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?
If you had an author pic associated with your Google links, then you had a distinct advantage. Having a picture associated with an article automatically conveys a certain sense of authority. Not only did this get you a boost in search ranks, but it also got you more clicks than people who didn't have author pics for their links.
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.
Another school of thought suggests that the internet giant has implemented the change solely for the purpose of removing the unfair advantage an image gives search results over their ads. In recent years PPC ads have taken over much of the prime space in Google search, and if they aren't being clicked on then the bottom line will be affecte.
This is most likely one of the driving factors in the decision to eliminate author pictures from search results. This blow to SEO and online marketers will build the need to find more innovative ways to drive traffic to their site and keep their CTR up. Of course, lowered revenue due to the advantage author images affords might be one of the reasons Google has announced its plan to remove them from search results.
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.
If you had an author pic associated with your Google links, then you had a distinct advantage. Having a picture associated with an article automatically conveys a certain sense of authority. Not only did this get you a boost in search ranks, but it also got you more clicks than people who didn't have author pics for their links.
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.
Another school of thought suggests that the internet giant has implemented the change solely for the purpose of removing the unfair advantage an image gives search results over their ads. In recent years PPC ads have taken over much of the prime space in Google search, and if they aren't being clicked on then the bottom line will be affecte.
This is most likely one of the driving factors in the decision to eliminate author pictures from search results. This blow to SEO and online marketers will build the need to find more innovative ways to drive traffic to their site and keep their CTR up. Of course, lowered revenue due to the advantage author images affords might be one of the reasons Google has announced its plan to remove them from search results.
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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