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As 2012 winds down the usual prediction guessing game for 2024 begins. For the Dental SEO industry, that means trying to second guess what nasty wonderfully genius algorithm updates Google has in store for us in 2024. Most of the talk we’re seeing in the last month or two seems to centre on an algorithm Google is prepping to launch, AuthorRank.
When it was first announced it was dismissed by most as another desperate ploy to entice people to use Google+ and as we all know, anything to do with Google+ is instantly dismissed with derision by about half the opinion formers on the net. In fact, only around 9% of tech bloggers are currently making use of AuthorRank, the very group you would expect to be early adopters (Yes, I am aware of the irony of talking about the coming importance of the algorithm while not using it myself for this blog post). But increasing evidence seems to suggest Google has big plans for AuthorRank from an Dental SEO perspective.
AuthorRank (Google’s patent officially names it Agent Rank), is designed to be one of Google’s new quality indicators when it comes to ranking websites and the quality of site content. With the authors Google+ account accredited to the content, the reputation and the authority of the author in the industry they’re writing about will also be taken into consideration. So the more articles you write about Dental SEO for example, Google will see you as an authoritative source in said industry and should help give your website/content a boost in the rankings. If ‘content is king’, then authorship will be queen.
The bonuses of having good AuthorRank are beginning to reveal themselves in the SERPs, those authors with multiple articles already accredited to their Google+ account are receiving higher rankings. While it has not officially launched, the effects of preparing for it are beginning to trickle out.
It’s clear to see what the long term target of AuthorRank is, Guest Posts. It’s going to become much harder to use guest posting as an Dental SEO tool without a portfolio, if you will, of articles you have already written, especially when it comes to link building & baiting the more popular sites on the internet with the better link juice. In theory webmasters will only take content off proven and expert writers, which is the objective. Again, in theory it should help or even increase the quality of content as bloggers and editors can see the level of quality of a writer’s past content and knowledge.
As I’ve no doubt made a hash of explaining it, this comprehensive SEOmoz article should do a better job of explaining it than I have. AuthorRank is coming, Google has shown us a clear way (for a change!) and those that don’t implement it are going to be playing catch up, like me at this rate.
(Image credit: SEOmoz)
