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This exciting new feature allows you to add your photo and author information to Google search results!

Successful article writing and marketing is all about ongoing incremental improvement rather than revolutionary growth. The ideal approach is to constantly improve your processes in an effort to increase your traffic, credibility, and exposure. Sometimes you’ll discover that a new way of doing things will lead to some pretty impressive results, but typically you’ll need to implement multiple, ongoing enhancements in order to see any radical growth.

Then again, there are times when something comes along that has the potential to have a huge impact on your success.

Enter Google Authorship.

Google Authorship makes it possible to have your photo and other information show up right next to your article listing in search results. This new feature greatly enhances what potential readers will see when they do a search in your niche. For example, take a look at the search results for EzineArticles Expert Author Lisa Mason. It’s not hard to see the huge impact this change has on what a potential reader sees. Your eye is immediately drawn to Lisa’s picture near the top of the page. Clicking on “More by Lisa Mason” leads to a page topped with her image, Google+ profile information, and a list of other articles she’s written.

You, too, can rise above the crowd in search results for your niche. It’s a simple matter of connecting your Google profile to your articles. All you’ll need to do is log into your existing Google profile (or create a new one), upload a professional-looking headshot, add your contributor information, and input the email address linked to your EzineArticles account. Then give EzineArticles permission to share your information.

Here’s how you do it:

   Follow Google’s step-by-step procedure. We recommend you use Option 1.
    
   Log into your My.EzineArticles.com account. Click on the Google+ icon to the left of your member photo. This will link your EzineArticles account with your Google profile and your Google+ account (which are one and the same).
    
   Wait patiently. It’s not exactly a speedy process between set-up and approval, but in 7-10 days your picture and authorship information should appear in search results for any articles you’ve written. You will not be notified by Google of your approval, so you’ll have to check search results often.

One thing you’ll probably notice is that it’s a somewhat convoluted process. Take your time and follow Google’s step-by-step instructions carefully. Skipping any step in the process will result in your image and authorship information not showing up in search results. If that happens, step through the process again. Even if you go through the process correctly, you may not get the results you were hoping for. Our internal testing found that multiple attempts were often necessary before we were successful.

Keep in mind that the photo you’ll see in the search results will be your Google+ profile photo, not your EzineArticles Expert Author photo. This is especially important when you’re choosing a photo. Make sure it’s a professional-looking photo of you and represents the way you want to be perceived online.

Bottom Line: This is a very powerful new feature for all EzineArticles Expert Authors. Taking advantage of it now will give you a clear competitive advantage over other Internet authors. The result will be more traffic back to your website, increased credibility, and a lot more exposure for your brand. So go do it now. Opportunities like this don’t come along every day!