Last time, I answered the question, What is Author Rank? I encourage you to read it if you're unsure because Author Rank is positioned to change search as we know it.
In a nutshell, Google recognizes that there are people on the web who produce really great content. Google also recognizes there are people on the web who produce not-so-good content. Google wants the stuff of good authors to rise to the top of the search results, and they want the stuff of the not-so-good authors to sink to the bottom.
How to get started with Author Rank
What you need to do is to make sure Google knows which content on the web belongs to you. That makes sense, right?
In geek speak, you need to attach the rel="author" or the rel="me" tag to everything you've written. "But wait," you say. "Considering all the posts, status updates, tweets and other things I've written, how will I do that?" And also, "What in the world does that mean anyway?!"
Have no fear, I turn geek speak into plain English. I'm here to help ya. 
Here's what to do:
Step 1: Sign up for a Google account
There's no way around this. It must be done if you are going to take advantage of Author Rank.
If you already have a Google account (you do if you have Gmail), skip to Step 2 below. If you don't, follow along.
Google works like this: you create a Google account which acts like an umbrella. Then, you activate various Google products underneath it, like Google+ or Google Analytics.
So, create a Google account if you don't have one already. The process is pretty straightforward. This link does require you to sign up for a Gmail account.
Tip: When creating your account, use the name you use when you write content on other places around the web.
I highly recommend Gmail (and use it myself), but if you're absolutely opposed and you want to use a different email address, I will refer you to this post on Lifehacker for a possible alternative.
For the remainder of this post, I will assume you have a Gmail account.
Step 2: Activate your Google+ profile
You must have a Google+ profile in order to benefit from Author Rank. This is how Google knows you are the person you say you are and can connect your content to you.
Login to your Gmail account.
Click the +You link in the top left corner of your screen. You can also use this link to get to the same place.
Upload a picture for your profile image and click the "Set as profile photo" button.
Tips for your photo:
- I recommend a clear headshot with your head filling most of the square (remember, these are small in the stream so a full body shot is going to be teeny tiny).
- Use a picture of you, not a logo.
- Edit your image (such as cropping) if you'd like. Drag the boxes in the corners to resize the crop box.
- As I've said before, I like using the same profile picture across all social media platforms so my branding is consistent. The same photo you use for your Gravatar is a good idea here.
- Click "Set as profile photo" button.
Once you're all set up, you'll need to fill out your Google+ profile.
Step 3: Fill out your Google+ profile
First, you can always get to your Google+ Home by clicking +YourName at the top of the screen when you're using Gmail or other Google products.
To access your Google+ profile, click the Profile icon in the left column.
Once in your Profile, click the "Edit Profile" button in the top-right.
(When you're in edit mode, you can hover and click on any section on this page to edit it. The section will turn a light blue when you hover over it.)
When it comes to Author Rank, the main section you want to fill out is the "Contributor to" section near the bottom of your About tab.
Hover over it until it turns blue and click. Add any site you own or have written for.
To do this:
- Click "Add custom link"
- Enter site name
- Enter URL
- Select Public from the dropdown menu (unless you have reason to limit the visibility).
- Save.
Other sections I recommend you fill out on your profile's About tab:
- Your "Other profiles" section with links to all your other social media profiles.
- The "Employment" section for the reasons I explained earlier.
- Your Introduction. Note that you can add links to your blog and other projects in the Introduction section. Handy. Check mine out here.
- Lastly, make your +1's public. Do this by clicking on the +1's tab just under your cover image at the top of the screen. Make sure the "Show this tab on your profile" is checked. Save.
Once you have completed editing your profile, click the "Done editing" button at the top of the screen.
Welcome to Google+! We are halfway there. I know it can be a bit overwhelming so we'll stop there for now. Stay tuned for Steps 4, 5 & 6 later this week. It's a good time to subscribe so you don't miss it! 
As always, this was very helpful and explained in a step by step easy to understand way that even I could follow! I went through and made the recommended changes to my Google+ profile…thank you!
You're welcome, Sharla. I'm glad it was helpful.
You're too awesome – thank you for the "english"
Thanks, Regina. And you're welcome!
Thanks, I didn't know about making the plus one's public. I'm really trying to use Google+ more, but it's taking a while to get used to. I also find it more challenging when not many of my friends are active on G+. I have joined some communities which are pretty interesting.
I've been using it a lot more lately too. Much more than Facebook actually. I hope all will eventually make the leap. And I agree, communities are great.
Hi Amy, thank you for this info! I've spent the last hour updating things, but I have a question. In your intro, you have your links to your sites that are 'clean'…no http, etc. and they go directly to your websites. I can't seem to get that to happen. Even with the http visible, when you click it takes you to the screen where you would edit the intro content, not to the website. If you then click on the link, a blue box pops up that says 'go to link: with the URL. Then if you click on that you FINALLY get to the website. Phew!
Also, I'm wondering…you said a gmail account is a must, but I don't have one. I did for a short time but never used it.
Hi Doreen,
In answer to your last question, I like Gmail because it's easy to get email from all my accounts (I have a lot of email addresses) sent to my one Gmail account. I also like the fact that it's so well integrated with all of Google's other products. It just makes my life a lot easier.
Regarding your first question, I think you're asking how to create a link. Is that right? Does this post help?
Hi Amy, regarding google email, I didn't know that. So if you have an aol or yahoo or .com account you can get those emails in your google account? Wow!
I know how to create a link within a post, but this process is different. I don't know how to explain it other than how I did above. It's not a clean link. That second step of clicking on the link icon does not come into play so I'm not sure how to get it to look clean.
Thanks so much!
Doreen, do you have a post where it's not working properly that I can see?
It's not a post, it's for the google+ profile that I'm referring to. I have screen shots for you, but there doesn't seem to be a way to email them to you, unless I'm missing something?
Informative post. Its very easy to overlook useful stuff like these when in fact they helped with our overall online efforts.
Amy,
Curious as to why you don't recommend using a logo? My branding is my logo. I use it as my gravitar as well. Any further clarification is appreciated.
Thanks as always!
I think using your logo on your Google+ page is fine, but on your own personal profile, I'd definitely recommend a picture of you, just to keep the person-to-person connection going.
Hi Amy,
It's great to see more awareness of "Author Rank"
We have actually just introduced a new Author Bio Box for all our fitness blogging members to help them create Google+ Authorship on all their guest posts.
This is something we feel here at The Fitness Blogger Network is really important because good quality guest blogging on "High Quality" websites will also help your Author Rank
Kind Regards
James
AKA The Fitness Blogger
Great move, James!
Bookmarking this, thanks! I have some work to do.
Hi Amy, I don't know why but i don't have the contributor to option, only other profiles… can you help me?
Thanks so much,
Lena
Hmmm…not sure about that. I haven't encountered it before. This is your personal profile, right? (As opposed to a page?)
Lena, I had that same issue, but when I switched to the Chrome browser, it worked.
Thanks for the tips – I just opened your screen next to another window with Google + screen and worked through it with you. I'm looking forward to more tips.
Way to go, Kathryn! Thanks for following along.
I'm so excited you're doing this series. What a great resource.
I have a question about guest posts. I've done several guest posts for large blog over the last few years. What do I put in the "Contributed to" section? Do I put the actual link to the post or the website url?
Thanks!
Great question, one that's not been totally figured out yet. For now I'm just linking to the homepage of blogs I've contributed to.
You might have just changed my mind about G+ with this series. Not that I'm a lot of places on the internet… And I guess this answers the question of whether I should make a separate Google + Page for my blog or not. I'm going with not now. Also Facebook is starting to annoy me. Looking forward to the next post!
Right there with ya, Gen.
Thank you Amy! I had accomplished most of this previously, but you showed me some changes and additions I needed to make. Looking forward to the next post!
Hi Amy!
I just had to THANK YOU for all your help. I would not have been able to transfer from Blogger to WP without you, nor would I have known where to begin once I did. I have used so many of your "How to start a blog" tips and it has helped so much! I am so pleased with my new blog. Thank u so much! You are amazing! Now anytime I have a blog question I come to your site first. Your tutorials are easy to understand and follow. I'm recommending you to every blogger I know
Thanks, Sara! Way to go.
Hi Amy
Thank you so much for this! I haven't explored google plus much but this shows me I need to make it a priority! That and actually posting : ).
I have an unrelated question: I notice at the bottom of your emails and rss feed you have related posts and recent posts…how do you get those there?
Thanks!
That's a feature of FeedBlitz although sometimes I do manually enter them sometimes. You might also look for a plugin called nRelate.
Thank you so much!
Thanks so much for your advice and CLEAR directions. You are just what I needed!
amy, thanks again for another informative post. i have a question which is only slightly relevent, but, can't find an answer anywhere. could you explain why google plus reverts it's bloggers back to "no reply blogger" when they connect to google+, and is there a way to work around it? i had to revert back to blogger, as it seems it's the only option. suggestions?
Hi Sarah, I'm not sure I'm following. Could you explain a bit more when that happens?
it's probably something i'm doing/not doing if you're not aware of it; but, in blogger, my profile has my email address so i can receive replies {such as yours} to my comments in my email. when i switched from blogger to g+, i was reverted back to a "no reply" blogger, so people could not reply back to my comments. when i googled how to fix this, i read that there was no fix other than reverting back to my blogger profile.
oh, i see that you're on wordpress so this isn't an issue for you, but i just found a great link explaining how to correct it if anyone else using blogger. {you may have to do it more than once, so check your blogger profile periodically.}
http://mrslambsclass.blogspot.se/2012/07/what-im-no-reply-blogger-google-fix.html
For the last step of making the +1's public, I cannot see the "show this tab on your profile" option. Mine just says "Your +1's appear here…."
Any tips?
Do you have any +1's yet, Kathleen? That might be the issue.
Hi, Amy. Thank you for all of the great info you share with us. I have taken the plunge and followed your instructions to set up a G+ account. I do have one question though. I have a couple of gmail accounts and I noticed, while looking for people, that my other account showed up as a possible person to add. I don't have G+ activated on that account, but my picture and name show up. Do you know anything about how to only have 1 G+ account while still having multiple Gmail accounts? Thanks for any help you can give me.
I have multiple gmail accounts as well. I don't want to get rid of them, so I have made all of them bare bones except for my main one. I don't really use them and I have removed profile pics from them. That way, if someone happens to be looking for me, they will typically use the account that has my profile picture attached. Of course you could also delete the other accounts if you no longer use them too.
Thanks so much, Amy! I will make sure I don't have profile pics on the others and maybe I need to consolidate a couple of accounts. Thanks again for all of your advice and tips.
Hi Amy,
I've followed through all the steps here, but I can't get the mini bio to work. I don't have a little photo of me in the same spot that you show in your post. Also, when I hover over my name at the top of my google profile (even if I do it as the "public" view), I see. . . nothing. No little box pops up to show that mini profile info. I have filled out employment but I've not a few things there. . .(ie 3 different "jobs")–could that be the problem? As always, thanks so much for your information–so so valuable!
The only problem I see with Author is what happens when everyone has Author accounts, will they make a popularity contest? Right now it works great, but soon everyone will have it and it goes back to trying to compete against the big boys
I think this is true to a certain extent. All the more reason to start building your Author Rank now and get a head start!
Amy! GREAT stuff. Adding all these great changes.
Question: would you list a "Contributor To" site where you just did one guest post?
Yes, for now I would.
Great step by step. Thanks much. I added this to my personal Google+ and connected all my sites including my blog. Does that mean my Google+ page for my blog is connected then too or is there a way you have to add authorship to the actual Google+ page that you created? Thanks.
Hi Jessica, make sure you read Part 3 of this series. This post is only half of the process.
Amy,
I have used you since I started a blog less than a week ago as my personal tutor. I feel like there is sooo much to learn and I want to learn it all yesteday! I just had to thank you for all of your advice and tutorials. I have spent hours logged in literally and in a few of your recommended sites as well. Thanks is not enough, but I hope the purchases that I made through your links will be a small blessing. Debbie
Yes, I very much appreciate it, Debbie. Thank you.
And I'm glad it has been helpful!
wow..I've had my googel+ account for a year..and never completely filled out that "about" stuff–THANK YOU AMY!
Your writing style is so easy to follow, thanks I immediately updated a very dormant account…lol
Amy,
I added in my own site, as well as the four other sites for which I'm a monthly contributor. What are your thoughts on guest posts? In other words, I've had guest posts appear on other sites (not a regular contributor). Do I add those in, too?
Yep!
Hi Amy,
You say to list in your G+ profile publications where you contribute. If you only contribute once to a blog, should you list the blog? The list could grow long very quickly.
When someone contributes a one-time post to my blog, should I encourage her or him to add my blog to his/her G+ profile?
I would say yes and yes. I talked more about it for blog owners in my post, The Ultimate List of Google+ Tips.
Thank you, Amy! I'll have to spend more time digging into your posts.
Hi Amy!
I just started blogging this last week. I owe you much gratitude for your advice! It has been a great guide for me.
I have a quick question about author rank. I set up a Google+ account, and successfully linked it to my blog. When I tried the rich snippet tool, my photo appeared by my blog on the results. However, when I just Google the name of my blog, there is no photo. I thought it might just take time, but it's been a few days. Any ideas?
Thank you so much!
Sarah Kate
Thank you so much!!! I seriously wouldn't get anything done if it weren't for you simple, straightforward instructions. Now to actually use Google+1;)