Is the rel="author" tag becoming more integrated into organic SERPs?

Further to Econsultancy's interview with myself and the rest of the 3 Door Digital directors earlier this week, I thought I'd share a good example of exposure that can be applied directly into SERPs.

Last week I was performing some keyword research when I came across something interesting. I have found only one example of this SERP and I'd be interested to see if anyone can replicate it with other terms.

What I found

I was performing some dental related keyword research when I noticed this rel="author" tag embedded within a local result:

I can see this within both .com and .co.uk results with 'pws=0' inserted. I've of course seen the rel="author" tag appear within SERPs of regular organic results but not within a local entry of a SERP specifically.

What we can see

I tested the homepage for the rel=”author” tag and see that it has been implemented correctly. As well as this, the local entry when hovered shows places information such as a score rating, reviews, map pointer and place page images. The Google Local page shows full information on its own Google Local page.

I then noticed something else – a difference between the .com and .co.uk SERP. Notice here that there is a link directing you to more by [name]:

Clicking this result takes me to an author related SERP – complete with knowledge graph:

You can see this SERP here but only seems to appear within google.com at the moment. I tried the exact same query within google.co.uk and was met with a message saying:

But wait, there's more…

Looking at the difference between the two SERPs above, I also noticed this line at the top of .com's SERP:

Learn more about how authors appear in search - Google Authorship

The link takes me to a dedicated Google Authorship Verification page within Google+:

This page I have seen before but is good to see that there are easy steps for non-techies to adopt in order to achieve successful rel="author" implementation.

This is a very simple process but not sure if it can help any further than the usual rel=”author” implementation we have all been doing previously.

What we can assume

From all of this it seems that Google is ramping up author integration into local organic SERPs. This tells us that Google+ profiles are becoming more relevant for exposure and, whether you like it or not, it will become more important to have a presence within Google+ in order to help expose your organic exposure.