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As I use the Structured Data Testing Tool, I noticed that the preview does allow my website logo to be appeared in the Google search result instead of the author's headshot:

View Preview Screenshot

Although I've implemented rel="publisher" on my Google+ badge, if I'm not mistaken, the rich snippets "by MalaysiaTraining.net" and "More by MalaysiaTraining.net" are actually came from rel=author, which is to be implemented as the URL paramter to a Google+ profile URL but not the rel="publisher" attribute in the anchor tag (correct me if I'm wrong).

In order to achieve the exact effects as shown in the preview, I wonder if I can do something like that:

<a href="https://plus.google.com/my-page-id?rel=author" rel="publisher">
    <img src="my-google-plus-badge.png" alt="Follow us on Google+" />
</a>

If this is illegal due to the author vs. publisher conflict, what if I remove the rel="publisher" attribute, leaving the rel=author parameter to be used only with my Google+ business page URL? Will this violate the Google SEO guidelines and cause a penalty?

Please advise me and thanks in advance!

Antonio Ooi
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1 Answers1

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Well if i get this right, rel=author links to your private and personal Google+ page. And the rel=publisher tag links to your Google+ business page. I think it's not possible to use both of them, because you're trying to mix a google+ profile and business page.

Edit (short): It's possible

Edit (long): It's possible, because with the rel=publisher you confirm that the website is the publisher (of the given g+ page) and the rel=author confirms that you're the author (of the content). These snippets are very useful if you're having a website with multi-authorship.

smsnheck
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  • Thanks for the reply! So you mean by concurrently implementing rel=author parameter and rel="publisher" attribute, it should not cause me error or penalty in terms of SEO? About the "multi-authorship" as you mentioned, you mean I can have multiple anchor tags on the same page? – Antonio Ooi Jun 24 '13 at 07:48
  • Or you mean "multi-authorship" = publisher company can be used to represent multiple authors? – Antonio Ooi Jun 24 '13 at 07:51
  • No, it causes no error or penalty. I searched for a minute and found an entry (from 2011) in the google product forum. There were a plenty requests with the same intention. But in 2011 there were a bug in the structured data testing tool that threw an exception when you were using both tags. But a google employee responded that the use of both tags is possible (especially for the multi-authorship => one business, multiple authors of content that is posted on the business website) – smsnheck Jun 24 '13 at 07:58
  • @smsnheck Does the image show in results if you're doing this the business page way? Is this supposed to be a headshot? I ask since I want to have my image show up with authorship when my site comes up in results, but I don't want it to refer to my personal G+ with my real name there since I like my privacy. – Michael K Jul 01 '13 at 19:43