As we’ve recently explained you really do need to be using author and publisher tags on your blog and website. Why? In a nutshell because it’ll help you get higher in the search rankings, and will increase your click through. For more details – read the blog itself.
This blog is a step by step guide to teach you how to add the publisher tag. The great thing is that it is dead easy to do (I say this as someone who is by no means a developer and shirks away from anything but the most basic of CMS/html editing for fear of breaking things).
What does adding a publisher tag look like?
It looks like this. It means that when someone searches for your company that your Google+ page will appear on the right hand side of your search results.
Not what you’re looking for? Read our post about the author and publisher tags, or skip straight to how to add an author tag here.
Adding the publisher tag in 4 simple steps
Step 1 – setting up your company page
If you don’t have a company Google+ page then set one up. It takes about 2 minutes to do so, just start by filling out your details here. (This will also set you up with a personal profile – all company pages are managed by individual profile(s).)
A company Google+ page looks like this. (Subtle differences with a personal page – your website shows up at the top of the profile, as opposed to where you work and live etc and you can see your +1 tally and icon).
The URL looks like this: https://plus.google.com/YOUR_GOOGLE_ID/
Step 2 – verifying your website
Make sure that your company page has your website listed on the profile. To add it, click edit profile on the ‘About’ page and you’ll see an option to add your website.
This verifies that Google is picking up on the correct Google+ page.
Step 3 – Adding the tag to your website
Add the publisher tag to every page of your website that you to connect up. Definitely add your homepage at least.
To add the tag you need to add your Google+ company page URL link to the head of each page.
E.g. to add a rel= “publisher” tag to a webpage I would paste the following to the top line of the html.
<a href=”https://plus.google.com/YOUR_GOOGLE_ID/” rel=”publisher” />Follow us on Google </a>
Step 4 – test it
Test to see if it works!
Use the rich snippets Google tool to check your publisher status has been verified.
N.B. Please note that it can take some time before you will see your posts appearing this way live in the search results (it can even take a few weeks). Rest assured that if the rich snippets tool works that it is only a matter of time.
