Google has started enriching its search results today. If a page contains an article in search results, the snippet is accompanied by the author’s name and photo. Because Google relies on semantics defined by microformat and schema.org syntax in this case, the implementation is straightforward. The web designer also has a semantic data validator at his disposal. However, it also has major pitfalls. The author cannot do without a Google Plus profile.
To take advantage of richer page snippets in search results, your site must include a page about the author that you link to each other through your Google Plus profile. Each article must then link to this page. Since these links only lead in one direction, the page about the author must be on the same domain as the articles.
The author page must include a link to their Google Plus profile to verify authorship by both Google and the site. To do this, there is a link with a special URL, which must contain your profile ID and be marked as a microformat rel-me:
<a href="https://plus.google.com/1234567" rel="me"></a>Next, you need to place a link to your website in your Google Plus profile:
Then all you have to do is link from each article to the author’s page using the author microformat:
<a href="/About.aspx" rel="author"></a>The search results show a photo of the author along with their name, which leads to the Google Plus profile:
There are simpler ways to do the same, but these are proprietary implementations. If the email address used in the Google Plus account is from the same domain as the articles, the author can only be tagged with a link to the email address using the mailto protocol. However, expect an increased amount of spam. Another option is to place an icon leading to the Google Plus profile on each page with the article.
This is another interesting use of microformats with a broad impact that could significantly increase interest in them. We will see which implementation will prevail in the future. As competitors pressure antitrust authorities to force Google to consider other social networks, it will become clear that micro-format implementations make a lot more sense. Linking to another social network is then a matter of editing only the page about the author, to which all articles link. Not that dynamic web pages don't allow you to edit all articles equally easily, but then you have to wait much longer for Googlebot to notice all the changes. In addition, if multiple authors contribute to the site, there is a problem with the fact that each of them may not be on all social networks. In this case, the use of microformats instead of proprietary solutions is inevitable.