Google Authorship is influencing the way we search. Every time you search and you see a profile image next to the results, this is Google Authorship. Google has allowed authors to establish themselves on the web, now you can too with every blog post you write.
Why is this important, well with the talk of Author Rank, this will impact if your post is pushed to the top of the search results or if someone else’s post is. This will most likely be determined by how many people click and read your posts. Google will be able to determine which Authors have compelling information vs. just junk post. Who is staying on that blog post or are people bouncing. Through time it will be easy to determine who the industry experts are on the subject as well as the compelling authors. Those will probably be the ones to rank first.
Step 1: Add “Contributor to”
Login to your Google+ page, >> Click on your “about” tab. Here you will find where you can edit your information. Scroll to the bottom and you will see a section labelled “Links”. Hit edit and you will see the below image. Go to the section “Contributor to” and enter in a title to call the site as well as the URL to the site you contribute to. Then SAVE!
Step 2: Set Up WordPress
Before leaving your Google+ page copy your URL. Jump over to WordPress, after logging into your WordPress account, visit the Profile tab to the left. Scroll down to Contact Info and paste your Google+ URL. Then SAVE! (See bonus step).
Step 3: Let’s Verify!
Now that you are done, go and test it at Structured Data Testing Tool . If you have already posted a blog post, grab that URL and plug it into the test. NOTE: Your blog post needs to include “By (same name as your Google+ Profile) in order for it to make the connection. If the preview shows your image from your Google+ account then it is set up correctly.