#Google is quickly adding social elements in search, you might have seen that can see who shared a page directly on the #search results page. But you can now add your own author information (name and photo) when a page of yours shows up in search results.

Here's how to do it:
1. Link your content to your Google Profile: basically just add a link to your Google profile similar to this <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/109098983561044225374/?rel=author">Markos Giannopoulos</a> on all of your pages (for example in the footer or your sidebar bio)
2. Link to your content from your profile: This is done by editing your Google profile and adding your page under the "Contributor" section on the right column.

Google will do the rest. The full information is here http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986 Google also provides the option to verify your information by your e-mail address, but this requires that your address is made public on all of your pages (not a good idea due to spambots).

You can verify that everything is working with the Rich Snippets Testing Tool https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

The end result is similar to what you see in the attached image. Your name and photo will appear next to your pages in the search results, along with your circle count and "Add to circles" button.

(Post based on information thanks to an article by +WPMU.org, found via +Brian McDaniel)

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Tags: author, Google, search, search engines

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 at 12:44 am and is filed under Search Engines, Social Media, Web Development.