How Rel=”me” Should Work

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Comments (6)

Twitter recently changed its title tag on user bio pages to include the rel=”me” attribute on links. That is pushing some people’s bios up to No. 1 on Google and has some marketers concerned. But there is a fix for that.

The rel=”me” attribute looks like this:

a href=”http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com” rel=”me”

The purpose is to identify the relationship between web properties or identities that are owned by the same individual. Many social sites and directories use the rel=”me” attribute automatically when users link from their bios on those sites to their own blogs and websites. That’s fine, but social users typically do not link back to their social bios in the same manner. But they should.

According Microformats.org, the rel=”me” attribute is there for the purpose of notifying the search engines that links pointing from one site to another identify an individual as the same person. It’s called identity consolidation.

So you may want to include the rel=”me” attribute on links that point from your own domains to your social media bios. In fact, I highly encourage it. And you should also include the attribute in other links that point from one site to another, even those you own. For instance, if you have blogs that serve three different niches and you include a link in each of your bios on those blogs to the other blogs you own, be sure to include the rel=”me” attribute in those hyperlinks. This will give the search engines an idea that you own all three blogs and your own properties stand a better chance of ranking higher for your own name when people search for you which will help with your long term search engine optimization and online reputation management. That’s how rel=”me” should work.

Comments (6) Category: Online Reputation Management

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6 Comments

Comment by Neal G

Made Tuesday, 31 of March , 2009 at 4:56 pm

I was under the impression that people’s Twitter profiles were landing as the #1 results because Twitter changed it’s TITLE tags on it’s site to incorporate the users first and last name. I’ve always disliked web 2.0 services ranking higher with my name, than my own website does, so I never use my full name when using other websites. Not sure if that’s a good idea but so far it has worked for me.

Comment by Nick Stamoulis

Made Tuesday, 31 of March , 2009 at 6:57 pm

Thanks Neal for reading!

I have always found that it is very important to have your branded “name” in all of the major and niche social networking websites. At the end of the day people, your clients, potential clients, etc should be able to find out very easily, it adds levels of credibility and also can help establish and improve an online reputation…If social profiles rank higher than your website, then I highly suggest a relevant long term link building/trust factor campaign…

Comment by Jay Lohmann

Made Wednesday, 1 of April , 2009 at 12:21 am

I’ve read a few places on how to implement this tag on blogs or profiles, but as an owner of a company, I would like to add it to my company site so that it comes up first for my name. Any suggestions on how to do this?

thanks,

Jay Lohmann
TagTeamCreative.com

Comment by Nick Stamoulis

Made Wednesday, 1 of April , 2009 at 6:04 am

Thanks for reading Jay. A suggestion on this could be to try (on a few social profiles) to add the rel=”me” attribute on the incoming link from your social profiles to your website…I would test this out on a few profiles first to see if it helps )

Comment by Roy

Made Wednesday, 20 of January , 2010 at 7:09 am

Thank you for removing my comment…

Comment by Nick Stamoulis

Made Wednesday, 20 of January , 2010 at 7:12 am

Hi Roy,
Sorry, I did not see your original comment (we only remove spam comments)…anyway, thanks for reading!