Enable Google Authorship step by step

This community thread discusses the feature or improvement: Enable Google Authorship step by step.

Feature Details

In order to enable Google Authorship for your forum, you need perform the tasks below:Sign up a Google+ account using an email on your domain (in my case, as...

How APG vNext Handles Feature Requests

Feature requests and suggestions are tracked through the community forum. The development team reviews popular requests and incorporates the most-requested improvements into upcoming releases.

Vote for features by upvoting the original post in the forum thread
Add details about your use case to help prioritize the request
Check the release blog for updates on upcoming features

See the full feature set on the Features page or browse all community discussions.

Step-by-Step: Modern Author Markup for APG vNext (Post-Google-Authorship)

This thread provides the step-by-step implementation guide for adding author structured data to APG vNext thread posts, following the overview in the linked blog post. The focus is on practical implementation in the skin template files.

Step 1: Edit the Thread Post Template

-- File: /skins/[YourSkin]/thread-post.ascx
-- Find: the post article or div container
-- Add itemscope/itemtype attributes and itemprop markers

Step 2: Add JSON-LD to Thread Page Head

Add a Repeater or foreach loop in the thread page head template that emits one JSON-LD block per post:

<asp:Repeater ID="rptPostSchema" runat="server">
  <ItemTemplate>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context": "https://schema.org",
      "@type": "DiscussionForumPosting",
      "headline": "<%# Eval("ThreadTitle") %>",
      "author": {"@type":"Person","name":"<%# Eval("AuthorName") %>"},
      "datePublished": "<%# Eval("PostDateISO") %>"
    }
    </script>
  </ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

Step 3: Validate with Google Rich Results Test

Visit search.google.com/test/rich-results, enter your thread URL, and confirm that "DiscussionForumPosting" appears in the detected structured data with author and date populated.

Step 4: Monitor in Google Search Console

After deploying, check Google Search Console -> Experience -> Core Web Vitals and Enhancements for any structured data errors. Fix reported issues within 7 days to maintain eligibility for rich results.

Breadcrumb Structured Data for Forum Threads

In addition to DiscussionForumPosting markup, APG vNext supports BreadcrumbList structured data that shows the forum hierarchy in Google search results. The breadcrumb trail (Home → Community → Forum Category → Thread Title) appears beneath the thread URL in search results, helping searchers quickly understand where the content sits within the forum structure and increasing click confidence for navigational queries:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
  "itemListElement": [
    {"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://yourforum.com/"},
    {"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Community","item":"https://yourforum.com/community"},
    {"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Forum Name","item":"https://yourforum.com/community/forum-name-f12.aspx"},
    {"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"{ThreadTitle}","item":"{ThreadUrl}"}
  ]
}
</script>

APG vNext generates this breadcrumb JSON-LD automatically for all thread pages when APG.SEO.StructuredData.Breadcrumbs=true is set in web.config. The forum hierarchy depth (Home → Forum → Thread vs Home → Category → Forum → Thread) is automatically reflected based on the forum's configured category structure.

FAQ Structured Data for Knowledge Base Articles

Knowledge Base articles in APG vNext that use a question-and-answer format are candidates for FAQ structured data, which can produce an expanded FAQ rich result in Google Search. The expanded result shows up to three question-answer pairs beneath the article title in the search result, significantly increasing the visual footprint of the result and driving higher click-through rates. Enable FAQ structured data for Knowledge Base posts by adding the APG.SEO.StructuredData.FAQ=true setting and formatting Knowledge Base articles with explicitly marked question and answer sections in the post template.

Open Graph and Twitter Card Markup for Forum Threads

Alongside JSON-LD structured data, APG vNext emits Open Graph and Twitter Card meta tags for forum thread pages. These tags control how thread links appear when shared on social platforms — the thread title, description, and a preview image are displayed rather than a plain URL. Configure the default thread preview image in Admin Panel → SEO → Social Sharing → Default Thread Image. Individual threads can override the default preview image if the first post contains an image, which APG vNext automatically uses as the Open Graph image for that thread. Well-formatted social previews increase the click-through rate of links shared on social platforms, driving referral traffic back to the forum from outside the organic search channel.

Canonical Tag Implementation

APG vNext places a canonical tag on every thread page pointing to the first page of the thread. For multi-page threads, pages 2 and onwards include a canonical tag pointing to page 1, preventing duplicate content issues that arise from paginated thread content. The canonical URL always uses the primary domain configured in web.config, ensuring that even if the forum is accessible via multiple hostnames (e.g., www and non-www, HTTP and HTTPS), all search engine signals are consolidated to the canonical URL. Verify canonical tag implementation using the Coverage report in Google Search Console and fix any canonical mismatch errors reported there.

Hreflang for Multilingual Forums

For APG vNext forums that serve content in multiple languages, hreflang tags signal to Google which language version of a thread page should be served to users in specific locales. APG vNext 5.5+ generates hreflang tags automatically when multilingual mode is enabled and each language version has a unique URL. Configure the primary language and supported locales in Admin Panel → Settings → Localisation → Languages. Each language version of the same content is linked using hreflang, allowing Google to serve the Spanish version of a thread to Spanish-speaking searchers and the English version to English-speaking searchers, even when both pages have very similar content.

Related Resources

Looking for more help? Browse the support forum or check the Knowledge Base.