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How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

jitbit.com

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Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#81

Post by weinzierl »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #75
anoncow wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Authorship ties Google+ to search. Can I have my photo next to my search result if I don't have a Google account?

Authorship markup launched before Google+ was even available to the outside world: http://www.seoinc.com/seo-blog/google-launches-authorship-ma...

Authorship markup for sure, but the question was "Can I have my photo next to my search result if I don't have a Google account?". To put it another way: Are there author pages that google uses as source for an image in the SERP that are not G+ profile pages?

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#82

Post by sp332 »

rhizome wrote: post #69
adrr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. IMHO a lot of people are tired of blog spam/social spam and just want the original content.

I would love it if Google figured out a way to surface original content over pages that reference it.

Isn't that what Google Authorship is supposed to help?

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#83

Post by weinzierl »

crazygringo wrote: post #38

Not surprised at all. Any time I ever see a social photo next to a search result, I automatically assume it's a social media post or page and won't even bother to look at it, if I'm looking for anything else. Why on earth would anyone want a face associated with a program, website, or anything that's not a social media account? But, very good to know the statistical result.

Just as an counter example: I search a lot of Java questions, and there is a guy who has a lot of useful answers. When I see his face in the SERP I often click it without reading the text.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#84

Post by weinzierl »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #57
specialp wrote: post #49

Google is basically twisting everyone's arms to join G+. Here is the Google progression of things: 1. Hey we support all open protocols all you need to do is use our FREE service that is superior to all others. 2. OK now you need to unify your profile with Google+ 3. Either kill the product entirely or drop the open standard support because the open standard does not support some awesome feature they made. 4.You are…

You may want to defend this (incorrect) blog post with that world view, but Google launched authorship markup before Google+: http://www.seoinc.com/seo-blog/google-launches-authorship-ma...

Assuming your ordinary niche blogger (no celebrity, no New York Times author, no one with a dedicated Wikipedia page): Is there a way to have a photo next to his or her search result if he or she doesn't have a Google account?

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#85

Post by bhartzer »

weinzierl wrote: post #81
Matt_Cutts wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Authorship markup launched before Google+ was even available to the outside world: http://www.seoinc.com/seo-blog/google-launches-authorship-ma...

Authorship markup for sure, but the question was "Can I have my photo next to my search result if I don't have a Google account?". To put it another way: Are there author pages that google uses as source for an image in the SERP that are not G+ profile pages?

>> Can I have my photo next to my search result Yes, you can. You can use Schema.org markup for organization logos (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/05/using-sch...). You could probably use your photo as an organization logo of yourself.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#86

Post by weinzierl »

anoncow wrote: post #65
mattmanser wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still #1 when I search and that's not even what he's talking about. He's claiming that having a G+ picture inserted next to search results is resulting in a much lower CTR than they previously had. Which I think is plausible as it detracts from the search experience, I often skip those results as the text isn't lined up so I can't scan it properly. Wish you could turn them off, it's really off putting. I also wonder…

Authorship ties Google+ to search. Can I have my photo next to my search result if I don't have a Google account?

"If you want your authorship information to appear in search results for the content you create, you'll need a Google+ Profile with a good, recognizable headshot as your profile photo."

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&#38...

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#87

Post by EGreg »

Why don't you change your icon to the icon of your program or something users associate with what they need? A face says "social" - which is great for your personal Google+ account but not great for your company. At least try it -- if everyone is like me it should increase the clicks.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#88

Post by scholia »

pvilchez wrote: post #29
jsdalton wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even though I know what the photo is for, subconsciously it makes me think "Oh, this is going to lead me to some guys Google+ profile page." I imagine I've skipped over a ton of search results that are just like the one in the article for just that reason.

This is exactly what I think every time I see it. And sometimes it does take me to a g+ page, so I've trained myself to just avoid it.

Same here...

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#89

Post by scholia »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #75
anoncow wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Authorship ties Google+ to search. Can I have my photo next to my search result if I don't have a Google account?

Authorship markup launched before Google+ was even available to the outside world: http://www.seoinc.com/seo-blog/google-launches-authorship-ma...

Which is true but it's irrelevant to the current situation. Which is that lots of us (see below) have come to associate the mugshots with G+ posts, which are usually mediocre, so we don't even look at them.

What people perceive governs how they behave, and your explanation won't change that.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#90

Post by dchuk »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #76
ignostic wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ooh this is embarrassing; the article was about click-through rates and not rankings. But maybe now is a good time to tell people how terrible the CTR data in WMT is. Also, are you sure the site was hit by Penguin? This doesn't look like the typical Penguinized site. You would know, but have you checked?

Yes, I did check that the site was affected by Penguin before I posted my comment.

Are you guys able to check that on a site by site basis internally? Like, did you just look up his site and there was a flag or something similar that only you can see that lets you know Penguin got him?
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