Should we implement rel=author on every past blog post

[lgrozeva]

Hi guys, we're in the process of implementing rel=author markup on our blogs containing more than 3,000 posts. They are written by about 50 different people, and some of them don't blog anymore or are no longer with the company.

Should we have rel=author for all blog posts, even those published in 2006?

Thanks for your help!

[TheeDigital]

Great question!  I think this is a question that a lot of people are thinking about right now.  I know we've thought about it recently.

This question, definitely has a lot to do with company culture.  Remember that the rel=author tags connects to personal pages not company pages, so the important question is, do you still want people who no longer work at your company to support it?  Obviously Google's rel=author does have an SEO impact, however if these people were unhappy when they left the company having their friends see your company in Google search with an image of them might leave a bad taste in there mouth.

If you don't have this problem and don't think people will mind, I say go for it, especially if they are G+ users.  This will affect the searches of people in the Authors circles and hopefully have an overall impact on your search volume.  It will help authors who are no longer with your company, through branding and will help your company overall, so it will be a win/win for both parties.