So how do you drive traffic to your website nowadays? Google has thrown us pandas and penguins that affected the SERPs. Aside from that, algorithm changes have massive repercussion to content. With Social SEO conquering the Internet, Is PageRank still the old reliable when it comes to the quality of a website? Next year, AuthorRank, a new metric to ascertain content quality and search engine relevancy will launch. Search engines used to measure the relevance and quality of a website on how it'll rank in the SERPs.
With AuthorRank, content quality will not be measured by the authority of a domain alone. The online relevance and clout of a person that authored the content will now be the basis in getting it ranked. With this in mind, an author's online reputation will grade them and use that when users search for relevant content.
AuthorRank's mechanism will also be crucial to personal branding. It doesn't matter if you're a bakery owner or a fledgling writer. When you start baking your own content, AuthorRank will find you.
So how will AuthorRank improve social search?
1.) Increased Visibility Through Engagement
AuthorRank is Google's tool to initiate social search. When an author's content gains massive engagement from readers, that content becomes a part of the author's ID on the Web. The more substantial and relevant content is, the more you're visible to AuthorRank. How is your content relevant and of quality? Aside from people sharing it on their networks, comments will validate the quality of shared content as well.
2.) An Effective Lead Generation Tool?
This is a no-brainer. Increased visibility when your content is shared brings a lot to the table including potential clients. Quality content is never ignored, people will share content to their network if they find value in it. The more "personalized" and original your content is, the more it will be shared to a number of networks.
3.) Social Integration Leads to Endorsements
In order to establish AuthorRank, an author should connect their other social accounts to their G+ page using rich snippets once he receives a Google Authorship. So how do you get graded? The great thing about AuthorRank is that it promotes coherence in terms of content sharing, which will have an effect on the amount of social signals such as tweets, shares, and +1's. Comments will also be a crucial aspect in relevancy for one's AuthorRank score. With this in tow, social endorsements will have a major effect in the SERPs and will be a significant metric in Social Search.
4.) The Value of Personal Branding
Social Search is definitely a key aspect in enhancing one's personal branding. Franky Branckaute, Content Jedi at theBobbery, says "AuthorRank will tie our (non walled-garden) Open Graph together and in the future be further used, in an author credibility algorithm, to further define SERPs." The mere mention of credibility is a dynamic keyword for marketers. The more social endorsements you have then the more you're credible, which means opportunities for potential leads will come to you. People are looking for topnotch and quality content, but it won't hurt if to humanize your content and speak to your audience as well.
My Take
Search Marketing is now bounded by social endorsements. PageRank is a mere linchpin that urged Google to initiate Social Search. With AuthorRank, marketers should complement their content with thought leadership in order to establish a personal brand.
People now own the SERPs and not the spiders.