HubPages Profile missing rel=me and incorrect use of rel=author

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   Glenn Stokposted 13 years ago

   It's great that HubPages automatically includes rel=author on all our hubs pointing to out profile. But Google gives me an error message stating that my HP profile page has rel=author pointing to itself. This is not correct and needs to be removed in the profile. Profiles should not have rel=author. This is only to be placed in hubs (or any article, blog, etc we write anywhere)and it points to our profile. But Profiles need a rel=me that points to our Google profile (for those of us who created that). And presently we can't complete that step in our HubPages Profile.
   
   To complete the entire requirement to prove authorship to Google and have it verified, we need to be able to include rel=me in our HP profile page that points to our Google profile.
   
   I hope HP adds this feature soon so all Hubbers can complete our verified authorship between our HubPages Profile and our Google Profile.
   
   Once complete, authorship can be tested by using the Google's Rich Snippets Testing Tool and placing our HP profile URL in the field on that page. Right now it fails for HubPages.

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   Cagsilposted 13 years ago

   Could this be the cause for the plunge many people have experienced on HP?

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   Aficionadaposted 13 years ago

   Hey, Glenn, did you ever read Marisa's forum thread on this topic?  There was some detailed explanation of how to do it, but in the end I think those who tried said it was not working properly.  But I'm not sure.
   
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/82093
   
   [In that thread, she referenced her earlier thread:
   
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/81603 ]

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      Glenn Stokposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Aficionada, Thanks for that link.  I actually did not see that forum thread. But I read it now and also added a reply to one of Jason's posts where he said he didn't know why it's not working.
      
      I realize it's a complicated issue for non-programmers. So I can imagine a lot of Hubbers are frustrated.
      
      I have this working and verified by Google on another site. So I know quite well how Google has implemented it. Hopefully I can shed some light on this whole thing...
      
      Originally Google implemented a way for authors to verify their authorship by pointing all their articles (no matter what site it is on) to their profile on that particular site by using the rel=author tag. In our case... Hubs point to our HubPages profile. They also gave us a way to point our profile to our Google Profile by using the rel=me tag.
      
      The first item was already done for us automatically by HP.  The second item we were originally stuck with because HP does not let us use HTML coding in out profile. 
      
      Google realized this is a problem, not only on HubPages. So they implemented an alternative method to do the second part without the need to use HTML.
      
      Instead of using the rel=me tag, you can point your HP profile to your Google Profile by including "?rel=author" at the end of the link to Google. You may think this should be "?rel=me" and that makes more sense. But trust me on this one. I think someone at Google confused the issue and that's how it needs to be specified. So we need to do it that way.
      
      But there is another step... You also need to include a + sign at the start or end of the anchor text. We can do this right now. I added it to my HP profile. But it still doesn't work. And I think it's because HP's code that automatically puts the tags in our hubs that points to our profile, also is putting that tag in our profile.  That makes Google interpret our profile as a hub and they give an error message.  I explained that in the other forum thread.

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   Aficionadaposted 13 years ago

   Hi Glenn -
   
   I've been away for a few hours, just got back and actually read the other thread before this one.  Your explanation is very clear and helpful, and it makes perfect sense in showing why the tag is not working for those who have tried it.  (I haven't gotten that far yet.)  Thank you for taking the time to make it clear for those of us who know zilch about programming!

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   Maralexaposted 13 years ago

   Glenn!  I seem to have the rel=me link imbedded in my profile that goes directly to my google profile page.   My google profile page goes to my HubPages profile page by simply linking it.  What am I missing?  I can't keep track of these threads and know what to do.  The only thing is I don't have a +Google or a Google+ account.  I had to apply for it.  Don't know what that is all about but I really do want all the bells and whistles.  Thanks for all your help.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Maralexa, the point is that even though the links work (which they do, for all of us), that doesn't mean Google sees it as proof of authorship, because it's not the right kind of link.

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         Glenn Stokposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Maralexa, You don't need Google+, that's Google's version of Facebook. Their way of competing with their own social network. You don't need it. You can still prove your authorship as soon as HP fixes the one remaining bug that I reported.

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      cameciobposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Deleted
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         Glenn Stokposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         That will confuse everyone. We don't need Google+ for authorship. This thread is about authorship, not Google+, which is their social networking.

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            cameciobposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Deleted
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               Glenn Stokposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               But she does not need it for setting up authorship. I was trying to explain that to her since she is under the impression that she needs it. The fact that Google requires a + sign in the anchor text is confusing a lot of people. They think it means Google+. One has nothing to do with the other.
               
               The there is a third thing, the +1 button, which is a different animal altogether. Google just likes to use + on everything lately.

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                  cameciobposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  I got your point glenn. But I did it because i thought she needed a google + social networking site.
                  I will delet my posts and my invitation also.

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                     Glenn Stokposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     cameciob, No problem. I know you are very kind with wanting to help her. I was just trying to keep her focused on what's necessary. She stumbled on something that made her think she needed to join Google's new social network group. Google makes it clear in their blog that it's not required to prove authorship.  Nevertheless, thanks for your concern and willingness to help.

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                        Greekgeekposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        Glenn, bravo for raising this coherently. I was poking my nose in the "metadata" fad a year ago, thought, "I can't see how to implement this on article sites where I don't own the code," and let it be. Marissa's post goosed me to get my act in gear, study the topic again, and implement it.
                        
                        It worked! I saw a 25% increase in Google traffic starting a few days after I implemented it on another article submission site comparable to Hubpages*. As you say, all we need from HP is to close the loop by letting us link to our Google profile correctly.
                        
                        If Hubpages doesn't trust us to muck directly with HTML, then how about a field/slot on our profile where we can enter a link, and Hubpages adds the rel="me" link for us. It could work on the same principle as the nofollow/dofollow links on our Hubs; we have to maintain a certain hubscore for the rel="me" to be there.
                        
                        I don't believe a site will lose  traffic if we don't implement validated authorship. But I believe that some authors may gain traffic by implementing it. It will vary by author. 
                        
                        *I can't be 100% sure that author validation was the reason for the spike, but at the least I can say that other search engines didn't show a traffic spike; it was only Google traffic.

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                           Glenn Stokposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                           Greekgeek - I am also on the other site and saw you there. I also implemented and verified my authorship there. As for HP, Jason replied to my post and it will be done here in some way, hopefully soon.

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   Maralexaposted 13 years ago

   Oh Marisa, I get that!  Thank you so much.  As I said to Glenn, if it were not for you and Glenn I would not be getting anywhere with all this.  Thanks, thanks, thanks.

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   dungeonraiderposted 13 years ago

   Clicking your name with the + on your profile took me to my own google profile page.

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      Glenn Stokposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      That's because she didn't have the URL coded right.

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   Maralexaposted 13 years ago

   Hi Cameciob, I took your invitation and  set up a Google+ account.  Thank you.  I didn't know that we were trying to prove our authorship with all this.  I thought we were just trying to link our profile with our google profile.  So now i am just waiting until I hear that HP has the code.  Thanks to you all.

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      Glenn Stokposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Maralexa, I hope you are not totally confused. Google+ was never the issue here. But if you are going to use it, make a decision if you truly want to be in  social network where everything you do and say is kept by Google and used for focused advertising. I don't want to get into that any further since this thread is all about setting up links two-way links with Google between all your author profiles to show authorship. Google is doing that for tow reasons. It should help protect you from someone copying your work and posting elsewhere. And it may help with ranking as well. That is the reason for all this.
      
      Did you see my other reply with the correction to your URL in your profile? It's still wrong and anyone who clicks it will go to their profile, not yours.

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