Authorship No Longer a Factor in Search Results
Google announced at the end of August that Authorship is dead. This move was on the horizon as of a few months ago. Author images were no longer being returned with search results & included in search snippets.
For those of us who put serious effort into connecting Google Plus Authorship profiles with our websites in order to keep up with SEO best practices in 2014, it’s definitely frustrating to know that the work was in vain. Google did not make it easy.Now that it’s officially irrelevant, what should we turn our attention to?
Google sums it up on their Authorship Is Dead announcement page: rich snippets. We’ll write a follow-up post with information about rich snippets, how to use them, & how they impact search results/clicks.
Is Google Plus Next on the Chopping Block?
On Forbes.com, TJ McCue made the logical jump that Google Plus might be the next Google marketing tool to get the axe. It does seem like we could be headed that way. It’s hard to see how Google is making much money on Google Plus as a social media platform.
It really doesn’t compete well with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest. Now that Authorship is no longer relevant to search results, a lot of marketers & bloggers will abandon the platform altogether. Does that make it prime for a shut down?
Too Much Is Tied Into Google Plus
Too Much Is Tied Into Google PlusI think it will be tough to cut Google Plus out without a significant wind down period. Google is certainly under no obligation to do that, but Google Plus is now tied into the whole one Google account thing. Google business listings live there. Google apps are tied into it. YouTube ties in pretty seamlessly too — for both businesses & individuals.
My guess is that there is too much invested in Google Plus to simply pull the plug. I would expect to see another shift or two before they give up on it. And what do I know? They might be raking in the advertising money on it & I would never know. Of course, Google is (wisely) more interested in information than anything else, & Google Plus still offers them plenty of ways to gather good intel.
