It’s pretty widespread knowledge that Social Networking plays an important role in modern SEO, but Google is about to take it one step further with the linking of Google Plus and Author Rank.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman, says in his new book; “Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance”

Here at Novi.Digital we are constantly trying to make sure we remain one step ahead of Google’s search algorithm updates. We do this by keeping a close eye on emerging patterns and carefully analysing all the data we can get our hands on. We don’t rely on the rampant speculation which can be found online; following gossip never gets anyone anywhere.

We have seen several patterns emerging recently which all point in one direction – Google is getting ready to wield the power of social networking to an even greater extent than it already does. Social metrics such as Facebook likes, Twitter followers and a ton of other things have been factors of Google’s algorithm for a long time now. However, Google has had something waiting in the wings since 2007, or maybe even before, and it is getting ready to bring it to the fore; Author Rank.

Now, Google already uses a link analysis metric called Page Rank as part of their ranking algorithm. This Page Rank, or PR as it’s often known, takes into account the backlinks of a website and the ‘value’ of these. The more valuable links a website has pointing to it, the higher its PR. ‘Link Value’ is determined by a number of things such as page authority, content freshness and its own PR. This helps Google to determine its search rankings.

Author Rank is going to be quite different to Page Rank in that instead of being assigned to webpages, Author Rank is going to be assigned to individuals. The days of blogs written by “The team at COMPANY” are coming to an end, and recommendations are emerging that companies elect ‘spokespeople’ to be their link to the public.

The question that people are asking here is “why can’t we just assign the authorship to the company?” This is where social media comes in – in order to attribute authorship, you must be able to link to a Google Plus account. Linking to a G+ Local business page won’t cut it.

At Novi.Digital we’re keen to stay ahead of the game so we’re already starting to include Authorship for our clients. If you’re interested in an SEO agency who’re one step ahead, get in touch now.

Written by Alice Rees