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Author Rank will continue to grow in its influence of SEO and rankings, but there are still many unknowns. Author Rank goes hand-in-hand with social signaling, and the search space will feel the impacts of these evolving practices. If you aren’t engaging with Google+ or social media with your content, head immediately to your nearest train station and jump on before the train leaves you entirely behind.
Google Author Rank is about attributing as much content as possible to individual authors via their Google+ profiles. It is intended to boost credibility of content while cracking down on less reliable practices, such as guest blogging and questionable posting for the sake of link building. Author Rank will be very difficult to manipulate because content can now be verified and attributed to various authors. This will allow content to be “graded” based upon authors’ contributions, knowledge and credibility. The industry has already trended towards having as much content as possible tied to a specific author profile, and this will only grow in importance this year.
One of the concerns that is happening with Google+ profiles and associated author rank: if you have an employee who is posting content for you, what happens if that employee leaves? Google+ profiles belong to an individual, not a company. While it is better to have your quality content posted up by an author with a trusted Google+ profile, be aware that this content belongs to them, and not your company. If the employee removes their association with your company, their posted content (whether it ranks or not) goes with them.
