Installing rel=publisher

[theLotter]

Hi,

I want to add rel=publisher to my website.  According to Google support I should use the following tag -

Add to homepage - [rel="publisher">Find us on Google+](https://plus.google.com/my page])

A few questions:

• Is this in addition to my social media button linking to my page to direct users there or should it be used instead?
• Where does "find us on Google +" appear on the page - or is this a hidden instruction only meant for Google?
• Could I add the code without the "find us on Google +" so that it would read
• Can this be added anywhere on the homepage (as implied by Google) or should it be on the meta head?

Thanks!

[TomRayner]

Hi Sara

The method I've used without fail on a whole host of sites is this:

Make sure you have the URL in the "links" section on the About tab in your Google+ business page.

Once it's there, simply add this bit of code anywhere in the code:

That's all you need to do.  Google will verify the code and the Google+ page fairly quickly after that.  The code only needs to be present on the homepage for the profile to verify, but you won't be harmed if it appears on all the pages on your site, if you have a bit of code that adds it automatically.

Ensure that the code is in the section of your homepage.  Hope this helps!

[theLotter]

Thanks!

Just to confirm, this is in addition to the social media icon + link visible to users, right?

[TomRayner]

That's totally optional - but if you want actual users to be able to see your Google+ page, then yes it's definitely a good idea to keep the icon.  So I'd definitely include both.

One does not require the other, however, in order to implement the rel=publisher code - so if you ever need to remove the icon, you can do so without any problems.