How To Display Author Profile Picture In Google Search Results

Today i gonna show you how to display author profile pic in google search. It looks attractive to see an author image appear next to post titles with a small snippet on the homepage of a blog.What if the same happens on Google Search Engine as well? Yes, we can achieve the same effect on Google Search Engine using the Authorship Tool. Just take a look at the following screenshot for better understanding.

See how it makes the listing stand out? The click through rate on everything is higher with images. It also looks more professional as well.  This is a part of Google’s new authorship program which I think will soon make a big impact on SEO.

So how do you do it?

1. On your website sidebar or header or footer add this link

1. <a href="https://plus.google.com/GOOGLE+ ID" 
     rel="author" target="_blank"> Join me on Google+</a>

   
   Note: Do not remove rel="author" else the trick wont work!
   Replace GOOGLE+ ID with your Google profile link id.

2. CREATE AN ABOUT ME PAGE

I’m sure many of you possess an “About Me” page on your blog. If you don’t, then I strongly suggest to make one! Now, make sure you provide a link to your Google Profile with rel=”me” embedded in the anchor tag. Your anchor tag should be similar to the one shown below.

<a href="http://gplus.to/yourprofilename" rel="me">My Profile</a>

To find out your Google Profile link, click here – My Google Profile. The one that you see on your navigation/address bar, is the link. You may use the following service – GPlus.to to avoid the numbers that appear at the end on link. In other words, to shorten your profile URL.

3. LINK THE ARTICLES TO YOUR ABOUT ME PAGE

You’ve to link each article on your blog to the ‘About Me” page on your blog with rel=”author” embedded in the anchor tag. Your anchor tag should be similar to the one shown below.

<a href="http://www.yourblog.com/aboutme" rel="author">About the Author</a>

It is better you add the above mentioned tag to your “Author Info” box – the one that appears beneath each article published on your blog. Don’t forget to add the same tag on your homepage, as well.

4. ADD A CUSTOM LINK ON YOUR GOOGLE PROFILE

This is the last step to enable the authorship for your blog. Just navigate to your Google Profile and click Edit Profile. Under the links section, add a new custom link that links to your “About Me” page with a tick enabled for the option that says “This page is specifically about me” and save the changes. That’s it! Take a look at the screen shot below for better understanding.

5. Next Upload a quality Profile Pic of your self.

Your image will look best if it is 150px by 150px in size.

6. Test How your profile photo will appear on SERPs

To know whether you installed these stuffs properly, visit the rich snippet tool on Webmaster tools and copy-paste your recent URL on the box there and hit the preview button. If you find the result saying Verified, then your done!

As far as I know, Google has started to roll out this option only for renown authors initially and it’s still not effective for all the authors around the web. Anyway, I’ve enabled this authorship markup for my blog. How about you? Share your opinions via comments!