What is Google AuthorRank & How exactly it works?

Google has gone a really long way into delivering quality and relevant information to their users. If you guys have been recently active and have been following the news from the industry, then you would have probably heard about Google's new ranking system aka Google AuthorRank. It is a really new content ranking system introduced by Google. Even if you haven't heard about this new system, still I think you'll most likely catch on pretty quickly, since the basic idea about this isn't unfamiliar. Google again is working on a new system of ranking content and returning much more better search results to all of its users. This new system is known as Google AuthorRank, which is quite similar to Google PageRank really or almost like PageRank, if we strip down to the very basics. And this is what we are going to talk about today.

In fact, not only in this post but we will now actually compile a whole series on the topic to tell our beloved readers more, because we believe this could well be the game-changer in the near future and having knowledge beforehand might prove valuable for the success of your site.

Google AuthorRank Series

Part1: What is Google AuthorRank and How exactly it works?

Part2: Difference Between Google AuthorRank and Google PageRank?

Part3: 10 Tips To Improve AuthorRank

What exactly is AuthorRank?

Everyone knows what PageRank is, right? It is like Google takes a lot of factors into account when ranking pages on websites, so that high quality pages are given a higher rank in its Search Results. But what about the people who write that content on those pages? How would Google know about the people or authors of those pages?

Before Google Plus, Google didn't have any solid way of identifying the real author of a blog or website. Then by the introduction of Google Plus, Google really overcame the problem by assigning a digital signature to the piece of content produced by that author. Since that difficulty has been overcome now, Google with Google Authorship is looking towards ranking people, or Authors, just like it ranks their Pages. And this is what AuthorRank will be all about.

How will it effect you as a content creator?

An Author's rank will effectively influence a content's search results performance. So your reputation as a content creator will influence how well your content ranks. The better your reputation, the better your site's performance in the SERPs. Google will essentially use this information to get out spam from its very root. This way it will help Google to deliver much more better results to its users for which which Google has been struggling all these years.

So far, we have established that this will be a new ranking system. But it won't be actually an algorithmic update, and won't be replacing anything. It will be nothing as big as Panda. You can think of AuthorRank as more of a supplement. AuthorRank will inform PageRank, which means that an Author with a high AuthorRank will now also effect a site's performance in Google Search Results.

Justice Vs No Justice

I think that AuthorRank if implemented in 2013 would be the biggest relief for already established web owners and content publishers. With billion of pages uploaded each day, quality stuff is badly ranked well by Google search robots because its tough to pick the best among too many competitors. How would the robot know which article deserves more weight and credit then the other?

Lets take an example of this. Here at MBT, each tutorial that we publish is duplicated several times by new comers and spammers that badly effect our traffic momentum, as a result we suffer both in traffic and revenue. With AuthorRank, we can expect true justice from Google, where real authors will receive true credit for their efforts.

Google hasn't yet unleashed this ranking system, so no one knows exactly what will the factors be. This list just serves as a rough sketch, the detail of which will become public once this update takes place. Also, we don't know yet when it will take place. Google is right now working on it, and might just release in next week, or maybe after a month, or even an year. All we can do is, wait and prepare for it and try to increase our AuthorRank. We will cover more on how to prepare for it, along with some tips in our third part in this series because we believe that this will greatly influence a site's performance in Google and will help true content makers deserve the credit for their work. Until then, stay tuned. Shoot any questions you might have, because we're here to help. Good luck :)