Over the past years, PageRank has established itself as an important metric in measuring website quality. However this 2013, Google introduced AuthorRank, yet another excellent metric for determining a website’s credibility, along with its authors.
Now, content and site quality no longer rely merely on page authority. With Google Authorship, a domain’s authority is also measured through the reliability and reputation of the content’s author. This score becomes a basis for the author’s Web grade and affects search engine results for his particular site.
AuthorRank, or Agent Rank, is established when a webmaster links their Google Plus profiles with their generated content. These appear in rich snippets along with the number of people within that person’s Google Plus circles. Authors are ranked based on endorsements in social media communities such as re-tweets, +1’s, Facebook shares and likes; content influence and relevance to such endorsements and to a random commenter; comments from individuals in social networks; and lastly, the relevance and quality of inbound links directed towards that particular content.
The question many webmasters now have is, how do I leverage on authorship for SEO?
This can be done in a myriad of ways. First, you need to scout the Net for authors who already have established their Google Authorship then build a connection with them. Called Author outreach, this involves reaching out to authors who have already established their place in their respective industries.
This may be done by keying in certain keywords that a company or individual is striving to rank for. The number of Google Plus circles an author is in plus the number of related queries with which they are linked to will more or less give you an idea of their authorship standing. The more high ranking authors you engage with, the more marketing opportunities you open for your brand. Forge a close relationship with these individuals and they might even give you fresh, unique content for your website.
Partnering with famous blogs and websites is also vital to enhancing online user engagement, reach and comments – all key recipes for increasing your AuthorRank. As your work’s influence on online communities increase, so does your Google Authorship. In the long term, this will also boost traffic that is directed to your site.
As Search Engine Optimization becomes more content-centric, it is expected that web marketers will find AuthorRank more vital than PageRank. With these in mind, content quality and social media etiquette are crucial now more than ever, and it would be wise for webmasters and content marketers to remember that when generating content.
If you need more information on boosting authorship and page ranking via SEO, feel free to browse our archives and get excellent SEO tips and strategies.
