Authorship Photo Not showing in for last 6 months now

[Modi]

Hi - Early last year we activated Authorship Photo which remained in SERP till Nov'12... However, post that the Authorship Photo is not showing, neither the schema rating tags are showing in Search engines

We tried a lot by changing lot of hits and tries, still to no avail.. We have written to google twice for it (they had a link for which author whose photo now showing after everything is right can send site links )- but to no avail....

The Rich snippet shows Authorship Photo, Schema rating. Even, Google custom search on our own site own page showing it... However, this does not translated into any of these shown in actual Google Search Engines.

Our Site is :- http://www.mycarhelpline.com/

Sample Links of rich snippet

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mycarhelpline.com%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_easyblog%26view%3Dentry%26id%3D94%26Itemid%3D91&html=

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mycarhelpline.com%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_latestnews%26view%3Ddetail%26n_id%3D467%26Itemid%3D10&html=

Even google custom search showing schema rating tags for searched keywords like :- Ford Ecosport, Tata Nano Diesel .... However, on actual search the schema tags are now shown

Can anyone suggest - what am i missing, actually lost on this...... Worse - our SERP are somehow also slowly coming down for some of the main keywords too

[Chris.Menke]

Gagan,

Try removing the rel=publisher markup.  I think it will work then.

[Modi]

Thanks Chris, but i have checked again - there is no publisher markup, rather its the author tag which is there on the pages

[Chris.Menke]

I see it's commented out in the header of the homepage but I'd give removing that a shot just to remove any doubt. I had a client with both author and publisher markup on the homepage (it wasn't commented out, though) and had the same issue you're having.

[Modi]

Somehow the author photo still not showing

Have done checks

• ?rel=author at end of google + - Yes

• Profile discovery - yes

• Contributor link in G+ - yes

• Email validation - yes

• Photo fitted in - yes

• Rich snippet showing authorship established with photo - yes

Still - the authorship photo is not coming in Google search... Making insane - why ?

[Christy-Correll]

Hi Gagan, I would suggest trying two things:

(1) Change the contributor link to your home page, http://www.mycarhelpline.com/. (It is currently linked to your author page using the three-way Authorship setup, which is only listed in older Google documentation regarding verifying Authorship.

(2) Swap out your headshots on both your website, Google+ page, and any other public profiles you may have with one that is of as high quality as possible. The one you have is a bit dark, and could be enlarged and cropped in a bit closer (especially on your website.)

I hope that works! I understand your frustration. Authorship photos can show for certain queries and not for others, disappear for unknown reasons, display in tiny dimensions, and sometimes show other authors' profile photos --- even when you've done everything right! I've noticed that swapping out the photo works in several cases, though.

Cheers,

Christy

PS - I would add the Rel=Author snippet to your news pages as well (vs. using the three-way linking method of verifying Authorship.

[Modi]

Hi Christy,

Many thanks for taking time to analyze it, I have made all recommended changes

a) Put up contributor link as home page

b) Made Photo more visible & clear with much better headshot

c) Also, added rel=author in news too - as direct link between Google profile, rather than the previous 3 way linkin' process

Fingers crossed, will owe you - if its done..

[Christy-Correll]

Great! I'll cross my fingers, too. Remember, Google displays Authorship information at its discretion. Say, I just came across this article on SearchEngineLand about Google working to fix a bug that affects Authorship. Apparently Barry Schwartz has experience problems with Authorship himself. Have you read this article?

[Modi]

Yep, thanks for the video. Lets see when the Authorship photo comes in, will let know

Can i safely presume now - that i have to make no changes in authorship code and link from our site, and should wait for Seach Giant to show some mercy... Thanks for your follow-up message on it

[Modi]

Hi Christy,

The photo does not shown in for our site, though the link in question of Search Engine Land - Barry photo has reinstated in Search Engines as checked.

Presuming that the method - we have adopted for Google Authorship as linking is correct in our site - is there anything we can do more or may sit on it to see some miracle from Search Giant to show the photo

[Modi]

Does Google has any such penalty to sites for not showing rich snippets too

I have checked with 2 developers - the schema tags (ratings and offers) too are put up correctly - however they still do not show up in search engine - Google

If there is any such penalty - how to recover from it - when entire coding is correct.

• As Authorship Photo not showing. Also, the schema offer tag is not showing, however it shows in rich snippet - http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mycarhelpline.com%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_newcar%26view%3Dproduct%26Itemid%3D2%26id%3D14%26vid%3D193

• Also, the schema rating tag too is not showing in search results

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mycarhelpline.com%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_easyblog%26view%3Dentry%26id%3D38%26Itemid%3D91

Any suggestions pls

[Christy-Correll]

Hi Gagan,

Guess what? It looks like Authorship and rich snippets for product review ratings are now selectively appearing in Google search results!

(See screenshots for the following query below.) http://www.google.com/#output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=Tata+Nano:+Prices%2C+Specs+of+Nano+with+Safety+and+Style+Features+Posted+by%09+Gagan+Modi+&oq=Tata+Nano:+Prices%2C+Specs+of+Nano+with+Safety+and+Style+Features+Posted+by%09+Gagan+Modi+&gs_l=hp.3...1133.1133.0.1357.1.1.0.0.0.0.149.149.0j1.1.0....0...1c.2.23.psy-ab..1.0.0.WmXuBYtG5ls&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.50165853%2Cd.aWc%2Cpv.xjs.s.en_US.seW1cfrvSKg.O&fp=9279df2c7824cae6&biw=1326&bih=644.

Increased engagement with your posts and your Google+ profile may result in Authorship displaying more often. This is something to consider working towards. I would definitely work on increasing the quality of your blog posts. The content of many of your posts is very similar to product descriptions and reviews on other sites. This should also help your rankings, too (not to mention drastically reduce the changes of your site being penalized for duplicate content.)

Cheers! (Christy)

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[Modi]

Thanks Christy for following it up. Appreciate much!!

But did you notice - that certain keywords are striked down as shown in example search or even below one.

For ex- https://www.google.co.in/?gws_rd=cr#bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=92ef3bb12eec5b6c&q=mycarhelpline+ford+ecosport+gagan+modi

**Look at the keyword been striked down_. _**Now - who will write keywords like

"Tata Nano: Prices, Specs of Nano with Safety and Style Features Posted by Gagan Modi " or

"mycarhelpline ford ecosport gagan modi"

I have also seen this earlier - but hardly in 1 out of 1000 queries.

Baffled why is Authorship not showing !!!. Refer keywords like in Google.co.in - where site coming without authorship photo

• Nissan Juke India - https://www.google.co.in/?gws_rd=cr#bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=92ef3bb12eec5b6c&q=nissan+juke+india

- major rto forms - https://www.google.co.in/?gws_rd=cr#bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=92ef3bb12eec5b6c&q=major+rto+forms

- how to find car manufacturing date india - https://www.google.co.in/?gws_rd=cr#bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=92ef3bb12eec5b6c&q=how+to+find+car+manufacturing+date+india

[Christy-Correll]

Hi Gagan, are you asking why Authorship does not consistently display for a particular blog post in the SERPs? (That is, why it shows for some keyword searches and not others?) Thank you in advance for the clarification.

[Christy-Correll]

Hi Gagan, to be more clear, what do you mean by keywords that are "striked down?" Thanks in advance for clarifying. ~Christy

[Modi]

Hi, First my apologies, i missed ur last reply

Below are screenshots, see the keywords been striked out

http://www.screencast.com/t/j68JewmmHTJe

http://www.screencast.com/t/EzEOMsxV41

[Chris.Menke]

Gagan,

I'm going to guess that the search you did to get the results you show in the images had the words that are struck out used in quotation marks.  Google will provide results for a search query with multiple words each used in quotations even if there are no pages that include all those words.  It represents those results by showing the quoted words that are not on the page with a strike through.

[Chris.Menke]

Actually, I'm going to revise that answer.  When google provides the "Search for similar searches" option on the results page, such as with this search, it will show terms that were used in the query but were not found on the page as struck through.

[Christy-Correll]

Hi Gagan, thanks for the clarification. Chris is correct about why Google is striking through some terms in the SERPs. But we digress ... back to Authorship!

As I noted earlier in this thread, I'd work on increasing engagement with your site content, as well as boosting the authority of your Google+ profile. This may result in Authorship displaying more often, for more queries. I would also definitely work on increasing the quality of your blog posts. The content of many of your posts is very similar to product descriptions and reviews on other sites. This should help your rankings, too (not to mention drastically reduce the changes of your site being penalized for duplicate content.) Hope that helps!