Title: Be the Author… Author: Samuel Wood (Otto) Published: April 16, 2013 --- [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/otto42/) [Samuel Wood (Otto)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/otto42/) 4:14 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 Tags: [schema ( 2 )](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/tag/schema/) # Be the Author… So, I’ve had this working for a while, but not a lot of people noticed, so I figured I’d spell it out explicitly. WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. [https://wordpress.org/](https://wordpress.org/) pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. pages have special magic Google markup. This is what allows many of the Google tricks we do for plugin pages to work. If you’ve ever searched for one of our plugins on Google, you may have noticed that it says it’s “free” as well as showed the rating as stars and such. This is all using Google’s Rich Snippets functionality with markup from the schema.org specifications. One of the magic tricks we do is to point to your WordPress.org Profiles page as the “author” of the plugin. It’s your plugin, after all, and you deserve the credit. But promoting the authorship is only half the picture, it helps if Google also knows who you are as an author. Then they can do something clever too: ![googleauthor](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/files/2013/04/googleauthor.png) This is a sample entry for one of my plugins from the [Rich Snippets Testing tool](http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets). The photo and authorship info may not show up on every search result that gets my plugin up on Google’s search results, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. But to get this information to be capable of showing, Google needs to connect your profile and user information on WordPress.org with a profile and user information from Google +. To do this, there’s two steps: **Step 1**: Edit your WordPress.org profile to include a link to your Google+ account. You can do this yourself, and you can see how I did it on [my Profiles page](https://profiles.wordpress.org/Otto42/). I included this link in my “About Me” section: https://plus.google.com/100201852715113506716? rel=author Note that the ?rel=author bit is important, that’s what tells Google that you are the author here and links your G+ account to this page. **Step 2**: Tell Google that you contribute to WordPress.org. To do this, go to your Google+ Profile. In the “Links” section you will find a “Contributor To” area. You need to add two links to this area: * The first link will be a link to your own profile page, on http://profiles.wordpress. org. This completes the connection and tells Google that you and the profile are the same person. Because your plugin page automatically links to your profile with the author information, making this connection creates an indirect authorship connection to all your plugins. * The second link you need to make is a link to http://wordpress.org itself. This is because Google wants there to be an explicit connection on the same domain name (not a subdomain), and so this link is required. And hey, you’re contributing to WordPress.org every time you update your plugin or theme, so well done there! 🙂 After doing both these steps, you can try your plugin’s URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress. org in the Rich Snippets tool yourself, and voila, you’ll see the magic. Note that you may not see it in the actual Google search results for weeks, and it may never appear. Google shows snippets like these on terms of their own choosing. All you’re doing here is to give them the data that lets their engine do the magic, if it can. [#schema](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/tag/schema/) ### Share this: * [ Threads ](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2013/04/16/be-the-author/?share=threads) * [ Mastodon ](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2013/04/16/be-the-author/?share=mastodon) * [ Bluesky ](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2013/04/16/be-the-author/?share=bluesky) * [ X ](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2013/04/16/be-the-author/?share=x) * [ Facebook ](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2013/04/16/be-the-author/?share=facebook) * [ LinkedIn ](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2013/04/16/be-the-author/?share=linkedin) 1. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/2e08023fe3fecf48524491fdaf75ebaf2f9c001ef519a8436cb6ab96293b509e? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 2. [Gabriel Reguly](https://profiles.wordpress.org/gabriel-reguly/) 4:24 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 3. Wonderful Otto! Thanks for sharing this. 4. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b49a7cfc8ca91e2a80cb1fa99bf2bc6e8feaed0a2cd7318ba0c38e9bbb629ec6? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 5. [Charleston Software Associates](https://profiles.wordpress.org/charlestonsw/) 4:28 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 6. Coolness! Thanks for the step-by-step guide, Otto. Works great! 7. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c1d3a178d0b39565183051195916eb759a0c76bdc24f8154ea16a69d8389a3bf? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 8. Anonymous User 5:39 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 9. I didn’t even know you could use HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. in the “About Me” section. Learn something new everyday! 🙂 10. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/250257111d1248c34046552bbcdf6999949ef56b2f992dd5eb39bf45cabeb18a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Samuel Wood (Otto)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/otto42/) 9:12 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 * Limited HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites.. Pretty much the same HTML you can use in comments. 🙂 - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6845456dbc9056f20a4cd50a6b95db78f2ae31df5c0601c613ee5b8939c41a82? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Jon Brown](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jb510/) 1:31 am _on_ April 17, 2013 - Very limited, wish we could use a little more… line breaks? lists? * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/250257111d1248c34046552bbcdf6999949ef56b2f992dd5eb39bf45cabeb18a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Samuel Wood (Otto)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/otto42/) 1:39 am _on_ April 17, 2013 * Don’t tempt me to limit it to 140 characters. 😉 11. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/35f5693da773a4ec35124e9a69fcb980b27274de49d6acc406f9d29c93e5fd7b? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 12. [Peter](http://profiles.wordpress.org/donutz/) 6:14 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 13. +1 for Otto! 14. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/326050ce389841d4cfd722a69eef43bc201279d09547ff5ddc84a0572198492c? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 15. [Chuck Reynolds](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ryno267/) 6:26 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 16. never had my about section filled out. htmlHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. ftw. thx – good setup. 17. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/64e0feadff7575b1389b5460ceec275d1de1eb16dcc1648e35f5779453de72e0? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 18. [realloc](https://profiles.wordpress.org/realloc/) 7:50 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 19. +1 Excellent!! 20. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5c6a49f4f13fc4cdabc66ce7b1caec12755fe628d90039c0e112654f80e50193? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 21. [Syed Balkhi](https://profiles.wordpress.org/smub/) 8:43 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 22. Sweet. I just added authorship on my profile 🙂 23. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/23d7cc5128877df8f9ad430fd0c4be747e3ad33def87dd1daf3d2d779c0a5ae4? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 24. Anonymous User 8:52 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 25. Great Tips. I’ve just updated my profiles.. 26. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/689ddc4f33541ac4a001d247e560f8805d219a95e7e42a16e0d22b9409f385cb? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 27. [Andrey "Rarst" Savchenko](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rarst/) 9:13 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 28. Had you considered implementing `link rel=”author” url=”[g+ profile]”` in pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. pages headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes.? It will simplify setup and won’t need that “indirect” connection through profile page. 29. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/250257111d1248c34046552bbcdf6999949ef56b2f992dd5eb39bf45cabeb18a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Samuel Wood (Otto)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/otto42/) 9:17 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 * That would require us to set up a special field somewhere for a G+ account, and if that social-network, then why not add others too, and yadda-yadda.. * This was a freebie, basically. I didn’t have to make any code changes to do it. We’ve had rel=author in there pointing to profiles forever, and the schema. org markup has been there for at least a year or more. * I just noticed that I seemed to have been the only one to have done this already when I was looking through some search results today, so I felt like a post to show people how was in order. I did fiddle with the markup a bit today for other reasons, but not for this post. 30. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/44d44e1d2d664f5b98ee76bcb523c12f3a00ac3d83028a11c328b2a4dfcdf63c? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 31. [Marcel Brinkkemper](https://profiles.wordpress.org/macbrink/) 9:14 pm _on_ April 16, 2013 32. This is great stuff. +1 for @rarst suggestion 33. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6845456dbc9056f20a4cd50a6b95db78f2ae31df5c0601c613ee5b8939c41a82? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 34. [Jon Brown](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jb510/) 1:32 am _on_ April 17, 2013 35. This is fantastic Otto, Thanks for the detailed write up. Would have taken way longer than I have patience to figure it all out on my own. 36. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/daa702ad5f6ce304f6f22fc88abd770a52bc3a6e865bf43f279a6537fa2ddd4a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 37. [takien](https://profiles.wordpress.org/takien/) 2:45 am _on_ April 17, 2013 38. Done, thank you 🙂 39. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/238dbec8061a36300041be776fd353aa771c591d99ec63dfa253dfe37e225263? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 40. [toddhalfpenny](https://profiles.wordpress.org/toddhalfpenny/) 9:35 am _on_ April 17, 2013 41. Absolutely brilliant… lovely work… thanks. 42. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4afd830f71468aa93bb1c1953c2ad4ed93cd4316bc0a4db3614ff13a775cf4a5? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 43. [Eric Amundson](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sewmyheadon/) 2:26 pm _on_ April 17, 2013 44. Thanks for the write-up, Otto. 45. Looks like the WP.org pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. repo alphabetizes plugin contributors, correct? 46. In trying to connect my profile, I found that the Rich Snippet Testing Tool, I get an error saying: 47. “Note: The testing tool currently only checks the first rel=author link listed on a webpage for a link to a Google+ profile” 48. Issue is that a former contributor has a name that starts earlier in the alphabet, so it’s always finding his author link first, but since he’s not linking to Google +, his avatarAvatar An avatar is an image or illustration that specifically refers to a character that represents an online user. It’s usually a square box that appears next to the user’s name. isn’t showing in results. 49. Any ideas on how to force Google to see the profile of the correct user? 50. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/250257111d1248c34046552bbcdf6999949ef56b2f992dd5eb39bf45cabeb18a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Samuel Wood (Otto)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/otto42/) 2:36 pm _on_ April 17, 2013 * I don’t think it is sorted, actually. I think it shows up in the order in the Contributors line in the readme.txt file. But if you have an example I can see, I can track the code down. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/87f8c2bbfabbae3462bbab2c83ce82763c7ff91bc632b64f3af7e24d929633f6? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Aaron D. Campbell](https://profiles.wordpress.org/aaroncampbell/) 8:10 pm _on_ April 17, 2013 - Google “[WordPress Twitter Widget](https://www.google.com/search?q=wordpress+twitter+widget)” and you’ll see Sara’s pretty face, and she’s the [last contrib in the list](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/twitter-widget-pro/trunk/readme.txt). However, [check the Rich Snippet Tool](http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fextend%2Fplugins%2Ftwitter-widget-pro%2F&html=) and it shows me. I’m the first contrib in the list. I’d prefer it to show Range, but that one’s in the middle. - I’m not certain this is the pattern, but that seems to be what’s happening now. I’ll try to tweak the contrib list on a few plugins and see what happens. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/250257111d1248c34046552bbcdf6999949ef56b2f992dd5eb39bf45cabeb18a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Samuel Wood (Otto)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/otto42/) 8:17 pm _on_ April 17, 2013 * The readme.txt for that pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. has the people in the same order as the author listing on the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. does: * [https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/twitter-widget-pro/tags/2.5.3/readme.txt](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/twitter-widget-pro/tags/2.5.3/readme.txt) * I have no idea how/why Google shows faces or chooses between them. The rich snippets tool says first one wins, but this is neither the first nor the last time that Google has given me false or contradictory information. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/87f8c2bbfabbae3462bbab2c83ce82763c7ff91bc632b64f3af7e24d929633f6? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Aaron D. Campbell](https://profiles.wordpress.org/aaroncampbell/) 8:22 pm _on_ April 17, 2013 - Yeah, the rich snippets tool says the first wins (and displays the first person), but actual Google searches seem to be showing the last. Since you’re right about the order of contribs matching the readme, I’m going to try reording some to see what happens. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/87f8c2bbfabbae3462bbab2c83ce82763c7ff91bc632b64f3af7e24d929633f6? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Aaron D. Campbell](https://profiles.wordpress.org/aaroncampbell/) 6:33 pm _on_ April 18, 2013 - I gave it a little over 24 hours after the change, and as best as I can tell, Google just likes Sara better. She seems to be listed no matter the order. It may still be cached, but either way it’s still really cool. - [https://www.google.com/search?q=WordPress+Youtube+Upload+Widget](https://www.google.com/search?q=WordPress+Youtube+Upload+Widget) [https://www.google.com/search?q=WordPress+WP+Google+Analytics](https://www.google.com/search?q=WordPress+WP+Google+Analytics) [https://www.google.com/search?q=WordPress+Twitter+Widget](https://www.google.com/search?q=WordPress+Twitter+Widget) * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/250257111d1248c34046552bbcdf6999949ef56b2f992dd5eb39bf45cabeb18a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Samuel Wood (Otto)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/otto42/) 6:37 pm _on_ April 18, 2013 * 24 hours isn’t enough time. Those things likely won’t alter for weeks or more. I know WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. [https://wordpress.org/](https://wordpress.org/) is well-indexed by Google, but seriously, their snippets logic is confounding sometimes. Best to just set it the way you want and let it do its own thing. You can’t force it. * Mine didn’t start showing up until I changed my G+ pic to be a “ recognizable headshot”. Guess they don’t like my scuba avatarAvatar An avatar is an image or illustration that specifically refers to a character that represents an online user. It’s usually a square box that appears next to the user’s name.. It’s a shame too, I like the blue one. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/250257111d1248c34046552bbcdf6999949ef56b2f992dd5eb39bf45cabeb18a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Samuel Wood (Otto)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/otto42/) 6:20 pm _on_ April 20, 2013 - After screwing around with this for a while, and reading up on the topic, Google seems to get very, very confused with multiple rel=authors. So I just now changed it to only have one rel=author on the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. page, and that will be the first person listed. - Hopefully, this should eliminate the ambiguity and cause more predictable results. 51. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/feb0632521ce93c0a48fbb6f29f231c04d6c28809b83a1c1177f88dec2e3f3f0? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 52. Brad Dalton 8:56 pm _on_ April 17, 2013 53. Been using this link on my profile for a while already but didn’t add the ?rel =author to the end of the Google url which does make a difference. 54. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/1c05abf2abcf36b2eb2a0f23c8fb195fe55997c9f2bc06318b587731fa5e84dc? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 55. [Mert Yazicioglu](https://profiles.wordpress.org/merty/) 9:31 am _on_ April 20, 2013 56. Before doing this, my pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. WordPress Move was the second result in Google when you searched for “wordpress move”. Now, however, it’s on the third page. 57. Not sure if it’s a coincidence. 58. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/1c05abf2abcf36b2eb2a0f23c8fb195fe55997c9f2bc06318b587731fa5e84dc? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Mert Yazicioglu](https://profiles.wordpress.org/merty/) 1:14 pm _on_ April 23, 2013 * Nevermind, seems to be back at where it was 🙂 Comments are closed. # Post navigation [← Google Maps JavaScript v2 API To Be Removed](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2013/04/11/google-maps-javascript-v2-api-to-be-removed/) [Plugins to embed audio/video or use HTML, please read →](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2013/04/22/plugins-to-embed-audiovideo-or-use-html-please-read/)