Importance Of Author Rank For Seo

By Author: Allen Kory
Total Articles: 27
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One of the main goals of an SEO Consultant in Phoenix is to keep up with advances in the Search Engine Algorithms. One of the biggest changes in recent years is something known as Author Rank. Many experts are only just starting to understand this concept, well, how it works at least. We have known for a very long time just how important it is for SEO though. Let me explain.

The concept of Author Rank was born through a statement made by Eric Schmidt, the current executive chairman of Google. As soon as this statement appeared in his book, the world of SEO changed forever:

“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.”

The reason why Google needed to shift its focus in this direction, and place less of a focus on Link Building is because it was far too easy to build up links. The main goal of the search engines is to display information which is going to be relevant to the ...
... person that is performing the search. When somebody is adding thousands of links anonymously, it can have a serious impact on the quality of the search results, which is going to end up annoying the person performing the search. Google needed to quickly come up with a way to ensure that only the most reputable sites are ranked near the top of their search engine.

What we do know about Author Rank is that it is based on our social media profiles. However, it is a very new concept, which means it is very difficult to quantify what our particular rank is. The following is known to have an effect on your author rank:

1. Sign up for social media profiles. You need to be on as many as possible. At the very minimum, Facebook and Twitter. However, it is believed that Google is placing a very heavy focus on Google+, which means you should be here too.
2. The amount of 'social updates' you create. The more likes, or shares they get, the more relevant the content is judged to be. Google wants to see that people are interested in your content. It doesn't matter how many statuses you make, you could make one or two every month, Google will be looking into how frequently this information is shared, and by who.
3. Where the content is published. This is similar to how link building works now. Basically, the more authoritative the source of the back link, the more 'juice' it will give out.

Improving your Author Rank is important if you are looking to get anywhere in SEO. In recent months, Google has indicated that they are going to be placing an even greater importance on social media profiles when it comes to ranking content. Remember, the best indicator of a reputable website is actually having real people share the content. While having backlinks is incredibly important still, less of a focus is going to be placed on it. This is because back links can be easily manipulated, social media activities can't.

As you can see, author rank is going to be vital if you want to achieve the highest possible position in the search engines through SEO. Therefore, when you are tracking down an SEO Company in Phoenix to work with, you need to find out whether they understand the importance of author rank. If they don't move on, it isn't going to be worth working with them.

Author:


Allen Kory is a web designer and seo specialist for HireAWiz a Phoenix SEO Company. Follow at http://www.hireawiz.com/local-services/phoenix-seo-company for latest updates on SEO.