According to Matt Cutts, the famous Search Quality Engineer from Google, the rel=author tag has been around for years and is used by Google to rank contents which are written by real people.  This tag helps Google determine the authenticity of the content by verifying that it is written by an individual who has credible authority or expertise about its topic.

The rel=author tag enables website owners, content creators, and bloggers create an authorship mark-up every-time their published articles are displayed in Google search results pages.  See sample below to see how it looks like.

If you use the rel=author tag, every time your content shows up in Google Search, your avatar photo and full name will be displayed along with it.  A link to the rest of your written articles is also displayed along with a 2-line preview of the featured article.

The Benefits of Rel=Author Tag To your Website’s SEO Performance

The authorship mark-up has been implemented by Google to develop into a fully functional search algorithm that is called AuthorRank.  A full implementation of AuthorRank, like Panda, can surely bring massive changes in the content marketing industry.

As AuthorRank has not yet been implemented in full swing, part of its major components, the rel=author tag is already used by Google to help their search users find more relevant contents by prioritizing published articles which  have authorship mark-ups.  This is one of the biggest benefits the rel=author tag can do to increase your website’s search engine optimization performance.

Implementing authorship mark-ups across all your website’s contents can boost its ranking in Google Search.  Aside from that, as your contents are already verified by Google, it can also raise the trust (towards your brand, services, or products) of your readers and customers, thus solidifying your authority in your industry and helps you attract potential clients.

In one of the recent blog posts here in our Dallas Internet Marketing Blog, a well explained article was shared about AuthorRank.  You may read it to learn more about its importance and why you should benefit from it as early as now so that you can prepare for Google’s upcoming search algo – the AuthorRank.

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