The other day we were on a marketing webinar with an agency based in NYC. These guys are truly marketing experts. At the conclusion of the webinar the agency took questions from the attendees.
One of the questions was this: what do you think of Google Authorship? Does it matter?
We’ve written on Google Authorship a few times. And if you notice at the conclusion of each of our blogs, we practice what we preach.
The answer these marketers gave in the webinar was different than the answer I would give. I believe that Google Authorship is important and is becoming more so. I’ve heard Matt Cutts speak on Google Authorship in person, twice. And based on the words he used and the way he used the words he used, Google Authorship is going to get MORE important, not less.
The agency on our webinar didn’t necessarily disagree with that. They just felt that Google Authorthip was a strong-arm tactic by Google to force every business in the realm to use Google+. Thus, they were going to ignore it as long as they could. They didn’t feel Google Authorship was going to change SEO in the long-term.
Believe what you will. Only the Google knows for sure.
The Conundrum
The idea behind Google Authorship is really quite simple: Google wants to establish Author Rank for every person producing content on the web. That way if someone with a high AR writes something, Google can take that into consideration as they decide where to rank that content.
Makes sense.
The only problem is that Google has their fingers in everything. Your Gmail address is married to your YouTube account, and they are both married to your Google+. That means if you associate authorship to a Google+ account….say a Google+ account that is associated with your work email address…then you can’t access that Google+ account unless you’re logged-in to your work email address.
This poses obvious problems.
The entire purpose of Authorship is to have AR follow authors throughout their life, regardless of career, employment, or email address. However, if my only Google+ account was set up through my work email, well…what then?
Hence the conundrum that many marketers are facing. They assigned hundreds of articles to their Google+ account that is only accessible via their work email. Now, if they ever want to switch jobs, they will no longer have access to those articles or that account.
The Solution???
Google will allow you to move your followers and your circles from one Google+ account to another. BUT (and this is a big but) Authorship doesn’t go with you.
Boo.
If you want to see a truly awesome Google+ Page. Visit the LogMyCalls Google+ Page.
