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Google, authorship and rel=author

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A few days ago I posted to a Google Plus community with a question about authorship.  Here is the text:

“Hi There,

I have a question regarding rel=author usage, and I’m hoping will be answered by a Google Rep as there is little information in Google’s TOS or G+ Name policy to cover this.  Say I manage a Google plus profile used for a small business.  We prefer to use rel=author to help visitors connect to the local sales rep, and see the face of the person they will be talking to if they contact the business.  If the sales rep leaves I have 2 options that I can see 1) update the markup on the website to point to a different G+ account, or 2) update the G+ profile with a new name/photo.  I see that Google allows for multiple google accounts/profiles, so I don’t think there would be an issue, but I want to make sure my bases are covered.  Does Google/Google+ have any issue with either one of these methods of resolution?  If so, can you elaborate?”…I never heard back from anyone at Google regarding this.
Well, after much digging, poking around and obtaining some opinions of other prominent SEO‘s, here is the gist.  In theory you can do this.  It is possible to update the name of a Google plus profile holder, HOWEVER this does violate the spirit of authorship itself.  Additionally, if you change your name too often (currently more than 3 times in 2 years) it can flag and deactivate your G+ account.
This leads me to the conclusion that author rank can absolutely play a huge part in your SEO, however there is no ethical way to preserve G+ profile equity in the circumstance I mention above.  The best thing you can do is just give credit to another author, HOWEVER you must expect this to be a negative signal to Google.  Changing authorship is going to have some huge search engine optimization implications.  That said, if the new author is more relevant and has a bigger following, it could be positive….
Clearly Google Authorship as it pertains to search engine optimization and similar SEO services will have to be tested.  I’ll definitely post here if I see any results.

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