Google’s rel=publisher tag provides Google with information that can be used to determine the relevancy of a company’s site by linking a company’s Google+ page to the company’s website. Implementation of Google’s rel=publisher tag is really quite simple to do, and can be done in four easy steps.
Step 1: Create a Google+ Business Page
If your company does not already have a Google+ business page setup, you will need to create one before implementing this tag. If you already have a Google+ business page, you may proceed to Step 2.
- In order to setup a Google+ Page, you will first need to sign in to your Google+ account (if you don’t already have one, you can create one here).
- Once you are signed in, click on the Pages link, which can be found under the More category on the left, and select Create New Page.
- Then choose Local Business or Place category. Enter your company’s phone number and select Locate. If you don’t see your company’s name on the list, click Add Your Business to Google or Look Up a Different Number if there is another number associated with your company.
- After you have selected the appropriate company, you may then enter or edit your company’s information. Once you have verified that all the information is correct, select Create and your new Google+ Page will be available for use.
Step 2: Add the Rel=Publisher Tag
Add the rel=publisher tag within the head tag of your homepage or the most significant page on your website. The HTML to insert into the head tag should look like this:
<link href=”Your Company’s Google+ Page URL” rel=”publisher”/>
Once the above HTML has been added to your website, you will then have to create a link on your Google+ business page that points back to your website. This link should be the exact URL for the page that the above link was added to.
Step 3: Request Verification
After the appropriate links have been added to both the company’s website and the corresponding Google+ business page, the final step for adding the rel=publisher tag is to request verification from Google. This is Google’s way of verifying that the Google+ page can be trusted. To go through this process, you must first meet the requirements listed on the Google+ page verification request form, and then complete and submit the form.
Step 4: Test
Once the above steps have been completed, test to make sure that the rel=publisher tag has been implemented correctly. This can be easily done through Google’s rich snippet testing tool. If the rel=publisher tag is implemented correctly, this tool will display the markup as it would appear in the Google search results.
