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Inspired by a Tweet by Tom Critchlow
Ok, time for me to feel smug. Managed to get rel author markup working and appearing in SERPs for my tumblr site:http://t.co/6jsVAwJ
I decided to attempt to do the same thing with my own blog (EricNagel.com), which runs on Thesis.
The first step was adding my Google Plus profile URL to my Profile (/wp-admin/profile.php) in the Website field. It’s important to add ?rel=author
to the end of your profile URL, so mine is
https://plus.google.com/111702920195070669389?rel=author
Next, I’m going to edit
/wp-content/themes/thesis_18/lib/custom/custom_functions.php
and add:
function custom_get_the_author_link() {
return get_the_author_meta('user_url') . "\" rel=\"author";
}
add_filter('author_link', 'custom_get_the_author_link');
Upload this file after you’ve made the changes. It’s a little ugly, but that’s the only way I could trick thesis into adding the proper “rel” property to the href.
Next, make sure none of your links (/wp-admin/link-manager.php) have the Relationship author
. If so, edit those links and uncheck the Identity box, another web address of mine.
The last step of changes: go to your Thesis Design Options page, and under Bylines, check Show author name in post byline
and Link author names to archives
. Do not check Add nofollow to author links.
Finally, it’s time to test out the changes.
The first step in testing is to go to your site and make sure it looks good. You should see your name under a blog post’s headline, and it should be linked to your Google Plus profile.
Visual test
Next, using Google’s Rich Snippets Testing Tool, enter an individual post’s URL, and click the Preview button. You should see your Google Profile picture next to the search result.
Google Snippet Preview
(Note: my blog also has breadcrumbs marked-up, so you’ll see that in my preview, too.)
Now we play the waiting game. Google has to re-visit these pages to see the change, but you should see the results shortly!
EricNagel.com runs on the Thesis WordPress Theme
If you’re an affiliate who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, HTML, or CSS, Thesis will give you a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via extensive hooks and filters. And with so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site.
If you’re more familiar with how websites work, you can use the fantastic Thesis User’s Guide and world-class support forums to make more professional customizations than you ever thought possible. The theme is not only highly customizable, but it allows me to build sites with a much more targeted focus on monetization than ever before. You can find out more about Thesis below:
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks! Got it working on my site using your code…couldn’t get it to work with the thesis openhook plugin so I ended the custom_functions.php manually.
Working with the custom code can be scary at first, but once you get used to it, you’ll realize how powerful it can be!
I see you did yours a bit different, but that’s cool! Way to adapt…
Dude I followed the entire thing step by step but I still don’t see anything in the Rich Snippets result :/ My byline is showing, it is linked to my Google Plus profile, added the stuff in custom functions correctly, still no results in rich snippets
Please help.
Looks to me like you got it:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftechdeville.com%2F2011%2F12%2F15%2Fwordpress-rolls-out-the-big-3-3-new-features-are-exciting%2F&view=
Hi Eric, I originally set this up before reading your post. I used the tips mentioned on the author profile tutorial by Google. I ran the rich snippets tool and it looks fine. Still no results…before attempting your method, how long did it take Google to update your serp results? Also, it should apply to old SERPS too right?
Thanks for any feedback!
Nate.
I think it took about 5 weeks, then when I changed G+ profiles (from my gmail to my Google Apps account) Google dropped it, and hasn’t picked it back up again.
So I was able to get it to show up for a few days. But it looks like Google censored it.
I originally had logos of other social networks in the background.
But I am wondering if my (tap a keg of beer) TKB hat is to blame?
No notification from Google either…so it’s kinda of a bumber. I wonder if I just need to re-submit the form to them.
The youtube video in the post has been taken down. Just letting you know.
Thanks – the video was Homer Simpson sitting in a chair, waiting. Fox doesn’t like YouTube having any Simpson’s clips on their site
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