Rel Author Tag - Attributing Content to a Company

[yanaiguana111]

If the content is written by a corporation and cannot be attributed to a specific writer, yet we want to claim the authorship - can a logo be used instead of a headshot in the Google Profile?

Researching the above, and found that its a NO, but it can be done somewhat through rel=publisher tag, which at present is not very useful. Any other thoughts?

[danatanseo]

The answer is yes, absolutely. There is mass confusion over this and there have been many posts in the Q & A about this. I have struggled with this and researched this extensively.

You first need to set up a proper Google+ page for your company. This is tricky as I', sure you've discovered because you don't want that page connected to one specific person's Google profile.

Here is a link to an interview and partial transcript that tells you exactly how to do this correctly:

http://www.widerfunnel.com/events/google-and-search-engine-optimization-an-interview-with-janet-driscoll-miller

Thanks goes to Chris Goward of Wider Funnel Marketing. He interviewed Janet Driscoll Miller at SMX West after her presentation on Google+ and SEO

Here is the excerpt that answered my question about Google+, personal Gmail accounts, Google+ pages for businesses and branding:

"The administration of those pages can be tricky, because it's not exactly like Facebook pages. People expect it to be like Facebook and it's not. You can have multiple administrators but there's still one owner. So, for instance, if you're the business owner, you should go in and do it, so it's under your email address and you always have the ultimate control. So make sure that the person you're giving it to, that either it's an email address that multiple people can get to or that the owner of the company could. The other challenge is that most people use their Gmail account to sign up. Well, the problem is, if I'm the social adminstrator and I leave the company and I used my Gmail address to set up the page, I can never transfer that Gmail, necessarily. So you want to try...you can set up unique profiles, with your own domain name. So I like to recommend that, just because I feel like it's safer for companies."

So here's the best way to set up a Google+ page for business:

1. Have a business owner create the account using a Gmail username related to the business or brand, something like this:

MyBrandName@gmail.com

2. Don't use a gmail account as the email address in the sign up process. Use an email account that is a general email address at your company that multiple people could have access to if necessary., something like this

GooglePlusPage@MyBrandName.com

3. Have your social adminstrator or social media manager and team members associate their Google+ profiles  with the core Google+ page set up by the owner. That way, if they change positions or leave the company, they can be disassociated with the business page, but maintain their personal profile as they move on to something else.

This information was copied from my own response to this Q & A: http://www.seomoz.org/q/do-you-have-to-have-a-google-profile-page-for-a-person-before-you-can-build-a-google-brand-page

I hope this helps. I have actually written to Google asking them to clarify all of this because everyone is so confused. As of yet, they've not provided any help.

Dana