Google as a search engine is becoming more sophisticated and intelligent all the time.
It’s easy to get rattled by the changes and accompanying slaps that it has been delivering, but if you look at the overall picture, Google is going through these evolutionary stages with the goal of providing better quality of service, which ultimately indicates worthwhile search results.
Content will always be king, and Google is ensuring two rights in relation to this: that readers are able to verify that the content is original, valid, and unique; and that the authors get credit for their work.
Claiming Google authorship is a simple deal.
You may wonder how certain writers get to have their photo featured on the search results pages, but it entails a very easy process.
You start off by creating a Google+ Profile for which you upload a really good headshot, and making a really engaging About Me page on your own website.
There’s some easy strategic linking and tweaking involved for which you’ll find plenty of step-by-step tutorials online, and then you’ll just have to wait a bit for Google to crawl your content. Before long, you’ll be seeing your picture next to your posts as they show up in searches.
Why is it worth your while to go through the bother of claiming authorship?
There are several other reasons besides the obvious, starting with higher click-through rates. The authorship markup brings with it a more interesting byline, one that includes a clickable author’s name, which leads to his or her Google+ page, and the More By Author feature which links to a mini search engine dedicated to the keyword and the author. Understandably, such an addition leads to increased online visibility.
With a picture there, searchers are more encouraged to look at your content.
Authorship also provides another influential feature with additional links showing up when the searcher clicks back to the search results page from spending a couple of minutes on one of your pages.
This is another way for Google to show appreciation for good content.
By claiming authorship, you essentially also prevent others from plagiarizing your work or from reaping the benefits of your online content production by having the same name as yours. You also get value from other minor contributions such as your guest posts and comments.
Naturally, with authorship, you also get to build deeper trust and establish yourself as an authority, essentially elevating your status as a writer.
The Google authorship markup is your digital signature, something akin to your online Social Security number. If you want your online presence to be protected and privileged, you certainly must claim it.
