The HR Implications of Google+ Author Rank

In the business realm, Google+ is a powerful new tool in the hands of executives who want to position themselves as authorities in their fields. It’s early yet, but preliminary indications suggest that Google+ Author Rank search results will enhance conversion because of people’s inclination to trust an individual over a company. As such, Author Rank will become a valuable asset for the executive who cultivates his or her Google+ Author rankings in a field of expertise, creating a valuable backlink from their profile (you can read more about this on our page about optimizing your Google+ profile) to their websites over time.

So, it may not be too soon to consider the implications of Google Author Rank on your hiring and retention of employees:

1)     Consider the likely duration of stay for employees you are considering as Google+ authors for your firm. Remember, if they leave, they take their Google+ back links with them. While there are ways to avoid this if the situation does arise, until Google comes out with a concrete solution we have to be creative to avoid this issue.

2)     Ultimately, if you have a multi-authored site each author should have their own personality flowing through their writing that the various demographics of your business’ audience can relate to.

3)     For the hiring of key employees, their Author Rank could be a valuable negotiating tool for compensation, because they bring their back links with them.

4)     If existing employees increase your firm’s organic search rankings by virtue of their Author Rank from their powerful Google+ profiles, they may consider this worthy of additional compensation when it comes time for a raise. Be ready to discuss how these rankings were achieved and what value they represent to the organization.

Google+ could represent a sea-change in SEM and is well worth exploring, but be mindful of who is chosen to represent your firm as a Google+ Author and recognize that there may well be human resource implications for this new tool for your organization.

Photo by Tony Fischer Photography