Editor’s note: Since the publication of this post, Google has discontinued support for authorship markup in web search. While we’re leaving this post up for reference, we want you to know that implementation of authorship will no longer result in rich author snippets shown on SERPs. Carry on!
Normally, I prefer to contribute lengthy, comprehensive, and strategic articles to Moz. This post, however, will be short and sweet.
It stems from a
January 9 post by Dr. Pete on the declining percentage of SERPs that show Google+ Authorship. (Please feel free to review the post for more background information.) In this comment on the post, I stated one problem that Wordpress users probably overlook if they use Yoast’s Wordpress SEO plug-in. Since my observation was well received by Mozzers there, I wanted to expand it into a post to draw more attention to a critical issue for the benefit of all online marketers.
I saw this issue only recently on some of my personal Wordpress websites, and I wanted to be sure that no one else has the same problems.
The Background
Google’s guidelines on Google+ Authorship
state the following (in part):
What kind of pages can be used with authorship?
Good question! You can increase the likelihood that we show authorship for your site by only using authorship markup on pages that meet these criteria:
- The URL/page contains a single article (or subsequent versions of the article) or single piece of content, by the same author…
- The URL/page consists primarily of content written by the author.
- Showing a clear byline on the page, stating the author wrote the article and using the same name as used on their Google+ profile.
Can I use authorship on my site’s property listings or product pages since one of my employees has customized the description?
Authorship annotation is useful to searchers because it signals that a page conveys a real person’s perspective or analysis on a topic. Since property listings and product pages are less perspective/analysis oriented, we discourage using authorship in these cases.
In short, Google+ authorship should be used
only on blog posts and other individually-authored content on websites — and not on home pages, product pages, informational pages, contact pages, and so on.
The Problem and Solution
Most marketers, I’m sure, understand this point and would never try to spam Google by trying to apply Google+ Authorship to inappropriate pages. However, many Wordpress users may be doing so and not even realizing it. Look at this section of the Yoast SEO plug-in:
Then, click on the “Post Types” tab and do the following:
If a Wordpress SEO user does NOT do this simple solution (it is very easy to overlook), then the Yoast plug-in will automatically add Google+ Authorship to all pages of his or her website
by default. And that violates Google’s guidelines in a way that may lead to authors and/or websites having less authorship in the SERPs.
Postscript
That same day on January 9, I tweeted this issue to Yoast, Moz, and Dr. Pete:
Yoast replied:
So, I
submitted a bug report and recommended that Wordpress SEO do one of the following:
- Having pages and media be checked by default — with a recommendation from Yoast not to uncheck them
- Leaving it as is but include a recommendation to check pages and posts
Now, I do not mean to pick on Yoast and Joost de Valk at all. Yoast is an invaluable authority and resource for we digital marketers, and the company’s wonderful plug-ins are used by countless numbers of Wordpress publishers (including myself!). I am writing this only to inform the community that a minor change to the Wordpress SEO plug-in can potentially have very important effects on Google+ authorship and more.
When Yoast has time, I just hope that they will address this in an update to the plug-in so that Wordpress users who are less knowledgeable than will understand the importance of this simple action.
