Building Up Your Author Rank is Vital

Author Rank is something we've written about numerous times over the last year or so trying to emphasize the importance it will have on your long term success. Author Rank is Google's way of rating and then eventually ranking content based on who wrote it. Right now it balances on the proper use of rel="author" and rel="publisher" tags. If the concept is new to you, please read up on it here and here because...

...as it's harder for people to manipulate. Google is currently so focused on this that they're not only pulling authorship from Web pages but they're also indexing authorship from within non html pages like: Microsoft Office files, PDFs, RTF files, SVG image files and Google docs.

We're bringing it up yet again because Matt Cutts has gone on the record stating that it will be a ranking factor if it isn't already. The future of Google's algorithm will be strongly controlled by who wrote what. See how Matt Cutts explains it here:

The takeaway is to get your content marked up because it comes with some undeniable benefits:

• It brings with a future ranking boost.
• You build authority as an expert with every new piece of content.
• Your image within the search results creates a higher click through rate.
• It protects your content from being hijacked by someone else.
• You build up your G+ profile exposure and PageRank which in turn creates more authority and solid social signals.

Add it to your list of tasks this month and just get it done already. If you already have your rel="authorship" in place and are looking for other solid ways to build up your position as an industry...