Increase Your Exposure Online With This FREE Google Plus Authorship Plugin

By now I’m sure you already know the many benefits to running a blog strategy around your business.  However, there is an easy (and FREE) way to get more visitors to notice your blog posts in the Google search results.  There is an great, free WordPress plugin called “Google Plus Authorship” which enhances the way you look in the search results by adding a thumbnail version of your profile photo.  By including your profile photo in the search results, you will get noticed more above your competition and drive more traffic to your website.

Getting this plugin set up is easy and can be done in just a few easy steps!  First, there are a few prerequisites:  1) You must already be running a wordpress.com blog site, or, already have a “self-hosted” wordpress blog or website, both of which allow you to add “plugins”.  2) You must have a Google Plus profile.  If you do not have a Google Plus profile yet, you can create one for free here.

Google Plus Authorship Plugin – Step1:  Source and install the Google Plus Authorship plugin

Like any WordPress plugin, you can source and install it one of two ways.  The first way would be to navigate to the “Plugins” page from within your WordPress based website and search for “google plus authorship”.  The plugin results should show the plugin in question right up at the top and from there you can install it.  The second way you can source and install the Google Plus Authorship is to download it from the developer’s website and upload that from within your existing WordPress based blog/site.  Once you have installed the plugin, be sure to “activate” it in WordPress so we can adjust the settings in step 3.

Google Plus Authorship Plugin – Step2:  Log into your Google Plus account and tweak a few things

Next you will need to log into your Google Plus account.  Once logged in, you will need to be sure you have your main website listed in the “Links” section of your Google Plus profile.  This verifies with Google that the company website in question is associated with you.  Once you’ve made sure you have your company website listed on your Google Plus profile, now you will need to copy the URL of your Google Plus profile so we can paste that into the corresponding field within the WordPress plugin.

By using the Google Plus Authorship plugin to add your profile photo to your links in search results, you will get noticed more than your competition and drive more traffic to your website.

Google Plus Authorship Plugin – Step3 – Paste your Google Plus profile URL into the WordPress plugin settings page

The final step is to take your Google Plus profile URL that you just copied in step #2 and paste that into the corresponding field within the plugin’s settings page in WordPress.  You can find this page by logging into the Admin area of your WordPress site, then click on “Users” on the left side menu, then click on your user account to view your WordPress profile page.  Once you are on your WordPress profile page, scroll down and look for the field named, “Google Plus Profile URL”.  Be sure to use this part of the URL only:  https://plus.google.com/1234567890987654321.

Click save and you are done!  Depending on how soon Google crawls your site next and realizes the updates, you may see the changes in the search results within the next few days or often up to a week.  I know we’d all love immediate gratification but trust me this is worth the wait!

For more information or to have us set up your Google Plus Authorship plugin for you, contact us for a complimentary consultation.