With Google pushing their “Author Rank” more and more, it seems like they are looking for a way to track quality content authors across the web. Currently they do this with a Google+ account. As an author, you create a plus account and then tie your blog posts and social media entries back to it.
This account then ties the author together with the content and your avatar picture comes up in search results for that particular post or page. (Copyblogger has a great article on G+ here to help you get set up.)
Unfortunately, Google+ creates a number based account with no discernable name based URL. While you can go through other services and get a URL that points to your G+ account, none of these has been authorized by Google for their page rank algorithm.
Since we seem to be in the early phases of some kind of a rollout, I wonder if it would be a good idea to actually create a business page as an author? This would more closely tie our name to our content, with our author name tied to a particular business.
With SEO and page rank in constant flux, it would seem like a good idea to get on the bandwagon with G+ as a writer as soon as possible. Hopefully Google will give us direction soon. In the meantime Demian Farnworth is putting together a great series on Author Rank over at Copyblogger. I will be interested to see what cool tricks and tips he comes up with.
For further reading, check out this list of Author Rank posts by Elise Redlin
Question: Have You Setup Your Author Rank Account Yet?