Author attribution (E-E-A-T)What it checks and how to fix it

What it checks

Applies only to pages that look like articles. Passes when the page names its author in any machine-readable way: an author in its JSON-LD, a <meta name="author"> tag, a rel="author" link or an itemprop="author" element. Warns when it has none of them.

Why it matters

Who wrote a piece is one of the clearest experience and expertise (E-E-A-T) signals Google's quality guidelines look for. AI assistants are also more likely to cite content attributed to a named, verifiable expert than anonymous copy. An unsigned article gives both of them a reason to prefer a competitor's.

How to fix it

Show a byline on the page and declare the same author in markup, linking to an author page that describes who they
are.

<head>
  <meta name="author" content="Jane Doe">
</head>

<article>
  <p class="byline">By <a href="/authors/jane-doe" rel="author">Jane Doe</a></p>
</article>

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "How to set up DMARC without losing email",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Jane Doe",
    "url": "https://example.com/authors/jane-doe",
    "sameAs": ["https://www.linkedin.com/in/janedoe"]
  }
}
</script>