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 see all our ads' relevance scores in Facebook reporting all at once?
Hello, We run Facebook ads for 30+ companies each month. We have not found a way to quickly monitor relevance scores from all our clients in one reporting format. Right now, we're still going into the ad account for each client, then into each ad to check the relevance scores, either in Ads Manager or Power Editor. Is there a way we can pull up relevance scores from all ads across clients in one fell swoop using Business Manager reporting features?
Social Media | | ReunionMarketing0 -
Authorship Implementation - Is it needed to place Rel='Publisher' on every page on eCommerce
Hi, On my eCommerce site I've placed rel='publisher' only on the homepage and rel='author' on all of the article pages. Is that the way to do it? Do I need to add rel='publisher' also on the article pages besides for rel='author'? P.S
Social Media | | BeytzNet
Even though I placed rel='publisher' only on the homepage, when I use Google's test tool (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets) I see my publisher ID also on product category pages (that don't have publisher nor author on them but do have regular +1 buttons). How is that? (bacuase of the +1 button)1 -
How do you get more Google +s?
I have had a google plus page and a facebook page for my business for a long time now. I have not had any issues building a customer base via Facebook either by promoting my page or by using the pay promotions via facebook. On the other hand, I have had 0 luck of getting +s on my google page. I feel the page looks good, but just am having a hard time. Is there an effective way out there to get followers on Google+?
Social Media | | RobDalton0 -
How to make good content go viral?
Hi, have a question on the distribution of content which is designed to go viral. Let say you have written awesome content, with great visuals, etc which is designed to go viral. Your site is relatively new - not many social media followers, DA authority, or natural traffic. What would be a good process of distributing that content - getting the content out there so it has the best chance and ability to go viral and generate links. So far i have: Use press releases to distribute that content, using a distribution service like: prnewswire.com. Hope its picked up by a news site or something. Contact Facebook Pages or Twitter Pages who have a large audience of the type of people who would be interested in the content. Ask them if they can share the content. Content sites related to the content, and ask them to share it with their users (Give them a incentive e.g. money, a gift, etc) I think number 1 would yield the best possible results in getting actual sites linking to you. 2 and 3 are more designed for people (who very few would have blogs) to read the content. Any other suggestions, i'm missing out on? Any good articles you guys recommend, i should checkout? Thanks, Matt
Social Media | | Mattcarter080 -
Creating Viral Content
Hi, I’m currently building a brand new site in the fitness vertical. The site is brand new, no authority, and backlinks. My goal is to turn it into a high end authority website, with organic traffic, and into a brand. My other goal is it to be purely organic growth, content driven. All my backlinks are natural. I don’t want to plead with other webmasters to link to me, whether it would be for guest posting or other questionable SEO tactics. I understand that creating awesome content so people have a reason to visit and link to, is what I need, and it’s a long-term process. I guess the part, in which I’m seeking advice/suggestions on is how do I go about creating awesome content which people link to and share. I’m thinking of doing something like Movoto and bridging together the sites topic and current trends online. For instance content on comparing North Korea average diet and how it compares to the US. Or who’s the fittest character on Games of Thrones. It’s relevant to the site and is current related to a hot trends. However creating content which is designed to go viral can be quite costly and I don’t have unlimited pockets nor do most people. E.g. creating an awesome info graphic, collecting data, hiring a professional writer, getting professional images, etc. So you don’t really want to screw up. So how can you reduce the risk? How do I go about it from a risk adverse angle? I’m thinking I can find content which has been previously shared (had a pulse), repurpose the content (I remember Rand mentioned this in one of the white board Friday sessions, make it way better, use visuals, apps etc), then base some of my content decisions using this process. I guess other ways – look at places like Reddit, bridging topic with current rends (as mentioned before), find popular forum topics, etc. The goal of the content is: 1) Content which naturally attract high quality links to the site, so it lifts up the other pages which don’t attract many links (through authority). 2) Turn some of that viral traffic into long-term subscribers of the website, and repeat visitors. Increase total search presence naturally Any suggestions or insights into this question would be very much appreciated! Thanks, Matt
Social Media | | Mattcarter080 -
Social media profiles with same description - Duplicate content or reinforcing business details?
Hi, I am currently doing a Social media review and find myself wondering whether having exactly the same copy - or part thereof, on a businesses' Facebook, LinkedIn, G+, Twitter, profile(s) is likely to be viewed by SE's as a good or bad thing? Is it duplicate content and to be avoided? Or would it be viewed as a case of the business trying to ensure a consistent profile and therefore reinforcing your business details?
Social Media | | Binarynature0 -
What's more important? Facebook fans, or likes?
Until now, I've been focusing on getting Facebook likes for my site, and amassed quite a lot. However it felt like I was missing an opportunity by not connecting directly to my audience. So I created a Facebook page which my site visitors can like. But this means having to promote two different things: a "facebook like" for my site, and a "facebook like" for my facebook page, which seems silly. So, I was wondering if: there is a way to combine the likes of my site to the likes of my FB page? Or a way for a visitor to like both through a single click? what's more important to Google: FB-likes to your site, or to your FB-page? Thank you!
Social Media | | GregMoine1 -
If I move my blog from subdomain to root, will my blog lose all of its authority? Social signals?
Moving my blog from blog.site.co.uk to site.co.uk/blog and just wondered if all the social data for each post will be lost including the blog authority which has been built up over time? Is 301 redirects enough to keep any of it?
Social Media | | SDOwner0