Author Rank Factors – How to improve your content’s visibility

In 2013 a new quality metric will take the spotlight when it comes to page quality and search engine ranking. This metric is affectionately known as Author Rank or Agent Rank.

Building Your AuthorRank

• Set Up Google Authorship
• Include all quality content that you have written using Rich Snippet Markup
• Create content that is high-quality and relevant
• Through Google Plus post, engage, share, comment and build your circle and backlinks
• Promote your Author Hub

Google considers over 200 ranking factors when determining where our sites rank in organic search, so it’s safe to say that they’ll be using plenty of signals to calculate AuthorRank. This is done using rich snippets.

The average PageRank of an author’s content.
• The average number of +1s and Google+ shares the author’s content receives. The number of Google+ circles an author is in.
• Reciprocal connections to other high AuthorRank authors and the influence and relevancy of those providing the social endorsements
• The number and authority of sites an author’s content has been published to and the quality and relevancy of inbound links pointing to the content.
• The engagement level of an author’s native Google+ content (i.e., posts to Google+).
• The level of on-site engagement for an author’s content (i.e., comments and author’s responses to comments). Author’s comments on social networks (such as Yelp). Any number of importance/authority metrics on social networks that Google deems trustworthy enough (Twitter Tweets, Facebook Likes, Google +1s, Quora, LinkedIn, SlideShare, shares etc.).
• YouTube subscribers and/or engagement on authored videos (speculation: multiple-attribution author markup for YouTube videos coming soon).
• Real world authority indicators like published works on Google Books or Google Scholar. Outside authority indicators (e.g., the presence of a Wikipedia page).
• The more an author writes on a topic, and the more engagement with that content, the higher that author’s rank will be for a specific topic.

Brands that do not currently have authors with a strong online reputation should conduct author outreach for short-term content. They should also build up the AuthorRank of those within their organization to leverage in the long term. Author Outreach involves:

• Conduct Google Search using Targeted Keywords
• Find how many Google Plus Circles that they are in through the Rich Snippet
• Rank by Number of Circles and Times Appearing in SERP for Keywords

Author Rank References:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-in-2013-the-rising-influence-of-authorrank/52346/
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-prepare-for-authorrank-and-get-the-jump-on-google