When constructing your online strategies around search engine optimization, the true goal is to create authority within a topical niche. Search engines are based around the interpretation and identification of factors to judge this authority, on a page by page basis.
As algorithms have progressed and the intersection of social has become more prominent within organic search, the connection of an engine to an individual author has become more and more prominent. Now engines can leverage embedded code to get quick data into the author of a given piece of content and factor the trustworthiness nature of the author into its ranking of a page for a given query.
The topic of authorship markup was instituted by Google in 2011 and should be a central component of your SEO strategy. By including authorship markup tags that connect to Google plus, your content can have integrated photography that helps build visibility to your listings in search results and helps connect your webpages to your social profiles.
Authorship markup used to be thought of as only a blogger tool, but more and more we are seeing these tags leveraged within eCommerce queries. Take a look below at a competitive product phrase in the wedding sector (“wedding favors”).
Notice the picture/author that integrates into the search listing. This additional context provides an added layer of trust to the user and is directly driven from the inclusion of the rel=author tag. Rest assured that the click through rate of this query is being maximized.
The key to this effort is to establish what we call “content leaders” within your brand. Potentially on a category basis, these faces of your organization will link their Google plus pages within the rel=author tag to blog posts, buyers guides, and potentially even category or sub-category pages from within your commerce system.
See below how the example above was executed in the URL that rendered in Google:
Below is the code and the reference/integration to Google Plus:
Incorporating this strategy can undoubtedly improve your organic rankings. The following is a simple 3 step process to getting this integrated into your eCommerce business.
1. Pick the individuals (i.e. “faces”) of the brand and the Google plus pages that you want linked
2. Review your topical keyword targets and associate your individuals to new and existing content
3. Integrate the rel=author tag following the above criteria.
Your eCommerce system or content management system may be able to do this dynamically but chances are that this could be a manual process on a page by page basis. Don’t let this discourage you as the inclusion of these tags will help your brand further progress within your keyword opportunities.
To learn more about authorship markup and the benefits to enterprise SEO, please contact us at [email protected] or call us directly at 866.535.8807
