope it helps you. Thanks for stopping by.
Have a great weekend.
Gonna try this for one of my blog..
Hope to get verified quickly!
Great, Ammar. Thanks for the great support.
Have a fantastic week.
Hmmm I still think your code is incorrect….
This can’t work $curauth- would fail
So I assumed you meant
But that also does not work. Where is curauth variable coming from? That variable does not exist in my theme
Hey James,
Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve updated the code.
Here’s the correct code (without
$curauth is the WordPress function that is used to fetch the current user data.
Interesting that function seems to be returning nothing for me… hmmm
James,
Take a look here http://codex.wordpress.org/Author_Templates for more information about $curauth function.
I have followed all these same steps even tutorials from other sites also. How long will it show in the search results.
Great. It usually takes less then a week.
Thanks for stopping by.
We’ve got a plugin in the WordPress repository that uses pretty much the same technique if you’re interested.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-author-link/
Excellent, Peter. Thanks for sharing the plugin.
Have a great week ahead.
I use the Thesis Framework…How can I implement this? I’ve looked and I can’t seem to find the header.php folder?
Add the following code in your functions.php file, which should be located in – /wp-content/themes/thesis_185/custom/funtions.php (without
)
add_action('wp_head', 'add_google_rel_author'); function add_google_rel_author() { echo '<link rel="author" href="https://plus.google.com/102528880818701085766/posts" />'; }Thanks for the tip! I will add this asap…