Google authorship is something you can get from Google+. There are still rumors suggesting that Google are going to split up the Google+ social media network because it is not as successful as they had hoped.
If this happens then you can rest assured that they will make Google authorship a stand-alone function because it is one of the few successes they have had with Google+. You can use the Google+ authorship program to improve your local SEO, and here is how you do it.
What is SEO?
Your website SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all the factors, both on-page and off-page, that affect your search engine ranking. Do your SEO well and you rank higher on the Google search engine results pages.
Local SEO is the ability to rise higher on the Google search engine results for your local area alone. If you have good local SEO, then your website will rank higher in your local area than it will worldwide or nationally.
Write articles and link back to your website with local keywords
The Google authorship program allows you to write articles on other authorship-ready websites and then link it back to your Google+ profile. This means that people can see the authors profile picture next to an article bio and they can click on links on the bio to navigate to the other articles that the author has written.
If you are writing articles on other people’s websites, then write about things that are related to your website. When you do, you should use a few of their local keywords too. You could even mention your website or business and mention which town it is in and such. This is an especially good idea if your article has a link pointing at your website.
Put the local keywords in your anchor text
When you write articles, you may be able to add in a link to your website. If you do then there is a big chance that the link is going to have anchor text. Every now and again you can slip in a local keyword.
For example, you could put your local town or the city you are in as a keyword on your anchor text. If you also have a keyword in the anchor text that is related to the web page being linked to then all the better.
Put the local keywords in your article content
When you create a strong link you are creating a piece of digital information that gives clues as to the meaning and use of the website it is linking to. This sort of information may be held within the anchor text itself if the anchor text is descriptive and has a good choice of keywords then it gives clues to the meaning of the website it links to.
The web page that is being linked from may also contain a lot of good information. If it is optimized for keywords that are related to those of the linked website then it is a good thing. You may not be able to control the Meta data when it comes to this sort of thing, but you can put keywords in your article text and its title.
If two or more of the keywords were location based keywords, then it would help your local SEO efforts. It will help more if the page you link to also has similar location based keywords present.
Have local keywords within your authorship bio on another person’s website
You are often given the chance to enter your own author bio when you use Google+ authorship on another person’s website or blog. When you do, you could do worse than entering a few location based keywords into the mix.
It is rather easy because you can introduce yourself or your business a say where you are from (which would be the location based keyword). It is not even as if you have to squeeze in an awkward keyword.
Have local keywords in your Google+ bio
Your Google+ profile is associated with your Google+ authorship membership. This means that if your Google+ bio also has a location based keyword or two in it, then that is going to help your local SEO too.
It should already have your location on your bio thanks to you entering your location in the location field, but adding a location based keyword into the bio is going to help too. Even the fact that you post about your location on Google+ may help you a little with your associated authorship and local SEO.
Article by Vishal
Meet Vishal Gaikar, the tech wizard hailing from Pune, India, who's on a mission to decode the digital universe one blog post at a time. When he's not tinkering with gadgets or diving deep into the digital realm, you can find him concocting the perfect cup of chai or plotting his next adventure. Follow his tech escapades on Twitter and buckle up for a wild ride through the world of innovation and geekery!
