Is it wise for employees to be tied to a company's content with rel=author?
-
We're an e-commerce company that sells consumer goods. We are launching a blog that will have advice, tips, etc. on topics related to our industry. I'd like for us to implement rel=author on the content. If we rel=author the content to an employee, what are the possible repercussions if that employee leaves the company? I know the markup is pretty new and hasn't been widely implemented, but has anyone dealt with this?
-
You know it Brian!
-
Dana,
I'm looking forward to seeing that happen. Hope you're composing a blog piece on that topic now: when it's announced that publisher's brand images will appear in SERPS, you'll be able to publish that news and get the lion's share of news cycle traffic.
-
You are correct. No head shot. But I have it on good authority that very soon Google will begin using a thumbnail of the brand image that's been uploaded to the Google+ brand page. They have a vested interest in doing so. It makes the SERPs more attractive and it also makes Google+ more enticing.
-
I assume rel=publisher doesn't give you the pretty headshot on the SERP?
-
This is a great question. There is a lot of confusion about rel=author. It is my understanding that for e-commerce, if the "brand" is speaking, that rel=publisher is what would be most appropriate, not rel=author. I have the same scenario on our newly revived e-commerce blog. There are times when we will want to list someone specifically as rel=author, i.e. if they are an expert on a particular subject, but most of the time we will want to post as rel=publisher. This is done by creating a brand page in Google Plus as opposed to an author page. Still, Google+ has the problem that a brand page must be attached to a Google profile, which must be an individual person, not a company. I would be very interested to hear others address this whole issue.
Dana
-
It's really not about "lazy," in my opinion. It's about time and skill. When the boss is managing the company for 80 hours a week, and isn't a talented writer, the boss has someone else write. (I say this as the writer, not the boss.)
-
Brian, that's a really good point. When they leave, they can disown the authorship if they want to. Which could conceivably happen if they leave to start their own company or go work for a competitor.
-
What EGOL said. It's a given that almost any post author will eventually write elsewhere, and in all likelihood will leave your employ at some point while the post lives on.
"AuthoredRank" is going to be more important in some industry spaces than others. I can envision some "retainer" arrangement being necessary for continued company presence within an ex-employee's linked profile. That is, once the author leave said company, there's no reason they can't delete the reference/citation from their profile and remove the value of the rel="author" altogether, and of course the rich snippet disappears. If the author achieves enough of an audience or authority, and that helps with direct or search traffic, we may just see ex-employees needing some form of contract. It is their personal profile after all...
-
If you have an employee who is a kickass author think about the effect of saying.... "We don't want to give you credit for your work."..... or....
If you have an employee who does fairly good work what is the effect of saying.... "Your name and face are going to be on this."
The psychological effect can go to your advantage or not - depending upon how you play it and the mentality of the employee.
If an employee leaves your company how will you handle that. That kickass employee could become famous and you might enjoy their success through the rel=author association.... and it could go the other way.
So, if you are the type of place who hires top quality people and treats/pays them well enough to stay with you long term then give them credit for their work. Part of being a good place for your customers is having great employees who are good at their job.
If you can't keep employees very long then you should think carefully about how you handle this and other things too.
And... if you are askin' because the boss is to lazy to write his own blog posts then he needs a kick in the pants.
-
Well, if they are the ones writing it then I would be more willing to say go for it. If somebody else is and you just want a name associated then I would not. Your best bet would be to create a Plus page for the ceo or a owner of some sorts. And associate it with that account.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How To Increase Your Domain Authority of Your Website?
How To Increase Your Domain Authority?
Social Media | | Jackson_william
How To Increase Your Page Authority?
Why increase the spam score?
How to increase more traffic on this website: www.onlinesharings.com2 -
No employees so will a search engine optimisation company work me?
I'm self-employed and run two different companies solely by myself there is no employees but I contacted the two UK SEO companies which are recommended on Moz both of them based in London, but after sending them emails and speaking to them on the phone neither contacted me about they must think I'm too small. Do you find that small one-man band companies find it hard to get a SEO to work for them because my budget will be too small? The company I would like to improve the rankings on is a Whitby Holidat Cottages letting agency in Whitby www.EndeavourCottge.co.uk with 10 properties, so obviously I can't afford a large budget but I could happily afford a monthly subscription if they could do necessary works for me do you think this sounds feasible? Or am I better just continuing and trying to make the time to do the work myself even I'm not that expertise. What is your thoughts and experience? Thank you Alan Davidson
Social Media | | alandavidson1 -
Company Facebook and Personal Facebook with company name.
I am helping a company get their social profiles and networking in order, and just realized that they have a facebook page that is their "company page" - https://www.facebook.com/Capitol.Collision.Repair.Phoenix and one that is a person called their company: https://www.facebook.com/capitol.collisonis their any benefit to having both of them still active or should I just get rid of the "personal profile" and keep the company page? any advice would be really helpful! Thank you, J
Social Media | | allstatetransmission0 -
SEO wise - what is the impact of Avatar on a blog
Hi all, At the moment we are at the verge of building finally a blog. For SEO purpose I demanded that it would include social interactions with Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and some more. Especially Google+ for the authorship part. But now they come asking me if they can work with Gravatar http://www.gravatar.com/support/what-is-gravatar/ - a Globally Recognized Avatar. I never worked with it before and can't find anything if it will negatively impact SEO on authorship - but I'm still not sure. Does the Gravatar interfer with Google+ authorship?
Social Media | | Letty
I could find information about having to setup the author part in the Gravatar, but this doesn't give me the answer if this helps with Google+. If anybody has experience of can tell me / point me in the right direction it much appreciated. Or maybe having a better solutions than the Gravatar.0 -
Client Doesn't Know Google+ Brand Page Manager Login - How to Recover
Hello - I'm working with a client who has a complete Google+ Brand profile setup for their business, but cannot locate the google+ login associated with the management duties of that page. Is there a way to track down or at least to see who the page owner is and their associated email address?
Social Media | | WebTalent0 -
YouTube Listing Videos That We Didn't Upload
Our Company has recently started doing videos on installation and product features. As we were going through our Google YouTube Analytic, we noticed there are random letters and numbers that are coming up as a video (example:YsQgAQPykMI), although it is not a link. _Where we are finding this information: Google YouTube Analytic under the Comment section. The bottom section will list the videos that the channel has uploaded and its respective link. _ 1. What and why is YouTube pulling this information? 2. How can I remove this from our listing? 3. What are future measures we can take to prevent this from happening again? Unfortunately, I'm not able to upload an image to show you exactly what the issue is. Thanks for your help, Tamara HzS9DYi
Social Media | | WebRiverGroup0 -
Adult dating site. How can I get people to share content on facebook or google plus..
I am working on http://www.top-10-dating-reviews.com an adult dating review website. I want to build a presence on social networks so have set up twitter, google plus, and a facebook page. As I understand it retweets, like, shares etc... Play a significant part in seo. Therefore I want to get as many shares etc as possible. My initial idea was to create a fan page on facebook and pay to promote it on facebook gaining likes on the fan page. Will likes on the fan page impact the main site? I would imagine not? However I can see how someone visiting the main site and liking a post would have a positive effect on rankings. The problem I've come into is facebook won't run the ads as the page is adult so they won't accept paid ads. If I add a post to the facebook page how can I get it in front of people to share or like it? Equally how can I get google plus shares? I'm new to social and am unsure of how I should proceed? Especially as facebook considers the page adult. Finally how important is social. I've read it can get short term wins and optimised posts can appear at the top of search results but don't stay there long. Link building is still the long term strategy?
Social Media | | SamCUK0 -
Social Content Posting - Post to Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter and Linked in at the same time
Hi, Is there any means of posting new content for my companies various social profiles in the one go rather than having to log into each one? This would save a lot of time. Thanks
Social Media | | fdep0