Google's Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines dedicate entire sections to authorship. Who wrote this? What are their qualifications? Can I verify their identity? These questions drive E-E-A-T assessment, and they translate into concrete, measurable signals on the page.
Most articles on the web fail at least four of the eight authorship signals that matter. Not because the authors lack credentials, but because the site doesn't surface those credentials in ways that search engines and readers can verify.
The eight signals
Byline with a real name. Not "Admin" or "Staff Writer" or blank. A byline tied to a person with a verifiable identity. Google's evaluators are specifically trained to check whether the author is a real, findable person.
Person schema in JSON-LD. An author field with @type: Person and at minimum a name and url property. This structured data helps Google connect the article to a specific individual and their other published work.
Author page link. The byline should link to an author page on your site that lists their credentials, other articles, and external verification (LinkedIn, professional affiliations, published work elsewhere).
Publication date. Both a visible date on the page and datePublished in your Article schema. Without a date, Google can't assess freshness, and evaluators flag undated content as lower quality.
Date modified. A dateModified schema property that updates when the content is substantively revised. This signals active maintenance.
Expertise markers. Visible credentials, professional titles, years of experience, or links to relevant certifications. For YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics, these matter enormously.
Same-author cross-linking. Links to the author's other articles on the same site, ideally through a structured author archive page. This establishes topical depth from a single voice.
External author verification. The author's name appears on external platforms (LinkedIn, university profiles, professional organizations) and those profiles link back to the author page on your site. This creates a verifiable identity chain.
Why this matters more than it used to
Before the Helpful Content Update, you could rank well with anonymous, well-optimized content. That era is over. Google now explicitly weighs whether content demonstrates first-hand experience and recognized expertise. Anonymous content still ranks for low-competition queries, but for anything competitive or YMYL, authorship signals make the difference.
The practical impact: two articles covering the same topic with the same depth will rank differently if one has a verified author with visible expertise and the other is published under "Admin."
What the tool checks
The Author Authority Per Article tool scores a single article URL across all eight signals. It checks whether the byline exists and links to an author page, whether Person schema is present with the right properties, whether dates are both visible and in the schema, and whether expertise markers appear in the content.
Each signal gets a pass/fail with specific guidance on what's missing. The aggregate score tells you how your article compares to the authorship standards Google's evaluators are trained to look for.
Building authorship from scratch
If you're starting fresh, the minimum viable setup takes about an hour:
Create an author page at /about/ or /author/your-name/ with a brief bio, photo, credentials, and links to your published work (on this site and elsewhere). Add Person schema.
On every article, add a byline that links to the author page. Add Article schema with author, datePublished, and dateModified.
On your LinkedIn or other professional profiles, link back to your author page. This closes the verification loop.
If you want the full author-as-brand framework, including how to position yourself as the authoritative voice in your niche, I cover that in The $100 Network on Kindle.
Fact-check notes and sources
- Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, Section 3.2 on E-E-A-T and page creator reputation. Source: Google, "Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines"
- Schema.org Person type documentation: schema.org/Person
- Google's guidance on author pages: Google Search Central, "Write high quality reviews" references author transparency
Related reading
- E-E-A-T trust signal surface audit — the full trust signal picture
- Claims and attribution patterns — backing up what you say
- Social proof and E-E-A-T signals — external validation
- Transparency pages and trust — pricing, careers, and about pages as trust signals
This post is informational, not SEO-consulting or legal advice. Mentions of Google are nominative fair use. No affiliation is implied.
