Add Google Authorship to WordPress – 2 Simple Ways

This fully illustrated step-by-step guide on how to add Google Authorship to WordPress resulted from hours of working out the best and easiest way of doing this. I dont’ know about you but I have found Google Plus (Google+) to be amazingly confusing.  I end up with at least 10 tabs open, many to the same pages whenever I try to deal with Google Plus.  However it is almost  a must these days that we know how to add Google Authorship to WordPress. So let’s start!

Note: I will be using Google+ Authorship, Google Plus Authorship, and Google Authorship interchangeably to mean the same thing.

Why Add Google Authorship to WordPress?

Add Google Authorship to WordPress

You will want to add Google authorship to your site, whether it is a WordPress site or not. But of course, that is only if you care about getting traffic, being found, and/or maybe making money online!

Without any of the paralysing technicalities behind Google+ Profile and what it is, you will want to add Google+ Authorship to WordPress because:

• Google Plus is a social network
• Google now places pretty strong emphasis on the power of social networks
• Google+ is Google’s own baby.  So how do you think Google feels about its baby?  And what would it do to increase the power and reach of its baby?

Add Google Authorship to WordPress because it is important SEO

Pre-Requisites Needed to Be Able to Add Google Authorship to WordPress

• have a Google Account (If you have any of Google products – e.g. Gmail – then you already have a Google account.)
• have already set up a Google+ Profile (see Reference section below for help if needed)
• and that you have a good, clear, profile photo in your Google+ Profile
• and of course, in this instance, have a WordPress site

How You Will Appear in Search Results

Here is a snapshot of what one of my sites might look like in a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) after I have added my Google Authorship to that WordPress site.

What it looks like in Search Results after adding Google Authorship

How to Add Google Authorship to your WordPress Site

There are 2 main methods on how to add Google Authorship to WordPress.

•  Method I: If your WordPress User Profile has an email that is on the same domain as your WP site OR
• Method II: If your WordPress User Profile does NOT have an email that is on the same domain as your WP site.

For example, lets say your WP site is at www.yourdomain.com

• If your WP User Profile has email: somename@yourdomain.com, then use Method I.
• If  your WP User Profile has email: somename@gmail.com, then use Method II.

Method I: Your WP User Email is on same domain as your WP Site

1) Go to WP Admin >> Users >> Your Profile and scroll down till you get to the “Contact Info” section.  Check that your email is somename@yourdomain.com where yourdomain.com is your WP site.

2) Next we need to verify and connect your WP User email address to your Google+ Profile.

Go to Google Plus Authorship page. Enter your WP User email address in the box provided and click “Signup for Authorship”

Google Authorship by Domain Email

You will be sent a verification-email.  Just click the “Verify” link in the email to complete the process. Something that looks like this:

Email Verification from Google+ for Google Authorship

3) Next you want to test the results of your work with Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.  Enter your WP URL or the URL to a post you have written.  Click the “Preview” button. (Does not matter if you include the http:// or not.)

Structured Data Testing Tool

Your results, when successful will look something like this:

Google Authorship Success Results

WordPress Display Name

Tip: Match your WP Byline to your Google Profile

I don’t think this is essential as it seems to work even when I don’t do this.  But overall, it would be better and less confusing to your readers and/or Google+ followers if your byline on your WP posts matches your name in your Google+ profile.

So say on your Google+ Profile, your name is John Smith.

And for your WP User Profile, you have selected your WP Nickname as Wacky and also selected to display that nickname.  Then on your WP site, your byline for your posts will look like:

Byline in WordPress

This way, when someone sees your Google Authorship in search results (saying it was by John Smith), they won’t arrive at a post where the byline is “Wacky”.  Not only is it confusing to the user but it can also lower your credibility.

Method II: Your WP User Email is NOT on the same domain as your WP Site

Your WP User email might not be at the same domain as the WP site where you post articles.  Why is that?

• you might have chosen a general, convenient email address (e.g. yourname@gmail.com) as your email address in WP Admin >> Users >> Your Profile
• you might only be a Contributor or Author to the WP site (i.e. you don’t own that particular WP site)

What you need for Method II

1. your Google+ Profile URL and
2. an administrator at WP who can enter HTML into the header <head> section

1) Find your Google+ Profile URL

Go to your Google Plus profile.

Click your profile image (top right) >> View Profile

View Profile in Google Plus

Look at the URL in the browser’s address bar:

Google+ Profile ID and URL

This is where it can get confusing because some show that the Google+ Profile URL includes the ending “/posts” and some show it without.

I have found you can use either of the Google+ Profile URL:

• http://plus.google.com/Google+ ID or
• http://plus.google.com/Google+ ID/posts

2) In WordPress, enter the following HTML into the <head> section.

<link rel"author" href="[profile_url]" />

Note: Replace the [profile_url] with your own Google+ Profile URL.

3) Next, we need to add a link from your Google+ profile to the WP site.

Go to your Google+  >> Home >> Profile

Go to your Google Plus Profile

Click the “About” link.

go to your Google+ About page

Then scroll down to the “Links” section. We want to Edit this section in your Google+ Profile so that we can add that you are a contributor to the WP site we have just been working on.

Google+ Edit Links

So click the “Edit” link. In the Links dialog box that pops up, go to the “Contributor to” section and click “Add custom link”.

In Google+ – add that you are Contributor

Then you can add where you are a contributor to:

Google Plus – add where you are contributor to

4) Next you want to test the results of your work with Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.  Enter your WP URL or the URL to a post you have written.  Click the “Preview” button. (Does not matter if you include the http:// or not.)

See illustration here.

That’s it.  It took me hours and hours to fully work this out into bite-size steps.  I hope it has been of help to you and that you will be adding Google+ Authorship to your WordPress site with ease.  Good luck!

Additional Note:

Other Methods to Add Google Authorship to WordPress

The above 2 methods are as recommended by Google.  However there are a number of plugins for WordPress that you can use to make it easier.  You will have to do a Google search for them.  I have not gone that path because I like to minimize the number of WordPress plugins I employ to ensure minimal future conflicts and less loading/processing time on the site.

What about Google+ Publisher Pages?

See https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1708844?hl=en&ref_topic=1634166