{"id":2152,"date":"2013-09-16T23:13:58","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T23:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bob-baker.com\/buzz\/?p=2152"},"modified":"2013-09-16T23:20:20","modified_gmt":"2013-09-16T23:20:20","slug":"google-authorship-for-musicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bob-baker.com\/buzz\/google-authorship-for-musicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Authorship for Musicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Google can help you with music promotion<\/h3>\n

\"\"Wouldn\u2019t 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<\/em> who publishes content of any kind online, including musicians.<\/p>\n

What is Google authorship?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve used Google to search for anything in recent months, you may have noticed that some of the search results have little photos with them \u2013 usually a photo of the person who wrote the article or owns the website.<\/p>\n

The reason those sites and pages have photos is because they are making good use of Google authorship. And here\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

That means more visibility and more visitors to your music website!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll 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:<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

Pretty nifty, huh?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Using Google authorship translates into getting more exposure. And I don\u2019t have to tell you that exposure means you just might attract more fans and sell more music.<\/p>\n

The cool thing is that your happy face has a chance to get out there more. Not only does your \u201cmug\u201d establish that the link is your work, it builds instant credibility and distinguishes you from spammers and other musicians who simply aren\u2019t making use of Google authorship.<\/p>\n

Sounds great, Bob! How do I set it up?<\/h3>\n

1) First, you need to set up a Google+ profile<\/strong>. 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2) Next, you need to have a place where you regularly publish your content<\/strong> – 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.<\/p>\n

3) Then, list the websites you own on your Google+ profile<\/strong> under the \u201ccontributor to\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Finally, connect your publications back to Google<\/strong>. There are two ways to do this:<\/p>\n

1)<\/strong> You can do this by verifying your email address that matches the URL \u2013 for example [username}@musicpromotionblog.com by verifying it with Google on this page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2)<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n