• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Hilton Copywriting

Attract More Leads. Shorten Your Sales Cycle. Increase Profits.

  • About
    • FAQ
    • Testimonials
  • Ghostwriting
    • Ghostwriting Process & Services
  • Gold Class
  • Magnetic Marketing
    • Services
      • Attract Leads
        • Information Marketing
        • Web Copy
        • Sales Letters
      • Build Loyalty
      • Establish Authority
        • Linkedin Profile & Strategy
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • Show Search
Hide Search

What is Google Authorship and How Does It Affect My Clients?

Does your picture appear when you post?
Authorship & Your Online Authority

What is Google Authorship?

The Google+ author attribution feature is very powerful and provides great advantages to companies and individuals who use it.  Whether you love Google’s power or hate it, if you are planning to get noticed online you need this! You have probably seen the thumbnail photograph next to  some search results – that is the mark of Google+ authorship.

How Do I Get Google Authorship Attribution?

Setting up Google+ authorship for your website is relatively simple.  You need a Google+ account, a website, and a photo.  If you use WordPress all you need to do is set yourself as the author in site settings and link from your Google+ profile to your website.  If you also publish elsewhere Google+ gives a snippet of code that you can place in all your articles.

Advantages of Authorship

Google+ Authorship does three things for you:

  1. Plagiarism and theft of your articles by content mills and unscrupulous publishers is far more difficult because Google has already tagged it as yours.
  2. You are 5 times more likely to get clicks when your photo is displayed than the same content without a photo;
  3. Your authority increases over time and Google rewards that with weighted search rankings if you persevere in creating content.

If My Content Is Ghost-Written Who Gets The Attribution?

Authorship attribution is an important discussion points between me and my clients because there are potential advantages to each of the alternatives.

Advantages of Attributing Authorship to My Clients

If you are planning to post consistently over time on your core topics then attributing the authorship to you (as the provider of the topic and perspective), can be very powerful.  Your own thumbnail appears beside every post and clients will recognise you as the authority on this topic.  Google will also recognise you as an authority, and their algorithm for promoting results in unweighted searches takes this into account.

This means that the more you post on a certain subject the greater the likelihood that random searches will find you and they will recognise you as yourself so your business will appear more frequently for your core area of expertise.  It also means that you can employ a variety of writers to write on your behalf and you get the credit for a growing body of valuable material on your subject.

The downside is that if you are posting in fits and starts (see my article on the importance of regular publishing for my thoughts on this) because the pressures of business distract you from making regular posts and you have not outsourced your content creation, then you won’t get much advantage from this authorship.  When your posts appear in searches they will have your photo beside them but you won’t gain the degree of authority posting regularly provides.

Client Advantages of Publishing Under My Authorship

As a professional copywriter who is regularly creating content for business in the professional services arena I am publishing frequently.  Under my own name, and under my clients names I publish over 30 articles per week in various fields.  All of the articles published under my name are tagged with ‘professional services’ as well as the specific area (eg. Recruitment, Business Coaching, Dentistry, Accounting, Design etc.) and other keywords.

As a result my authority in this area is growing and articles published under my name will become more of an advantage over time.  Since content creation is my business this is not something that I will push aside when I get busy with other things.  What that means for my clients who choose to publish under my name is that over time your results are likely to appear more frequently because they are attached to me.  The more I write in your field, the more highly regarded by Google anything with my name attached to it will become.

So even if we only work together for 6 months any content that I create for you under my authorship will become more visible as I continue to write for other businesses in your field and my reputation increases.

Dangers of Anonymous Authorship

In this day and age, publishing without formal Google+ author attribution is foolish.  It creates opportunities for thieves and plagiarists to steal your work, it deprives you of a clear advantage in search engines, and it takes the personal flavour out of your work.  People connect with people so unless your articles are being ‘spun’ by a computer program or data-generator you really do want to put your name on it.

Even if you are writing for a company blog, individual articles can and should have specific author attribution and personality.

The only real reason for anonymous authorship is when you are publishing inflammatory or derogatory commentary, discussing terrorist activity, or are writing items that might offend others.  In general, my feeling is that if you are not willing to stand behind your words you shouldn’t be writing them at all – although in some countries political conversation is an exception.

Written by:
Debra Hilton
Published on:
November 25, 2013

Categories: Content Marketing, Social MediaTags: Anonymous Authors, Author, authority, authorship, Common Questions, copywritng, Get Google, Ghostwriter, Google Authors, google+, The Author

Professional Memberships

Explore more

Buy the Book! Dynamic Direct Response Copywriting

How Powerful Copy and Strategic Marketing Can Transform Your Business and Lifestyle!

Footer

Hilton Copywriting

ABN: 42823285628

Copyright Debra Hilton © 2025

Connect with Me

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Affiliate Disclosure

Many of the links on this site are affiliate links. If you use those links to purchase products or services I will benefit financially or otherwise.