Is Content Authorship really that required ?

[TheWarrior]

More and more blogs are now adding Author profile from Google+.
I like to be anonymous, and I am anonymous on my site too. But People suggest me to Add Author Profile in every page of my blog.

My question is, Apart from Popularity and all,
Is displaying Author's Profile really that important, any SEO Effect ?

[SevenCubed]

All things considered it's just another way for spammers to keep their foot in the door. Panthro's post early in this thread... "You could always just follow the example of some of the biggest "how-to" type monster blogs and just create a fake person with an attractive photo" -- accurately predicts what it will become. There will be an increase of (female) pen name writers with provocative images to lure primitive male minds.

The developers of the search engine of the future will learn to understand that when a site has been very carefully assembled it it a reflection of the underlying philosophy of the individual or company hence that same thoughtfulness is most likely extended to their customers. No outside back-slapping needed (links) -- they stand on their own reputation and effort. Those types of sites already exist but google doesn't know how to measure true value. So, they resort to the popularity game over and over repackaged in different wrappers (links, social, author tags, etc...).

[tedster]

How can they turn it off for some types of search but leave it on for others?

Google already does this in many different ways. It's somewhat that same idea as ad retargetting.

This ability to change SERPs on a dime for an indivdual user is also part of the reason why ranking reports can be such a total puzzle. If a user showed such-and-such a previous behavior (either cookie based or logged in history) then the SERPs they see can be quite different.

Consider this. We know that Google has automated taxonomy creation - both for query types and for web page types. If someone's previous behavior suggest they are looking for information, then why wouldn't Google stack their next SERP with more informational choices rather than transactional ecommerce pages or navigational choices. Their only limit would be doing the programming and data storage.

[nomis5]

You actually could get both - the recipe pic and a small authorship image underneath, which is lots of page real estate if nothing else.

Never seen that before but if you are correct it would truly be real estate in the extreme.

As an example in my niche, the Jamie Oliver site now often appears with his pic in the SERPS but never in conjunction with a recipe picture

Have you any examples of where both have occurred in the SERPS?

[Andy Langton]

Have you any examples of where both have occurred in the SERPS?

Indeed so, and I actually see some that correspond directly with your example. This is both signed in and out of Google search.

[GifAnimator]

Many of you do not want to even consider the Authorship tag and I can understand that but I believe it will become very important. In fact it is doing me the world of good right now, I have been with it since the offset and it has brought me considerable traffic. I have not seen any spam sites that have been authorised so I think it is not an easy thing to have implemented and believe that sites are vetted manually.

Part of the TOS specifies that no provocative images may be used and that a head and shoulders view should be used, so ideas of sexy images go out the window.

At the end of the day you have to play Google’s game to benefit.
It will be interesting to see people’s opinions in a years’ time.

[diberry]

Are we talking about credibility or SEO value? Because a self-crafted author bio doesn't remotely make me think someone knows their stuff - anyone can say anything in those. And similarly, if I can tell from your writing and photos that you know what you're doing - think Instructables - then I don't care what your name is or how to reach you. I don't even care how you learned this stuff.

And while we're talking about businesses giving out the addresses, is there ANY contact info anywhere on Amazon.com? I've never found it. And yet, millions of people buy from them without concern.

Anonymity is entirely acceptable and even expected in many cases, and sometimes peppering your site with author bios just looks like you're taking yourself way too seriously, or hoping to get famous, or overestimating how badly we want to see your face. There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution - it really depends.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

The latest Google rater guidelines suggest that raters search for signs of authorship including phone number, address, an about page etc. It doesn't mention G+ but one could surmise that it would qualify on the list too.

The rater handbook also says that some types of sites (health, finance..) require more information that validates the professional status of the author (not the site owner since some owners outsource writing).

Do you NEED G+? nope, but it can't hurt in some niches.

[kemcar]

What I said was for the general crowd, the trend all authors have been following since the inception of writing but yes I also admit that there are those who just want to convey the message and don't want any credit in return.

[mslina2002]

You actually could get both - the recipe pic and a small authorship image underneath, which is lots of page real estate if nothing else.

Correct. I have seen that too. One of my sites. It's not on all the pages but most likely it's the popular ones (or some other googley criteria) however from my analytics those posts are not the most visited pages or popular pages, so go figure.

[morganstanly]

Yes. Because Google change ever time of algorithm. In future Google is can give more importance in Authorship. So, if you fill up right authorship at this time. It will be helpful in future.

[webindia123]

Whatever is fake for you is genuine for others since they don't know the fact so does google; so if it works for you, it works for all (and google). Being anonymous also helps if you also write on controversial themes.

- Unanonymous Lalit Kumar :P

[LostOne]

I looked into this authorship recently and it states you have to include your name on every content page. Well, duh… my whole site is authored by me, except for perhaps 5%. I think it would look awfully amateurish/ugly to have a byline on the top of every page.

It also seems some SERPS are beginning to get polluted with pics all over the place, just like rich snippets; particularly ratings.

Any thoughts?

[Leosghost]

Serps as a High School popularity contest..cutest Boy or Girl gets to be king and queen of the Prom..and all the likes and the fans and the +1s..

A society gets the search engine it deserves..

[sunnyujjawal]

I don't think it's a part of SEO but a part of visitors trust and your brand name.

[GifAnimator]

It may just be part of SEO if Google realises you are the author and not the scraper site that has been outranking you. Since it has been implemented I'm also getting images in Google search that were not credited to me now linked to my site. It's good stuff.