What is Author rank? How does it works?

With the release of Google's hummingbird it now takes more than upcycled content and keyword stuffing to make your content post ready. Hummingbird wants quality and relevant content for search engine users. Today, one basic requirement to befriend the new Google’s algorithm update is to have the Author rank factor.

So how does Author rank relates to this?

As defined by Sam Applegate in What is Google Author rank, Google Authorship enables article writers to link their online content to their Google+ profile via rich snippets, which in turn enables Google to credit the authors with the content.

It basically means that when a blogger gains authorship, his/her content is recognized by Google as relevant and share-able so it does affect the SERP rank of the website. The main reason why everyone wants to acquire it.

So when you finally have your Google+ account connected to your blogs, what’s the next thing?

Let this gif infographic entitled The Author Rank Building Machine entertain and demonstrate how to work for your author rank.

Orignal post via Callbox.

Facebook vs. Google+: Who's winning?!

Source

Maybe it's not so much about who is winning, but who is predicted to win in 2016. Here are the numbers as they stand. They're pretty convincing that Google+ is here to stay.

Facebook

• There are over 1.15 billion users
• One million web pages are accessed using the "Login with Facebook" feature
• 23% of users login at least five times a day
• 47% of American say Facebook is their number one influencer of purchases
• 70% of marketers used Facebook to gain new customers

Google+

• There are over 1 billion with Google+ enabled accounts with just 359 million monthly active users
• Google+ is growing steadily and fast at 33% per annum
• Usage of 45 to 54 year olds have increased by 56% since 2012

This isn't to say that all your efforts should be shifted from Facebook to Google+, but it does clearly say that Google+ isn't to be ignored.



Thanks, Jeff for the stats!

Social NETWORK vs. social PLATFORM and how to use both

What's the difference between a social network and a social platform? Is there a difference at all. YES! There certainly is.

Social networks are more like real-life networking events. Some examples are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Pinterest to some degree.

Social platforms allow for establishing credibility and expertise while creating an opportunity for engagement and discussion. YouTube, blogging, podcasts and SlideShare are perfect examples of social platforms.

Use these social sites by analyzing ONE network and ONE platform that your audience is using. Start by maintaining and cultivating contacts via your chosen sites before moving on to others.

Need more ideas? Just give me a ring.

Blogging Matters—Just Ask Google

In today’s internet-based society, your business has to have a powerful online presence in order to stand out among your competitors. When someone goes to search for a professional or business in your industry, you want your name to come up close to the top of the list. How do you do that? With effective search engine optimization. [Click to find out how Google+ helps with SEO.]

In the past companies like Google put an emphasis on keywords—which words that you were using to market your business and how often those words appeared on your website. As technology has evolved, Google (and other search engines) are using advanced formulas that determine how frequently you post and update your website in addition to the origination and quality of the content you post.

What does this have to do with blogging? Everything in the world.

There is not a better way to add relevant content to your website on a regular basis than to utilize a blog. If you do not want to call it a blog, you can call it a “learning center” or any other catchphrase that you want to use to categorize the frequent posts to your website—at the end of the day they are blogs and these blogs are powerful.

Where you rank in search engines matter. One of the most effective ways to increase your search engine rankings is to add unique, high quality content on a regular basis—to blog.


Exert from Social Media Today's article.

Social media marketing in just 30 minutes

I know how it is. At the start of the work day you have every intention to finally catch-up on your social media marketing. Somehow, as the day goes on, you do manage to schedule new clients, prepare invoices and write a presentation, but ... where did the time for social media go?! Well let me ask you, do you have 30 minutes a day to spare? That's all it takes to have a good, strong social media presence.

Don't waste another minute and start following these tips on the infographic below:

• 10 minutes on Twitter to respond, schedule and share
• 6 minutes on Facebook to like and share
• 6 minutes on LinkedIn to promote, comment and question
• 4 minutes on Pinterest to pin and interact
• 2 minutes on GooglePlus to share and converse
• 2 minutes on Instagram to share visual content

Your Social Media Dimensions Cheat Sheet [infographic]

We all know how important images are when posting on social media. Photos get four times more engagement as just posting an update! But what you see on your computer may look different once posted to Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube or LinkedIn. Each of these platforms has very specific image size guidelines for each kind of image you can upload. Follow the guide below to maximize your visual exposure.

10 Ways Google+ Will Improve SEO

Remember when I told you about Google's AuthorRank? More experts are claiming that using Google Plus is essential for boosting SEO. Here are 10 ways that's possible.

1. Google Plus content is treated by Google just like any other page on the web. Google Plus content will be efficiently indexed by Google, it will gain page rank and appear in Google’s search results.  With two thirds of searches in the US taking place on Google you want your content indexed and searchable in this way.
2. Your Google Plus posts allow you capture SERP real estate as they appear on Google search page results, thus your audience may find your Google Plus content through a standard Google search.
3. Google Plus content stays around, gains page rank, gives page rank and appears in search results over a long period. It appears Google Plus posts can retain ranking indefinitely with some posts over a year old still top of search result pages. Compare this to the 14 minutes of life a standard tweet is estimated to have.
4. Google Plus authorship provides you with a higher visual profile in search results.  By validating your Google Plus profile with sites where you publish, you will enable your image to appear next to the search results and attract greater visual attention on search pages.
5. The use of Google authorship is closely tied to content authority. Google is keen to give a higher profile to authoritative content in search results. If an author posts interesting content which is shared and receives plus ones, this will potentially lead to higher authority. There is growing evidence that Google+ authorship improves your authority and search performance. Mark Traphagen argues that “over a broad sample of bloggers with G+ profiles, those who use Google authorship tend to average a full Page Rank higher than those who do not.”
6. Google Plus authorship and the Google Plus social layer provides a wide range of social signals that may improve the social media optimisation (SMO) of your content and SEO. This is not as simple as the number of followers, people in your circles or number of Plus Ones. What appears to be far more important is the interaction between you and your content and others of a high authority. Thus if a high authority person shares your content this will improve your own authority.
7. Social signals from platforms such as Google Plus will become more important in determining search results. Joshua Berg has called this the social media optimisation (SMO) of SEO. He has explained that “social signals provide a much better way of filtering out the noise and improving the quality of search results” and “this is a trend that will continue because it is a much better way of understanding what people really want, which is one of Google’s founding principles.”
8. The featured link in a Google Plus post will pass page rank to the page to which it links. Note there is a no follow for links included in the body of a Google Plus post, you must use the featured link. If you connect a Google Plus page to your website this will increase the relevancy of your website content and support your search ranking
9. Links from regular websites to Google Plus content can also pass page rank authority in the other direction back to your Google Plus posts and pages.
10. Finally, the use of hashtags in Google Plus connects every post to a search on the platform.

Basically if you are not using Google Plus for all it's worth, you are missing out on some valuable SEO. So don't wait! Get your business and yourself on Google Plus!

Original article.