Google Authorship – What is it?

Google Authorship offers a branding opportunity for your small business website – albeit static or dynamic. It allows you to place either your company logo or your own photo alongside your content within Google’s search results. For example, if you type in “How to Sign Up for Google Authorship” into the search function, you will see a relevant article with the author’s name as well as the author’s photo alongside the article.

Why Should You Enable Google Authorship?

With Google Authorship enabled, you will be able to increase brand awareness as well as your website’s ranking in the search results. It is recommended that you take advantage of brand recognition, as users are more likely to click on a result with an image beside it. All in all, your byline (full name) and your photo will help you distinguish your website from those without authorship.

What are the Benefits of Google Authorship?

Shortly after you implement this feature into your static or dynamic website, you will begin to see higher click through rates. In turn, higher click through rates equate to higher rankings in the search engines. (A static content generally looks the same whenever a user visits the website, while a dynamic website looks more like a blog – the posts are listed by the most recent date in descending order.)
Since images are highly appealing to the naked human eye, your content will become more “visible”. Users tend to skim through the results, until they find something that catches their eyes. In fact, multiple eye tracking studies have shown that the eye is first drawn to the photo, then to the title of the post.
Third, you will be able to combat potential plagiarism on your website or blog. With Google Authorship enabled, you will be able to top the other authors who might have copied your content.
Next, you will be able to build your reputation on the Internet. Users and customers will begin to trust you more.
Lastly, you will be able to prevent other individuals from stealing your given name and/or your company name. Google will penalize other websites containing duplicate content.