So, you read my Authorship Markup tutorial, and put everything into action on your blog. Good work! But… when you checked your blog in the Rich Snippets Testing Tool, you found that although your markup has been verified and works, there are a few crazy errors below, that are marked in red.

This is an itch that demands scratching, isn’t it? I had more than enough support queries from people who were just as confused as I was, so I decided that it was time to put on my thinking cap, and find a solution.

Here are the problems that most people found:

• Warning: Missing required field “entry-title”
• Warning: Missing required field “author”
• Warning: Missing required field “updated”

To dumb this down, these fields relate to a relationship or class that needs to be set within an element on page that tells Google some important information about the page or post in question, so that it can display the right information in Google, permitting that you earn your profile image in search.

Most can probably guess what these fields relate to:

• “entry-title” refers to the title of the post/page on your blog. This is different from your SEO titles that may appear within your title tags in your header
• “author” relates specifically to the author of the post or page, and is most commonly used within the link relationship tag rel=”author”
• “updated” refers specifically to the date that a post/page was published or updated last. Generally, this will be used as a class where the code in your blog displays the date that your post was published or updated.

Here’s where it gets a little tricky. Most developers of themes for popular blog platforms will have already considered making sure that these fields have been taken care of within the code of their themes. That said, with how new Authorship is to most people, there are many theme makers that haven’t yet considered adding this functionality.

For example – I use the Genesis Theme from Studiopress on this blog with one of their great child themes. They have included all the relevant code within their themes that makes sure that you can verify your markup, but I did have to manually add the “updated” field, which was a very quick 30 second job for me to do.

The reason that it was that easy to do was because the coding in the Genesis theme is so clean and simple – other themes may require much more complex edits. In any case, I’d recommend that you chat to the makers of your theme, as not only should they be able to help you out better, they would probably really appreciate the heads up that their themes aren’t checking out with Authorship Markup.

Some Examples

In this image, you can see the “entry-title” class in use within the heading, or in this case, the “H1” tag that displays the heading on page. It is important to note here that this is different to the SEO title tag on the page.

As you can see, the rel=”author” tag is being used within a href link, which happens to also be the link to the “about” page on my blog. This is generally added in the custom menu within WordPress (as you can see in my post on Google Authorship Markup here), but in some cases must be added manually.

It is also worth noting that, by default, some themes will add this to the author link on each post. I prefer to turn this off, as this allows me to control the general flow of the rel=”author” straight into a page containing a rel=”me” link. The choice is yours on how you handle this though.

Using the Genesis theme, I was able to edit this part without accessing any code at all – using Simple Edits – however, this will more than likely require some editing of code within your blog. If you are fairly familiar with code, then this should be a 2 minute job, but for those that aren’t, it would be best to speak to your theme maker.

At the end of the day, Authorship is still evolving every single day, and it would be very highly unreasonable to expect that all theme makers are on top of it from the git go. With how new Authorship is, people like you and I are quite privileged to be able to use it to its advantage so early.

It is complex though, and just one small part of a much grander scheme. As always, I’ll try and keep you in the loop as much as I can with other errors that I find.

One day comes along, you are busy as anything doing what you are good at, serving your niche like a you do, and suddenly, something unusual comes through your Google Alerts and threatens to completely ruin your day. It is something that you knew was coming, and were dreading the day that it would happen. You get a ball in the back of your throat, butterflies in your tummy, and feel physically sick because unlike everything that has been coming through, this is the first time that anyone has openly hated upon you. I am speaking about trolls. Those people that live on controversy, have opinions that they like to make known whether or not they are right or wrong or even have any kind of credibility what so ever, and all around, have a lot of fun in the process of trying to either ruin your day or your good name. Bottom line is this. These people are trolls, and they are not meant to be fed.

Know A Troll When You See One

Trolls are generally quite gutless, and will rarely expose themselves or who they are, because all too often, they know that they are spreading lies and hate that could end up in a lawsuit in the wrong hands. So, it is generally worth noting well before you consider reacting to your traditional “Troll” that:

1. A Troll will never show you who they are
2. They almost always operate behind a proxy
3. They use fake social media accounts to attack good people
4. Trolls feed off attention
5. They are scared of what may happen if they ever get caught

A troll will generally start by firing a remark that is completely outrageous and uncalled for or completely unsubstantiated. Almost all of us respond to trolls at this stage, which actually works against us. You see, Trolls feed on attention, so this generally fuels more abuse, often in the way of more social media abuse, emails, blog comments, and in serious cases, prank phone calls and snail mail. The latter obviously cater most for those Trolls who have never had a girlfriend/boyfriend and are in their mid 40′s.

Haters Always Speak The Loudest

As much as we try to believe that any talk about us on the web is good talk, the truth of the matter here is that negative jabber is not that great. That said, if you are consistently publishing content, and helping people more than doing the opposite, then eventually someone is going to attempt to throw some dirt on your name. It is the life cycle of anyone who builds up their own brand online.

The problem is that it is hard to ignore negative talk, because it hurts. It speaks incredibly loud, and catches the attention of people much more than positive talk. It is in this sense that it is incredibly hard to ignore. You have to try though.

Now the life cycle of the hater is a little different. They bite, they wait, they bite some more, then eventually they move on to their next target when they don’t get a response and get bored. To the troll, victims are easy to come by. The cruel side of this, as I said earlier, is that we, as typical ordinary human beings, are much more responsive to criticism than praise. This is what fuels trolls, and this is why being a troll is so addictive to those who are.

I have seen blogs dedicated to hating on specific internet marketers, and even forums that base the majority of their content on questioning the credibility of online personalities as well. This specific breed of haters are generally fairly successful too, as they build their brand on controversy. Hey, if there is money to be made….

The Truth Of The Matter Is This…

There is no better indication that you are doing something right than getting a notification in Google Alerts that someone is hating upon you. What this means is simple. You are getting enough attention that people are talking about you. Just make sure that the positive severely outweighs the negative of course.

Sure, it hurts when people question your ability to do your job, however, I can guarantee that if there is enough chatter about you to warrant some good old fashioned hating against you, that there will be much more good, and from legit sources too. Just search your name in Twitter, or use Google Alerts to see what I mean.

As much as I have copped it from time to time, my inbox shows me that I help many more people than I don’t.

Don’t Feed The Trolls!

Sure, you have had some good old fashioned hating made out for you, and you want to go and respond. Stop. Remember that trolls live for controversy, nothing more nothing less. I can guarantee you that the second that you respond and defend yourself, the situation will escalate, and as time goes on, will cause you harm. Now, you really don’t want that to happen, do you?

Instead, focus on the crowd that you make happy. Invest your time in them, and encourage positive chit chat. Sure, you are never going to make everyone happy, that is the nature of working online, but the best time spent is time spent pleasing your market rather than feeding the trolls.

If The Situation Escalates…

Sometimes trolls will take things way too far. Threats get passed via social media, email, blog comments, and so on. Things can go much further from there too, which I too have experienced. Sometimes Trolls will get hold of private contact details, make threats, and worse. The key thing to remember here is that if it does get to this stage, do not fuel the situation by feeding the trolls, as it has become a criminal matter. Let your local police know. All Trolls are clumsy, and leave a foot print with everything that they do, regardless of whether this is IP addresses through email and blog comments, or the services that they use and how free they are releasing information of those who break their terms and conditions.

Remember, regardless of what you do, trolls will always find a reason to do some good old fashioned hating. Sure, if it is a problem, then work on it, but your time is better spent pleasing those who follow you, not those who set out to destroy you. Bottom line is this… DONT FEED THE TROLLS!

Build your house on stumps, not stilts! Interesting analogy… you see, many of us SEO types tend to refer to SEO as being much like building a house. You see, you build your low value links (laying the slab), then you build your high quality links (your foundations), then you build a variety of other links out from there that lead back to a combination of your site and the other high quality links that promote your main site (your walls, roof, etc).

Without re-enforcing your mid range links, things can easily go pear shaped, as all of your other links are built on top of these links. If that makes sense…

I’ve always seen myself as someone who can compete hard. Even as I operate as a one man army here in my lounge room where I proudly work every day, sometimes sitting in my couch (correction – most days), I am able to compete because I know my link structures like the back of my hand, and I know exactly where I need to send links in order to completely knock my competition off the first few pages in Google.

The thing about SEO is that generally, big innovations, much like what I am going to teach you how to do today, generally come along quietly, and go unnoticed for some time, as people really don’t want to see them abused.

Many can whinge and moan about this, and how about big evil Google has got their eye on all of these crazy new methods so that people like us cant game search any more, but the bottom line is this – if everyone knew everything about how to game search, the level playing field that is “the web” would be dead. Defunct. Extinct. Gone.

Considering that the most exciting thing about being an “Entrepreneur” is the playing field, it would destroy many of us.

Well… at least, those of us who aren’t as cashed up as others…

So… what happens when I, by chance, find out that using the Google Authorship Verification system, that you can strengthen a layer of links that many people have seen as being invaluable for a little while now?

Well… I cant help but share it with those who are actually equipped to make stuff happen using this method. More on that in a bit…

First things first… what exactly the heck am I talking about?

I’m talking about Ezine Articles. You know… that online article directory that a ton of people wrote off since Google decided to unleash a big fat Panda on its butt. As far as the public thought from first impressions (even though Google Plus, the only social network that is 100% all about YOU was just a little bubby at the time…), Article Marketing was dead in its tracks because Google had discounted the value of pages on Ezine Articles and numerous other sites that are mainly filled with recycled crap, as such, Google had done a massive injustice by screwing over all of us SEO’s, who along with a portion of us being really good at whining about change rather than working with it, are also really damn good at ranking low quality pages higher than the good pages in their search index.

Sorry dude/dudette about the generalization, but it’s kind of true.

Anyway… as Google were weaving their magic in the background with this new Author Rank thing, everyone was starting to learn that it wasn’t more about adding a cool profile image in search and looking like one of the cool kids, but more than anything, it was about adding credibility to your name as an author, that was measured by your activity on the web. Eg, how much content you publish, what content you share, how social you are, and what you are social about.

In retrospect, Google Authorship simply gives credibility to pages that otherwise have none.

Can you see where I’m going here?

Here’s my unproven theory… Panda was/is nothing more than a cleanse of the web that levelled the field again, and cleared the way for a ranking system that is based in large part on credibility which can only really be proven through your own action. Authorship gives people the power to increase their authority by consistently publishing great content, and as they publish even more content, their author rank or reputation continues to rise, giving much more weight or importance to their content.

At least… I think that’s the goal. That’s what it would seem at this stage in the game…

This is where I get to my little discovery that I truly believe will change the game for us SEO types, not just for the way that we use Ezine Articles for link building as such, but in the way that we keep an open mind about SEO, and the changes that happen around us.

I’m talking about how you can become a verified author, using Authorship Markup on your Ezine Articles account, so that every single article that you have ever published, or will publish in the future, will carry more weight in the eyes of Google than your competition (who probably aren’t doing this or even considering it yet).

You have to click the +1 button to see how it’s done though.

Sneaky, I know… but it’s my way of making sure that only those who are equipped get the method. Make sense?

Sorry, but you will need to +1 this page to make the tutorial visible below. Thanks!

That is some seriously powerful stuff, isn’t it? If you’re anything like me, you’re probably thinking about what other sites you can use this on, right?

(note for those who havent clicked +1, you are missing out.)

Here’s the thing to remember. Right now, the field continues to be made more level, and as long as you are consistently creating content, and associating yourself with your content as much as possible, Your credibility will continue to rise until you are a serious power in your niche.

In essence, you would be nuts not to take 30 minutes to do what I taught you in the protected content area today.

Link Building With Ezine Articles?

If you’re wondering what the deal is with building links with Ezine Articles, why we do it, and so on, that’s fine. I do plan on releasing a course on SEO at some point in the near future (when the landscape settles for long enough for me to do so!), but in the meantime, I’d highly recommend either of the following two courses to teach you a large part of what I know and practice:

Traffic Grab by James Schramko – A very detailed course that teaches you in very large part about how and where to build links from. James is one of the good guys, and truly knows his stuff. The cost point for this course is fairly entry level too, so you wont have to pay much to get started.

The SEO Method 2.0 by David Jenyns – I have blatantly given my highest endorsement possible for this DVD series. I was an attendee at the workshop, and this is the exact method (minus a few things) that I use to utterly dominate in search. It is much more in depth, and covers both method, planning and execution in the best detail that I have ever seen it covered. Dave is a good friend of mine, and someone who I have worked with extensively, and was more than happy to let me offer it to you at a massive discounted rate too. Its not available anywhere else at this price, so I’d get in while you can using this link.

…and, if you need help getting this set up (the stuff in the hidden area that you need to read), just comment below, or ask me on Google Plus.

But… at the end of the day, why exactly is it that I chose to use Wishlist Member over a ton of other WP membership plugins?

Simple. I don’t like to create what I refer to as “wham bam” membership sites, where a customer pays for their membership, and are dumped a ton of content for them to get confused by.

No, I prefer to drip feed content and leverage the new relationship – release one piece of content at a time, so that my members can get through it at their own pace. Not just that, but I like this all to be backed up by an Autoresponder, such as Aweber, that notifies them as new content is being added, and helps me further build on that relationship and keep it fresh.
Oh, and I also like it to be supported by a wide variety of shopping carts too, anything from Clickbank to eJunkie, and even other third party carts such as Nanacast through community support.

For me – this is what the Wishlist Member WP membership plugin does, and it has made my life quite simple in doing so.

So… What Doesn’t It Do?

Let’s be honest here – I assume that you are in the market for a WP membership plugin for WordPress, but you need to know that whilst there are many out there, there is a good chance that Wishlist Member actually may not be for you.

For example, it lacks support for some shopping carts that are quite popular, and it also lacks its own in-built affiliate functionality.

That said – with community support, some third party carts have been connected successfully to Wishlist Member (such as Nanacast), and whilst Nanacast has its own in built affiliate functionality (now including two tier tracking!), other supported carts such as Clickbank make affiliates much easier to work with.

What Does It Do Well?

It is the first WP membership plugin that I have seen that allows for drip fed content through automatic membership upgrades, and although there are others out there now that offer this functionality, this is the only one that does it well.

For example – if you want to drip modules out to paid members, simply create a membership level for each module, and set up an auto upgrade of their membership, or an auto add of new content through membership levels. This is surprisingly very easy to do.

I use this method extensively through my training portals, and I have never been able to do this so easily.

It also has excellent Membership administration built in, using the WordPress members system, it allows for easy upgrades, downgrades, and even manually adding members in.

Lastly, and certainly not least, it ties in with my favorite sales letter & membership theme perfectly. I’m talking about Optimizepress.

In fact, it is that combination that I use in my training portal, and I would happily reject paying a monthly fee for a membership service such as Kajabi, in favor of using Optimizepress with Wishlist Member. It works that good.

Here’s My Honest Thoughts…

If you want to spend a ton of money creating a membership site, and making a huge fuss out of a process that can be much easier, then DO NOT buy the Wishlist Member WP membership plugin.

On the other hand… if you like having control over your membership sites by hosting them yourself, plus maybe even tying it in with other third party services (check to see what it is compatible with here), then Wishlist Member is absolutely worth checking out, and worth the investment.

I know, it’s hard to believe most Internet Marketers these days when they give positive reviews of product – but at the end of the day, this is a plugin that I use extensively, and based on my experience with it, this is more a recommendation IF you have the need.

To grab a copy of the Wishlist Member WP Membership Plugin, head over to www.wishlistproducts.com

IF you end up buying it (regardless of what license), be sure to buy using one of the links on this page, and I can send you a full overview video of how I managed to leverage a free membership site using Optimizepress & the Wishlist Member WP membership plugin.

This is a solid part of my business that I do not share out in the open, and is applicable to most businesses. This is my treat to you for taking a leap and giving it a try, just be sure to contact me with your receipt number, and I’ll hook you up.

If I’ve sent you here because you don’t quite understand that “obstacles” only make way for success, remember… I weigh 130kg. Sometimes walking is an obstacle for me.

If neither – grab a copy of Steven Pressfields “The War Of Art” and it will change your world.

Note: Click the image to see it full size.

So, if I think back to why it is that we create businesses, and/or the ability to be able to work from somewhere of our own choosing, be it our home, the local cafe, or our own office building… does it not defeat the purpose of going our own way in the world if we do nothing but work 18 hour days, only to sleep for 6, get up rinse and repeat 7 days of the week?

I’m a huge believer in balance. Yin and Yang if you like to call it that. Good and bad, hard and easy. Everything one side requires and equal amount of what sits on the other side to make it happen.

For example: If I want more freedom, then I must work hard on my business in order to produce enough profit, so that I can support additions to my business that enable me to be present just as much as I need to be. For example – outsourcing and out tasking. I then need time to rejuvenate in order to be able to perform at my peak, without burning myself out.

I started out as an Internet Marketer because I wanted to be free. I’m not wired to work for big corporations that do nothing for me, I much prefer to be doing the things that I want to be doing. Mountain biking, hiking, cooking, playing PS3, and as guilty as I might feel when I turn on my PS3 some days at two o’clock in the afternoon, I make no excuses for it, because the life that I want is one in which I can set when I do the things that I want to do, rather than work on a roster set by a company.

I may not be being 100% clear here, but I know that you understand exactly what it is that I am saying.

Although… I know that many of us get caught up in the exact opposite. Work hard, get results, start again and sooner or later, you are stuck in the same vicious cycle of working with little or no reward.

This is not to say that working hard is not the key to everything, I’m just talking about balance. Remember why it is that you chose to do what you do.

I was always taught as a child that you must work hard in order to get ahead in life, but what exactly does it mean to “get ahead“? Is it to earn tons of money working hard for someone else so that you can eventually retire on what little superannuation that you have, or is it creating something that allows you to enjoy freedom, that may involve some work, but is scalable, and can evolve to a point that requires you to be involved just enough so that you still have time to enjoy your freedom.

That’s not to say that hard work doesn’t pay off of course, it’s just to say that in order to achieve balance, it’s best to get some of the good stuff too, just like you promised you would when you first decided to take the leap. I see it all too much.

You are doing this because you want to be free. You want more time to do (insert task here), and you want to be able to (insert task here) more often.

My day to day is structured in a way where I have time to work, I have time to develop ideas and bring them to fruition, and most importantly, I have time every day to do the things that I want to do.

In fact, after writing the first draft of this post, I’m going to go and jump on my bike for a bit, because I want to do it, and because I have created a lifestyle that allows me to.

How am I able to do this? I worked on one task at a time, got ideas and tasks to fruition, and prioritized those tasks that turned a profit, and developed a strategy for the ongoing maintenance of those tasks that requires me to do less of the “technicians” work.

That’s freedom for you, and as much as you may have forgotten about it, it’s the very reason why most of you do what you do. Don’t lose sight of it.

The reason that it felt bad was because through my own mind, and the path that I had planned for myself, I truly believed that the idea of taking up part time work three months ago was not just the best thing for me, but the best possible thing for my own business.

With the extra cash, I could hire an article writer or two, I could pay for extra accounts that I needed and other memberships that I wanted. I could make use of several of the paid services that I have been wanting to use for some time. Money, at the time, meant that I could take my business to the next level, even with me involved in it 70% or so less.

I make absolutely no secret here of the fact that as far as my career as an Internet Marketer goes, I am only part way to where I want to be, but I am most of the way. The idea of getting a job to me was merely a way to simply “bridge the gap“, and as a bonus, get some human interaction at the same time, because lets face it… when you first start out working from home, you tend to become a bit of a caveman.

Not just that, but when you work from home, all kinds of resistance factors come into play, and lets face it… this is where we all start from at some point, I think that just about every well known Internet Marketer has video footage buried deep in their YouTube accounts of them broadcasting in their home office or bedroom.

Take my current position as a prime example. I live in a house of three, where the other two work full time jobs earning other people more money than they earn themselves. This is their mindset, so when I am able to sit at home in a beanbag (which I am not afraid to admit that I do sometimes!) and earn a living… well, compared to how they earn a living, they see this as meaning that I have all the time in the world to do all the things that they don’t want to do, because they work long days, and so on – and as we all should know by now, when you are seen to have free time, a ton of stuff gets dumped on your plate.

Not that I don’t blame them of course, I’d be the same if I worked harder than I do now to earn half as much.

This position is not unique to me. This is probably also felt by yourself, and may even bring back shuddering memories from several of the other high profile marketers that I know read this blog on a regular basis.

This is where we all start, and it is also the time in our growing careers in the Internet Marketing space where resistance plays its strongest role. This is make or break stuff people.

Here’s the thing here. Resistance is easily defeated by results.

A story... When picking up my partner from work on the day that I resigned, her boss had a chuckle at the fact that he believed that I wouldn’t last until Christmas, and wanted to know if I had any other job offers. I told him that I dont need to look for work when I earn twice what he does by doing less work than he pretends to do, and answering to less people than he does.

He laughed, proceeded to “not get it”, and walked off dumbfounded.

That felt good. He hasn’t questioned me since.

In leading into the moral of this whole story though, I will say that this does not apply to everyone who is reading this. Some of you are struggling to make even half of your replacement income, so you will still have a lot to answer for.

The option to go back to work will always seem lucrative, as it is stable, and it is guaranteed.

My advice to you is to understand that there is a big difference between going back to work, and making good use of your new skills. In the Internet Marketing space, whether or not you believe it or not, you have some serious skills, and people will pay you for those skills. Speak to an Entrepreneur, advertise on eLance, network with others, or even advertise that you can do work at a cost. It’s better to work in the Internet Marketing space than outside it, because it allows you to be present so you can do the work. Simple.

Regardless of money, if you are not present so that you can do the work, it doesnt matter how many people you hire, or how many services you utilize… your business will not grow. You must be present, and you must resist against the forces that pull you away from it.

Just know that by taking the job that I did, this was the equivalent to admitting defeat to all other forms of resistance that have surrounded me as someone who works at home. I’m not earning enough. I have more time to do other things. Lets not forget the thoughts of those around me too… Now that your’e not working online as much, you can take me places when you should be working. I cant be bothered cleaning tonight, you can do it tomorrow after work.

It is a massive admission of defeat that leaves you open to be trampled, and can be deadly.

I know this. It’s why I stood up, quit, and got back to business.

It’s good to be back.

In this video, you are going to be introduced to three WordPress SEO plugins that I use on a day to day basis, each one I recommend highly, and only after rigorous testing on my own portfolio. Enjoy!

Video Resources:

• Yoast WordPress SEO Plugins
• Yoast Analytics
• Pingback Optimizer (highly recommended!)

payments via PayPal Luke.

Silently, he is also responsible for my love of Affiliate Marketing, which although he is probably not all that aware of it, his quick eye helped me notice an opportunity some time ago that paid off big time.

As I said… an awesome guy.

Anyway… I’m not writing a post about Luke, I’m writing one about something that he stumbled across today, and like anything that Luke shares, it kind of spiraled from there and has become something much bigger.

After finding out that Google has given themselves the whole above the fold area for the keyword “Adwords”, I decided to Google my own name. You know, for ego’s sake and all that.

Here’s what I got.

Epic, right? So… as you can see, Google is unfolding more changes to search, where they seem to be rewarding those who are best at creating content for their nuche not just with profile images through authorship markup, plus the usual dual listings and/or sitelinks if you are lucky… but an entire above the fold section.

What this means is this. If you aren’t in the business of consistently creating great content in your space, the person that does wont just take the #1 spot, but they will completely force you off the most important part of page #1 in Google.

Huge news, I know. You are going to want to watch this space.

I’ll be following these changes as they happen, along with what also appears to be some erratic behavior with PageRank updates as of late. More soon…

So, where does this big gut feeling come from? Call it a big hunch or whatever you call it, here is exactly how I see it…

When it comes to anything social, Facebook absolutely has the upper hand. At least for now, and as much as there is scepticism, it is undeniable… Since the time that Facebook branched out from being a university based social network, they have basically (for lack of better words) become one large data collection company that is hidden behind the worlds most popular social network. They are one of the most visited websites on the Internet, and although they are an entirely different product to what is on offer by Google, they are a threat due to the data that they have collected, and what it is that they can do with that data.

On the other hand, Google continue to create better versions of many pre-existing online services in an attempt to collect as much data as possible to perfect both their search and advertising platform. In recent times, this has included their own social network, which to the contrary of popular opinion, has grown incredibly fast in a very short period of time, sparking somewhat of a war of words between Google and Facebook fanatics.

And yes, I know that statement might make a few of you cringe, but remember the days we all didn’t want to change over to that boring looking MySpace wannabe clone? Well… its happening again whether you like it or not. It’s OK, I loathed Facebook too.

Here’s the issue. I’ll put it out there as simple as possible. Google is under threat by an organization that has the capability to walk all over it. Facebook has enough data to be able to power their own competing socially powered search engine that will actually be more accurate than Google, and for obvious reasons, Google does not want that to happen.

So… in order to take social search my the proverbial “balls”, what does Google have to do?

It must become social, and it must keep you signed in so that it can deliver a tailored set of results to each individual user. It has to put itself in front of you. Simple. Throw as many services at their users as possible that require a sign in (Email, image hosting, chat, VOIP, business apps, a social network, a gaming network…), and suddenly, they are able to deliver a social search that is backed up by the most advanced link and socially influenced search engine in existence today to their users who are signed in at all times.

I see this as being highly possible too. Remember, Google already keeps you signed in for Gmail, for YouTube, for Picasa, for your business apps and your Android phone and tablet… throw in a social network that bridges them all together and you have a match made in heaven.

Here’s the thing. Google has become social with the introduction of Google+, and as much as their capability to deliver accurate social search is dependant on their ability to make Google+ a success, not that their user base is climbing rapidly, and like all things of this nature, it signals imminent change regardless of whether or not they are successful or not. The bottom line is that Google wants to go social, and they will go social. If they don’t go social, then someone else will.

So, What Does This Mean To You?

This is where things start to get a little hairy, especially for us SEO types, although I will mention briefly that there is a massive difference between those of us who like to stay on the cutting edge, and those of us who continue to preach old school methods that only get a small percentage of the results, and that difference is going to be that my claim to fame does not lie in Google results that are in plain sight, but the results that are in the line of sight of my audience when they are logged in. At least, that is my aim.

Put simply, the playing field has levelled all over again.

Hard, I know… this is something that is going to be extremely hard for us SEO types to track.

The innovation of social search is the only reason that I have not come out with an SEO course, even though I am eager to get started on one ASAP. Not one single person has got it exactly right just yet, since the innovation of social search. Some people are very close, but that is an extremely limited few.

Its no longer a matter of how high you rank, but how far your rank extends. Try and stomach that.

So… What Do I Need To Know?

Tip #1. Don’t run for the hills, don’t sell everything… just keep doing what you are doing. This is absolutely not the end of the world. It is how we respond to certain situations that defines us. A challenge is a challenge that can be overcome, and that is exactly what Social Search is.

What you will need to remember from this day forward is that your market is on social media platforms that influence the results that you see in Google, and we all know what the #1 rule of marketing is, right? You go where the crowd is.

I updated my status on Google+ the other day with something rather bold. You can see it in the image above. This, in a rather large nutshell, sums up what I think of Google+ at the moment. 20 million users on G+ within the first 3 weeks, each and every one of them allowing their friends to determine the results that they see in search.

Social recommendation in its finest form. Compete with that Yellow Pages!

Your goal should be to continue creating content, and continue sharing it with your market on social media. You need to be where they are so that they can invite you in. Nothing less.

Tip #2. Your content matters big time. If your content is not good enough to be shared with others, then it is not going to matter how many links you build to your content. Sure, that will help to an extent, but what will matter more is the recommendation (in the form of +1’s from your friends) from your friends.

When you create content, consider what it is that your friends want to hear. What do they want answers to? What have they been asking you? What have they reacted well to in the past? What compelling questions can you answer for them What complex issues can you demystify for them? If you want to take matters further, watch this eye opening video from the guys at SEOmoz on the kind of questions that you need to ask yourself in a Panda influenced search engine.

Find out what resonates best with your audience by installing Google Analytics on your blog, and monitoring traffic numbers to your posts. Repeat more of what works.

I wrote a post about Google Authorship Markup the other day, and my traffic spiked and tripled my monthly traffic in one day, is it any surprise that I am writing about Google+ again today?

Tip #3. Get verified as an author. Follow my Authorship Markup Verification tutorial if you’re not sure how its done. Who knows at this point whether this code will help you rank higher or not, but one thing is for certain – if you attach your face to your content, it doesn’t matter if you rank #1 or #3… you are going to get more clicks if you can establish trust first!

Now, as much as Google likes to keep fairly quiet on certain things that we may be able to use to our advantage when it comes to our standing in the search engines, one thing is for certain. What is being referred to at the moment as “Author Rank” is going to have a huge impact on how much exposure our work gets as a whole.

I’m making no serious predictions here, but what I will say is that if you create every single piece of content as if it were the best content you have written in your life, I believe that there is a chance that this may not just impact how well that page in particular ranks, but the weight of all of the content that you attribute yourself as being an author of.

The quality of your content has never mattered so much, and will never matter as much as it does right now.