Last week the SEO world was rocked when Google announced its plan to remove the author photos from search results. In the past adding authorship and the image in search results had proven to increase the number of clicks exponentially. The question remains, why did Google choose to implement this change that had only been in place a short while?
There are many speculations about this sudden change and the reasoning behind it. One school of thought believes that the change might be centered around user experience, and ties in with the search engines new 'mobile first' management strategy. The idea is that, eventually, mobile users will surpass desktop users making it the most important market. Because of this, Google is aiming to unify the site into a single site that is mobile and desktop friendly.
This is very possibly the case, as studies have shown that users prefer search results without the author images. This might be shocking, as it is also a fact that the addition of an author image can increase CTR by up to 150%. The removal of this feature will severly impact traffic for many sites, regardless of the studies.
This whole thing demonstrates exactly how volatile the rules of Google are. Marketers have to always be on their toes if they want to get ahead in the search engine results, and this just throws another wrench into the works... kinda like how it did when Google originally introduced the pics to begin with a couple of years ago. It's not certain quite yet why Google is choosing to do this, but it ultimately doesn't matter. As people who rely on Google to bring us visitors and customers, we have to play by their rules or risk losing our entire business.
It remains to be seen what else changes in the coming weeks. This comes only a little bit after the announcement of a Google "Panda" SEO adjustment, including the exclusion of backlinks factoring into search ranks.
Of course, another pressing question is wether authorship is even worth it with the removal of the treasured photo. Some say that this might actually be a sign of Google expanding and growing the Authorship program to be more inclusive and involved. What exactly that might mean or the benefits it might have are yet to be seen, but a replacement option would definitely be appreciated! The recent announcement by Google about the removal of author pictures from search results landed a nasty blow to many sites. The official reason given is purely aestheic and user experience related, but many wonder what the real reasoning might be.
There are many speculations about this sudden change and the reasoning behind it. One school of thought believes that the change might be centered around user experience, and ties in with the search engines new 'mobile first' management strategy. The idea is that, eventually, mobile users will surpass desktop users making it the most important market. Because of this, Google is aiming to unify the site into a single site that is mobile and desktop friendly.
This is very possibly the case, as studies have shown that users prefer search results without the author images. This might be shocking, as it is also a fact that the addition of an author image can increase CTR by up to 150%. The removal of this feature will severly impact traffic for many sites, regardless of the studies.
This whole thing demonstrates exactly how volatile the rules of Google are. Marketers have to always be on their toes if they want to get ahead in the search engine results, and this just throws another wrench into the works... kinda like how it did when Google originally introduced the pics to begin with a couple of years ago. It's not certain quite yet why Google is choosing to do this, but it ultimately doesn't matter. As people who rely on Google to bring us visitors and customers, we have to play by their rules or risk losing our entire business.
It remains to be seen what else changes in the coming weeks. This comes only a little bit after the announcement of a Google "Panda" SEO adjustment, including the exclusion of backlinks factoring into search ranks.
Of course, another pressing question is wether authorship is even worth it with the removal of the treasured photo. Some say that this might actually be a sign of Google expanding and growing the Authorship program to be more inclusive and involved. What exactly that might mean or the benefits it might have are yet to be seen, but a replacement option would definitely be appreciated! The recent announcement by Google about the removal of author pictures from search results landed a nasty blow to many sites. The official reason given is purely aestheic and user experience related, but many wonder what the real reasoning might be.
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