Rel=author: Which Google+ profile do I use (personal profiles or profiles set up under company email domain)?

[janrain]

Since our organization uses Google Business Apps, everyone in our org has a Google account under our company's domain name. When Google+ came out a lot of our employees set up two separate Google+ accounts (one under their work email address and one under their personal email address). Some people use one account more than the other.

I'm about to set up rel=author on our blog, but I'm not sure which profiles to link to: personal account, business account or the account the individual uses the most?

[CMC-SD]

I think it's possible that the company would "lose out," but that's not necessarily the case.

If I have successfully convinced the algorithm that I am an expert on widget maintenance, my articles about widget maintenance will get a rankings boost. Then I leave the widget-maintenance industry. The algorithm still believes that I'm an expert in that niche ... for a while, at least. It's quite likely that the algorithm's confidence in my expertise will decay over time if I no longer engage with that niche. My AuthorRank may drop, and the content I authored may no longer get the AR rankings boost. How far the content would fall in the SERPs depends on how much it was relying on that one ranking factor.

[CMC-SD]

I don't see why an account tied to a particular e-mail address would have an advantage in establishing AuthorRank. But keep in mind, we're all still guessing here.

G+ does have a one-account-per-person rule. I have no idea how much they enforce it. Considering how aggressively they enforce the no-pseudonym rule, I would guess that they take all of their rules pretty seriously.

[danatanseo]

In the context of this question and conversation, what about using rel=publisher for the brand voice and rel=author for specific individuals?

Katie, what happens if someone who has built up great Author Rank via their personal account leaves the company. It seems the company would lose out in that scenario. Very curious to know everyone's take. From personal experience I can tell you that connecting one's personal Google account to a specific brand can make for a big mess when someone moves to another company.

[janrain]

Thanks for the clarification and reply. I've updated my original question, as you were correct, I meant rel=author set up.

From what I understand then is that it's best to link to active Google+ profiles. I guess I was also curious if there were any SEO benefits to linking to a domain-based account, but it sounds like it really is more based on active accounts that speak.

Does anyone know if Google has made any statements on having multiple Plus accounts? My assumption is that they'd rather people have one identity. It has caused great confusion within our organization. No one knows which profiles to really use.

Luckily, not many people have started using the domain-based accounts at our organization, so I think I'll go ahead and encourage our employees to use their personal accounts moving forward.

[MattBarker]

This is all related to another question I had about Authorship / AuthorRank:

Google Webmaster Tools will show you author stats for the sites that you are a verified contributor to.  So if you have GWT linked to the same account your Google+ profile is on, you can see your own authorship stats.

But what about a corporate or client's site that you're working on, with multiple contributors?  Is there a way of monitoring the impact that all your contributors' AuthorRank is having?

A common scenario will be websites commissioning content from freelancers with high AuthorRank.  As the client or the agency, how will we monitor the impact of that AuthorRank without access to each individual's GWT?

This would make a very handy addition to SEMoz's Research Tools...

[EGOL]

I agree....

Something else to consider....

If you are a great author but your employer has you writing quick and dirty summaries to stay within budget then you don't want to stink up your personal reputation by claiming them.

[CMC-SD]

I think the terminology here may be a bit muddled.

AuthorRank is not something you "set up on your blog." It's a ranking factor that Google has patented and may be implementing some time soon. The thing you set up on your blog is the rel=author markup.

I'm not correcting you to be pedantic, but because it's important that you understand what AuthorRank actually is so you can make the best decision. AuthorRank is basically the answer to the question "How much should I trust what this author has to say about this subject?" Google will determine that based on your social profile on Google+. If you want Google to think you're a trustworthy expert on widgets, you need to engage with other widget enthusiasts and widget experts on Google+, and they need to engage with you.

You can use rel=author to connect your content to an inactive Google+ profile, and that will give you a pretty picture on the SERP and maybe help with CTR, but it will not help with AuthorRank. AuthorRank will only come from an active Google+ profile.

I'm not sure if it's a good idea or a bad idea to keep a personal G+ account and a professional G+ account. On the one hand, if all you use your professional G+ account for is engaging in your niche, that could be a strong sign that you're really into that subject. On the other hand, if your professional G+ account never has any off-topic, personal activity, that could ping Google as inauthentic.

[danatanseo]

This is a great question. I just read a blog post by Tom Critchlow about how Distilled uses Google+ for all internal communications and that they had to deal with the same issue. Here's a link to the post http://tomcritchlow.com/private-google-plus-engagement

I would set up AuthorRank on the blog from the business account, have everyone use their personal accounts for internal communications and just make sure that everyone's circles are set up accordingly. In other words, you want blog readers circling the business account circle for the blog, not necessarily individual's circles.

I'd love to hear what other people think because I think there is mass confusion over this specific issue.