How to Display Author Profile Picture in Google Search Results?

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Google webmaster team has introduced an easy way of displaying your Google+ profile picture next to the links of your website or blog or any content that you generate. You might have seen profile pictures or image thumbnails of Google developers appearing on search results page. Previously only reserved users had this option but now thanks to the generosity of Google+ social network, even you can display your profile picture next to all your articles or webpages that you own. This will be a proof that you are the sole author and owner of that site or blog. The author information will be shared globally on Google results and your visitors can see your image and author information link next to your article. This is a great way to attract visitors and increase website traffic. Lets learn how to do it!

How to Show Author Profile Picture Correctly?

You need three things,

A website or blog that you own

A Google Plus Account

An About Me page on your blog. If you already have an about page where information about author is given then you need not worry. However if you don’t have an about page then you must create one now.

If you have met the above three conditions then you may follow these steps:

First add your Google Plus Profile link anywhere on your blog sidebar using the following code:

<a href="Google Plus profile Link"
rel="author" target="_blank"> Join me on Google+</a>

rel="author" will tell robots that you are the actual author of the blog. Make these changes:

Replace Google Plus profile Link with your profile link. Example my link looks like: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117016911002373320790
You can replace Join me on Google+ with any text you like. (Optional)

This is how the link looks on my sidebar:

2. Next add a Link to your About Us Page just below your blog footer or anywhere you like. I have added this link to my blog footer using the following code:

<a rel="author" href="http://cooldoodtricks.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html">About</a>

This is how it looks on the blog:

You can give it any title you like but add it either to sidebar or footer.
3. Now the most important part. Inside your About Page add your profile pic with dimensions 128px by 128px in size and using JPEG format. Also start the first line of the paragraph with your Google plus profile link using the following code:

<a rel="me" href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/117016911002373320790 title="Sarath S Pillai">Sarath</a>

Here rel="me" will again further authenticate you as the original owner of the blog. Remember to add your full name next to title and add your Google+ profile link instead of my profile link and your first name instead of Sarath.

The result should look like this:

4. Now go to your G+ profile and click the “Edit Profile” button

5. Then click on the "LINKS", " CONTRIBUTOR TO", and OTHER PROFILE area as shown below,

Add your Blog homepage URL and also the URL of your About Us page. You can also add your Facebook and twitter links if you wish. I have observed that now Google offers two link options. One is called Other Profiles and second is called Recommended links. Add your Homepage link, Facebook and twitter links to Other Profiles and About Us Page link to Recommended links.

Next you must do this:

Go to http://profiles.google.com/me/plusoneshttp://profiles.google.com/me/plusones.

Click Edit Profile.

Check the Show this tab on my profile check box.

6. One Final step is to Upload a quality Profile Pic of yourself on Google Plus. Your image will look best if it is 250 px by 250 px in size.

7. Finally Save your profile and you are all done!

Test How your profile photo will appear

In order to see how your image will appear. Visit rich snippets tool and submit your homepage link in the search box and hit preview as shown below,

If you have followed the tutorial correctly then you will profile authorship will be verified. You will see a green verification message saying: "Verified: Authorship markup is verified for this page"

If you seem to be getting errors then revise the tutorial and retry and retest until you get no errors at all.