Google has been making some significant changes lately to their Google Authorship program. If you write content for your business, you should be paying close attention to the news on this topic as it unfolds. When Google first instituted the Authorship program, the idea was to allow writers to establish authority and credibility while influencing search rankings.
Latest Changes to Google Authorship
The latest change late in June was the removal of the author’s images and the Google Plus circle count from the listings as they appear in search results pages on Google. Google’s John Mueller explained on Google Plus that the reason behind the removal of the images is to “clean up the visual design of the search results, in particular creating a better mobile experience and a more consistent design across devices.” He further explained that their research indicates that click-through behavior was similar on both options.
What are Google’s Intentions?
Of course, the search optimization industry has been upset by this decision since many have been working on establishing authorship since it was implemented in 2011 and often rely on the increased attention they enjoyed from having a picture there. This is contrary to other Google eye tracking studies previously showed that the images did gain more attention from browsers.
Photo Credit: Hubspot
Many authors are upset by the removal of the image for fear of losing the credibility, influence, and resulting traffic that came from publishing under authorship. Most speculated about Google’s intentions. Some questioned if Google’s move was motivated by profits insinuating that the images were distracting from the paid ads. Worstream even went as far as to test the theory. Their data showed proof that the removal of author photos did increase the CTR of the ads. In their experiment, the click through rate of the ad was 44.8% higher after the Google authorship images were removed. Even still, a mobile first strategy does make sense for Google. That does support the idea of removing images since that streamlines the mobile experience and Google expects that mobile searches will surpass desktop searches before the end of the year.
Mixed Messages
The only thing we can say with certainty is that there has been a great deal of mixed messages about authorship, both from Google and the industry. The industry almost immediately started calling this feature AuthorRank back in 2011 when it was first introduced because of how it was obviously tied to helping with better rankings and a more prominent listing. However Google never used that term, always calling the feature authorship. Then, Eric Schmidt wrote in his book, The New Digital Age, “Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.”
Photo Credit: SearchEngineLand
Since writing that, Google then downgraded the algorithmic value of authorship earlier this year. There was never any explanation as to why that happened, although there has been much speculation, chatter, and many questions as to why this successful and fruitful program now offers less value to bloggers, writers and experts.
What Does this Mean for Your Content Strategy?
By no means should you stop or reduce your content strategy. Content is very important for all businesses. If you have been working on building up your Google Authorship, continue what you are doing, just regularly test the search results to see if Google’s changes are affecting your ranking, your website, or your blog. You should still cultivate your Google Plus profile and even set up authorship if you have not done so already. Here is some information from Google on how to set up authorship. Regardless of the reasons or motivations behind Google’s move, it is up to you to be an authority and provide great information to your customers or clients. Continue writing content articles, blog entries, and other content that is based on your expertise.
If you require further information or have any specific questions, don’t hesitate to give a member of the GoPromotional team a call on 0800 0148 970 or simply email us today.
