The Future of Guest Posting and Google Authorship

To get started with Google Authorship is simple, all you need is a Google Plus profile, a profile photo, a by line and a verified email address. Google Authorship is a small but valuable change you can implement to your strategy today. It is beneficial to both your visibility in the search engines and your click-through-rates.

Visibility

Eye tracking studies have shown that people gravitate towards an authorship profile photo and spend more time looking at the result. Time spent by the user is very valuable when it comes to search engine results. It also has shown to cause visitors eyes to wander further down the page – which prevents them from immediately clicking the first result, giving your post a greater chance to compete when not in the top spot. Often times the study revealed that lower places on the page, such as 4th or 5th, received more attention that the top spot. This suggests that a 5 minute fix with Google Authorship might do what months of organic rank building would.

Click-through-rates

This is pretty straight forward, but people trust a face. When you have your face name, a by line and a social media account on display, users are much more likely to click on your post. Some studies found that Google Authorship doubled click through rates.

In conjunction with the addition of Google Authorship, it appear guest posting is beginning to take a new direction. Originally guest posting was a great way for bloggers to meet and exchange thoughts and link juice. Unfortunately, the market has become saturated and popular blogs are bombarded with emails pitching guest posts. As such, the traditional email pitch will no longer work. This form is outdated and doesn’t allow you to stand out. Bloggers are now beginning to rely on personal relationships, cultivated over social media. An invisible face behind an email will no longer cut it. A social media relationship, complimented by a Google Authorship status, is the way forward in guest blogging and networking in general.

Guest posting still has a lot of value and contributes greatly to organic inbound links. As such, you should adapt to the changes and stay ahead of the competition by cultivating your social media relationships. Create a Google Authorship profile and contact us today for help with your social media strategy.