Google Plus Author Verification For Single Author WordPress Sites
NOTE: This method no longer provides the benefits it once used to. It has been a long time since Google’s experiment with showing author avatars by articles has ended. You can still add the tag however it’s usefulness is much smaller now than back in 2011/2012. This plugin is still available and works as well as it used to but as I said, it’s usefulness is limited.
I wanted a plugin that added the correct Google+ author mark-up to my websites so that I would appear next to the search listings in Google Search. I also wanted a way to for my clients to do the same on their sites after I delivered it to them. I added the ability to do so in my site functionality plugin template and made it as simple as possible to operate.
I use the plugin on all of my sites and I distribute it to all my clients but after being asked many times on how I done it myself and offered it as standard to my clients I decided to chop the code out of that plugin and make it it’s own plugin stored in the WordPress repo for anyone to use. There are other plugins out there that offer the same output but I developed this plugin to be as simple as possible – simple enough even my non-technical clients could work it correctly.
I made a plugin that offers a super easy install and setup for you to get your Google Plus profile picture next to your website in the Google Search listings by simply pasting your Google+ Profile URL
- Simply upload the plugin
- Enable the plugin
- Paste your Google Plus profile URL into the box
- Done!
[further opening=”Download: ” link=”http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/single-author-g-meta/”]Google Plus Author Meta WordPress Plugin in the WordPress Repo[/further]
Very easy. How long does it take for Google to recognize the change?
I’ve seen it take within 24 hours if the Author already has high author rank but when I placed this on my gaming website (search ‘gamingnow’ to see it) without any Author Rank of my own i couldn’t find anything for 9 days.
Basically it varies according to a bunch of stats. If you are very active on G+ it will be faster, if you have existing Author Rank, if your site is crawled frequently and deeply or just a little stroke of luck. The speed this takes is dependant on both the activity level of the author and the site.
Thank you! This plugin works like a charm. I have been looking for an easy way to get g+ author pictures to show up and this is it!
I added the plugin to a new site and the author picture showed up on every blog post as soon as the site was indexed. I had made sure the g+ account was fully set up with a bio and links to the bio on the website.
Now my clients think I am magic and I am, thanks to you and your plugin.
You are magic!
Glad your making good use of the plugin and I’m excited to hear your using it on both your own and your clients sites 😀
Google has really steped this whole ‘Author Markup’ thing up a notch in the last few months and as such the time taken for it to appear has been reduced and, from what you say, it seems to take as soon as a page is now indexed so long as everything is in place on the site and on G+.
Thanks for the comment, would you mind me taking a quote from it when I rewrite the page for this plugin?
Thanks for the nice plugin. I hope Google will crawl my page faster than in 9 days…
Thanks for taking the time to comment but using this plugin doesn’t affect your Google crawl rate, that is affected by many other things but. In the end it’s Google’s choice how quickly they crawl and re-crawl your pages.
My site took 9 days for the author markup to start appearing on older articles but that was before Google used this as prominantly as they do today. Now Google puts more emphasis on AuthorRank and the corresponding Author Markup it will show on newly indexed pages as soon as Google finds them providing the rest of the pieces are in place.
So long as everything is in place before you put this on your site (adding the site to the “Contributes To” section of your G+ bio and verifying it for instance) I am confident enough that the plugin does it’s job well enough that the author picture and info will show up as soon as any new posts are published and indexed by Google and it will appear on existing posts when Google re-indexes them.
I am very new to this…when you say “paste your Google+ profile into the box”, what box are you referring to?
I found the box on the settings page……thx.
Glad you found the box on the settings page – I will rewrite the instructions on this page to make it more clear that the box can be found on the settings page for the plugin.
Have you had any other problems with getting the plugin to work? More recently Google has given more weight to the Author Markup and AuthorRank and I’m curious as to how quicly they have started showing author info next the search results when they have found Author Markup on the page.
Thanks for commenting and let me know if you have any problems or want additional features added to the plugin.
Does this work with multiple authors?
It does not work with multiple authors, this is a plugin designed specifically for my clients with single author blogs.
I had planned on making one myself that does work with multiple authors but I never got around to it. Would you like me to make one that works for multiple authors? I have the plans and the code for it almost completed, it just needs to be tested and verified to work. Would be ready in under 24 hours. Or if your in a rush I could recommend a plugin from another author that I know.
That would be great. I am new to all of this and I know I need this on the page. I have other author plugins that have a google plus field. But I don’t think they do what you do.
We have two authors so I need to double up on this. Now I just need to figure out how to get the outhor page to show/work.
I was hoping for an all in one author box/links/G+/authorpage plugin but…..
You know that magic all-in-one plugin is not entirely out of the question but sadly within the scope of 24 hours it’s probably too much for me to get done on top of other things. I take it that the site your talking about is the one you entered into the website field and have the email address under, yes?
I took a little look around the code on the pages and there is no Google+ author markup being placed into the pages so Google will not be able to match the post to the author. And obviously you can see there’s no author box or G+ logo on the page to accompany the posts.
You know this is a bit ‘out there’ but recently I’ve been offering some free work to help diversify my portfolio a little bit and I have been SWAMPED with requests from many sites that are just out there to make money. You know the ones that I mean, they always look like they have the right information when they appear in the search results but then when you click through to them all they try and do is push you through their advertising channels or force a product down your neck with such a bad pitch that it’s hard to believe anyone would ever bite lol. In my view it’s just plain unethical to ‘trick’ someone into visiting your site so I will never work with people like that – especially not for free!
Your site would be a PERFECT fit for the kind of work that I want to do – which is local SEO. If your not familiar with the term basically it means that your company is in Colorado so it’s only right for your site to show up much higher up the search engine rankings when people in Colorado search for Wedding Photographers. It makes sense doesn’t it? People in Colorado would be your main target audience so why not try get your site in front of as many people interesting in Wedding Photography who live in or around Colorado?
In my industry (Search Engine Optimization) the buzz for 2013 is ‘be where local is going’ and so I am in need of some sites that I can noticeably improve in their local demographic. The work that I want to carry out on your site is separate from the Google+ author markup but during the local optimization work it would put no additional burden on me and my team to implement the required Google+ markup, author box, author page etc.
I mean it’s up to you, I’m offering you something for free which is sort of unheard of – there’s no such thing as a free lunch and all that – but technically you’d be doing me a favor by allowing me to do the work and add it to my portfolio. Your choice, no pressure.
If you don’t want the local SEO thing done to your site then that’s fair enough but I’ll still help you get this G+ markup thing sorted and working on your site.
Just let me know: you can reply here, message me on twitter(@Will_Patton_88), email (will@pattonwebz.com) or even phone me if you want (I’m UK based tho so it might cost a fortune haha but if you want I can send you my home number).
Look forward to hearing back from you
Will