Some thoughts after reading Will Google Bring Back Google Authorship? by Mark Traphagen (via Moz).
Authorship markup – why was it so important?
When you think about content marketing the authorship markup is (was) the single most important entity that ties together dissimilar pieces of content as it defines the author.
Are you surprised that #Google may use it again in the future? Probably not.
By adding semantic markup to our pages we are helping search engines to identify entities. Those entities are then ranked and indexed for a specific search. We help them, they help us.
So few weeks ago (http://goo.gl/NUqZc8) at the SMX East Expo 2015 Gary Illyes from Google “said that webmasters and publishers should leave the authorship markup on their page as Google search team may want to start using it again”.
But let me clarify here. Google is not bringing back the old system.
“At least not in any form similar to what we saw before” – Mark Traphagen
As Mark Traphagen, I do believe that they will bring it back in some form or another. On top of that I do think it will be bigger and better than before.
So if Google is not bringing back the old Google Authorship is there any future for content creators authority in search?
My answer.
With or without #Google Authorship people (and businesses) should never stop building their reputation and visibility online. In simple words, Google is still trying hard to recognize individual writers and their #content thus determining how they fit within a particular niche.
For ‘Authorship 2’ they may be using The Knowledge Graph or a newly developed system, but it is happening as we speak. So in order to fully benefit some steps are needed:
- Develop a consistent #brand image across all platforms.
- Engage with influencers in your niche on a daily basis.
- Identify authority sites within your niche and find a way to contribute – articles or comments. Engaging in discussions with other people within your niche is a way to build your online credibility.
- Last but not least. Trust. Doing business online without people trusting that your product will meet their expectations is almost impossible.
Recently I said to Gina Fiedel: ‘Without trust we will never pay for goods and services online’. And trust is not an easy task. Thank God there is this book called ‘The Tribe That Discovered Trust’ by Mr David Amerland.
Purchase your copy at Amazon.com here – http://goo.gl/UROA7a
I will strongly recommend this book in order to understand the importance of trust “in a world where technology is the mediator of most human-to-human trust relations”.
Google Authorship is not a simple subject. So head over to the Moz Blog and read Mark Traphagen’s thoughts on the matter.
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