Today’s tool isn’t a tool that’ll help you tell a lot of stories — but it is one that’ll help people find the ones you’ve published.
Google has a tool called Google Authorship, and it gives increased prominence to reporters and publishers on the web. For instance, if you were to search for one of my stories, you’d see something like this:
It may not seem like much, but some researchers have found that just adding that little profile picture can increase clicks by 150%. Which is nice.
(Also, before I go any further: This only works if you have an email address tied to your place of work. If you’ve only got a Gmail account, it won’t work. Sorry.)
So here’s how to make this happen:
1. Sign up for Google+. Yes, you may have mocked the site in the past. Just sign up using your real name and real email address. Use the exact name that you use in your byline. This is important.
2. Use a real headshot as your profile picture on G+. If it’s not recognizable, Google won’t allow it.
3. Go to the Google Authorship page. Submit your email address from your place of work. (So for me, I submitted my @BuzzFeed email. But if you write for yourblog.com, then yourname@yourblog.com is the one you should submit. But it has to be a custom domain for a site you write for. Again: Your Gmail won’t work here.)
4. This is the slightly confusing part: Google search is looking for this little HTML tag on your stories that tells it you’re an author. Basically, somewhere on your stories, you’re probably already linking to your Twitter handle or your Facebook page. Just add a G+ link like this:
That’s enough to tell Google to pop in the authorship tool on searches for those stories.
If you’re on WordPress, this plugin will add an “author box” to the bottom of each post with the correct HTML code. Or talk to the IT folks at your office and explain what’s going on — and maybe show them this Google FAQ page — and they should be able to help.
Now get out there and tell some great stories today!