Authorship, author rank, that author thing Google did… Whatever you want to call it, the rel=author tag has been the subject of many a blog over the past six to twelve months.

Whilst most of these are really useful and explain in great detail the inner workings of the tag, I’ve personally find it difficult to pull out the three main things you need to know about it from these length posts.

Let’s face it – all you really need to know (and in fact have time to consume) is the basics of it all. So here they are, laid out for you on an authorship-based plate… The what, why and how of rel=author. Enjoy!