Global Marketing Leader Google Pulls the Plug on Authorship

 Posted on September 24,2014 in OVC Lawyer Marketing

Google Authorship once provided blog authors the ability to connect their published posts to their Google+ profile page. This connection was designed to provide a measurement of a blogger’s level of influence, ultimately increasing one’s search engine ranking. This social media experiment has now ended as Google has removed authorship markup as a tool websites and bloggers could utilize. If you are still skeptical, Google’s Webmaster Tools has officially posted the final verdict.

So how does this recent turn of events haunt social media marketing, especially for the legal community? When active, Google Authorship could easily monitor an attorney’s level of influence from content posted with Google markup by displaying search results weighted with strong influential content for the search originator. Another feature was that both the author’s influence, as well as the searcher’s inner social circle, could easily guide users to a specific profile page. As a result, Google would display search results and content from trusted sources, providing a high level of online visibility.

Another loss with regard to Google Authorship was the ability for an attorney to place a face with their blog content. Previously, Google would link the professional headshot of the author to blog content as a link to their Google+ profile, prominently displayed when content was a result of a prospective client’s search efforts. Google disabled this option before it actually announced the decision to pull the plug on Google Authorship altogether.

How did Google arrive at the decision to seal the fate of Google Authorship?

Social media marketing managers and experienced online marketing firms for the legal community may still ponder this question. No one has a definitive answer, but this determination by Google raises yet another question: is Google+ also facing a similar fate?

John Mueller, a Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, offered this explanation about Google Authorship:  "Unfortunately, we have observed that this information is not as useful to our users as we had hoped, and can even distract from those results." While helpful, this explanation may fuel the fire when it comes to the possible life expectancy of Google+.

The primary consensus of why Google Authorship may have fallen by the wayside is that many users did not correctly utilize the program, with authors publishing on major sites but not connecting with the content they were providing. The end result? Inaccurate data.

Does this have an impact on social media as a method to provide relevant blog posts to entice prospective clients? Perhaps, but continuing to provide quality legal blog posts will remain an engaging and fresh social media marketing tool that will continue to provide productive leads and results regardless of changes the search engine giant makes.

For those in the legal community who count on relevant blogs to spark search results via Google Authorship, there is no harm in continuing to use it. However, there will be no measurable advantage going forward.

As to the fate of Google+, we all await any breaking news but as Google honors its commitment to semantic search options, there will certainly be advancement in the development of identifying and tracking authors with a high degree of relevancy. Google’s Knowledge Vault Project supports this theory.

Changes to social media marketing products can happen at the speed of light. Some programs are here today and quickly gone tomorrow. As an attorney, your area of expertise may not include social media or the conglomerate world of Google, but hiring an experienced online marketing firm specializing in the legal field may be one of the resourceful decisions of your career. Keeping abreast of the technological workings of Google and other social media platforms not only increases your online presence, but your bottom line.

The experienced team at OVC, Inc. understands your schedule is tight. Continually monitoring what is currently available in the social media marketing arena can become a full-time job all on its own. At OVC INC., we speak Google. We can direct you to products that will benefit your practice and steer you away from the programs not suited to your marketing goals. Contact our offices at 630-635-8000 today for more information on how we can assist with adapting your social media marketing campaign amidst the underlying clamor of Google buzz.

About the Author: Greg Wildman is the President of OVC, INC. Since 1999, Greg has developed hundreds of websites for attorneys from his company's inception as Online Video Concepts, LLC to the modern era's OVC, INC. Greg's knowledge of law firm marketing has helped many attorneys establish online presences through custom website development, Search Engine Optimization, legal directory partnerships, social media marketing, content writing and more.