I am in San Diego this morning preparing for a 20 Group meeting and I stumbled upon a Google SERP that caught my eye.  I searched for “ford dealers in tennessee” and here is the results that were displayed:

What caught my eye was the two photos that were associated with these dealership websites.  The addition of photos, with a smiling face, really made these two listings stand out.   Do you agree?  Will this increase organic Click Thru Rates?  Mmmmmmmm….you tell me.

At first I was puzzled, and then I realized that these websites were creatively using the Google Author Tag. So I decided to visit the website of Ford Lincoln of Franklin to see how this enhanced was implemented:

and at the bottom of the website page, a very simple, and elegant placement of the author tag was found at the bottom of the home page:

The author tag links to the Google+ profile of Greg Brown, who is the General Manager of the store.  So, if you are looking to enhance your organic SERP with a photo of the owner or General Manager of the store, this is one way to accomplish this.

The only drawback that I see is that the Google+ profile for Greg has no content. If a consumer decided to click to the author’s Google+ page, they will be disappointed.  It would have been great to see a page loaded with helpful articles about Ford products and more about the dealership.   Maybe this is phase two of this test?  I hope so.

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About the Author

Brian Pasch is the founder of PCG companies. PCG provides customized marketing and training solutions for businesses that are committed to dominate their local market.