Google Authorship for Musicians
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How Google can help you with music promotion
Wouldn’t you like to have Google help you with your music marketing? Well, when you use a groovy new feature called Google authorship, it can! Google authorship has many benefits for anybody who publishes content of any kind online, including musicians.
What is Google authorship?
If you’ve used Google to search for anything in recent months, you may have noticed that some of the search results have little photos with them – usually a photo of the person who wrote the article or owns the website.
The reason those sites and pages have photos is because they are making good use of Google authorship. And here’s the thing, research has shown (and you have probably figured this out on your own) that search results with photos stand out and tend to get more clicks.
That means more visibility and more visitors to your music website!
I’ll use one of my pages as an example. Once you have Google authorship properly set up, your links will look something like this in search results:
Pretty nifty, huh?
Using Google authorship translates into getting more exposure. And I don’t have to tell you that exposure means you just might attract more fans and sell more music.
The cool thing is that your happy face has a chance to get out there more. Not only does your “mug” establish that the link is your work, it builds instant credibility and distinguishes you from spammers and other musicians who simply aren’t making use of Google authorship.
Sounds great, Bob! How do I set it up?
1) First, you need to set up a Google+ profile. If you have a Google account, you already have one and just need to fill in a few details. If not you will just need to set up an account.
2) Next, you need to have a place where you regularly publish your content – like your blog, website, online column, etc. You need to be publishing under your own name, and it needs to match the name on your Google+ profile.
3) Then, list the websites you own on your Google+ profile under the “contributor to” section. For example, bob-baker.com appears next to my name in the picture above because I told Google I contribute to that site through my Google+ profile.
Finally, connect your publications back to Google. There are two ways to do this:
1) You can do this by verifying your email address that matches the URL – for example [username}@musicpromotionblog.com by verifying it with Google on this page.
2) You can also embed a link with a specific piece of html code in everything you publish so that Google recognizes it is your work.
- Use this html snippet as your template: <a href=”profile_url” rel=”author”>Connect with me on Google+</a>
- Paste the URL of your Google+ account where it says profile_url in the snippet.
- Save that snippet in a file somewhere handy. Copy and paste it into the code of everything you publish on your blog or website – like at the bottom of every post or page.
You’ll find Google’s official explanation of how to get Google authorship on this page.
As you can see, the first method is a bit easier; a set it and forget it kind of deal. But even if you have to paste a link into every article, it’s still pretty cool how they have developed an easy way to connect and legitimize your work across the Web.
With just a minimal effort, you can put your face next to your music links on Google. It will help you gain exposure and act like an informal music promotion system by driving traffic to your work.
Give Google authorship a try and see how it can help you bring extra exposure to your music.
Are you already using Google authorship? I would love to hear how it is working for you. Please leave a comment below.
-Bob
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