Author Info in Search Results

How To Get Google+ Profile Picture in Google Search Engine Results

In order for the author's profile photo to appear in Google search engine results, these requirements need to be met:

  1. In the HTML code of the page(s) being indexed by search engines, include a link to the author's profile with a rel="author" attribute and rel=author parameter.
  2. Add a link from the author's profile back to the domain with the rel="author" link(s).
  3. Submit an "Authorship Request" via this Authorship Request form.
  4. Verify that the authorship markup works using the Rich Snippets Testing Tool.
1. Add a rel="author" link
Rules for coding the rel="author" link:
  1. Use the <a href> tag in the <body> section, rather than or in addition to a <link/> tag in the <head> section.
  2. In the <a href> attribute, code either the URL for the author's Google+ profile (ex: ) or the URL for the author's web page on the same domain as the link with the rel="author" attribute
  3. Add a ?rel="author" parameter to the URL in the <a href> attribute.
  4. include a plus sign ("+") at the end of the anchor text, just before the ending </a> tag.
2. Confirm authorship in your Google+ profile

To confirm you are the author and prevent anyone else from claiming you have authored their content, you must link your Google+ profile back to your content.

  1. Go to your Google+ profile.
  2. Click "Edit Profile".
  3. Click "Links".
  4. Click "Add custom URL".
  5. Enter the appropriate information in the "Label" and "URL" fields.
  6. Click "Save".
3. Submit an "Authorship Request"

Go to the Authorship Request form and enter the information requested to submit an "Authorship Request" to Google.

4. Verify that the authorship markup works

Use the Rich Snippets Testing Tool to verify that the authorship markup works.

Google Webmaster Help - Authorship Markup

Matt Cutts and Othar Hansson discuss how to connect authors with their content using authorship markup.