Update: Google has changed how authorship works and the type of images that show in search results, however, that doesn't mean you should remove or avoid this tactic.

It still aids in site organization and Google could bring it back at any time.


The marketing world has been buzzing about the importance of using Google authorship since it was introduced a couple years ago.  Have you implemented it into your blog yet?

What is authorship and how does it affect my blog?

In relation to the online sense of the word; authorship is how you associate your name and "authority" to all of the online content you produce on your site.


What are the key benefits for setting it up?

• Become an authority in your industry.
• Cool little picture next to your articles in the search engines. (which increases click through rates)
• Improved SEO
• Much more...

**Updated 06/26/2014 - The little pictures will no longer be seen in search results.  More on that, here.

How to change Author slugs in WP 3.8

After you get Authorship set up....The thing I want to touch base on is how to change the author slug for your WP post meta as well. Which is just geek speak for your author by-line in your posts. (if you have one.)


I am a visual learner so....



The default structure in WP is that it will link to the archive of that specific author and displays the username.


This is fine, but for most blogs, there is likely only 1 author, so the archive page is going to just duplicate what is on the blog feed page anyway.

Which is why I have my by-line linked to my Google+ Twitter profile.  Not only does this help in the authorship setup process, but it also creates a trigger for me to use Google+ Twitter more often as well.

Here is the code for WordPress - Using Genesis Framework:

Don't want or use Google Plus?

You do not have to change the slug link to go to your Twitter or Google+ profiles only, it doesn't even need to be a social profile at all.

You can have it link to other articles by same author or I have also seen others use it as a place to put a link to optin into newsletters as well.

Just make sure to change it, leaving it in the default mode is giving people/hackers half of what they need to get access to your site. Your login name. (Some of this information is outdated since the update or changes to be made for display name, but still it's always a good choice to utilize link options wherever you can.)

Not comfortable with code?

You can always use this plugin instead.