Author markup
Author markup is structured data on a page that says who wrote it and links to more about them.
Author markup is structured data on a web page that names the person who wrote it, and points to more about them, like their profile page or their LinkedIn. People see a byline. Author markup gives machines the same information in a form they don't have to guess at.
It matters because search engines and AI platforms try to judge whether a page comes from someone who knows the subject. A clear, consistent author is one of the easier signals you can give them.
What it looks like
Most sites add it as JSON-LD inside the page's article markup. For example, a guide on Fernhill Coffee's blog might carry this:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "How to brew pour-over at home",
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Maya Ortiz",
"jobTitle": "Head roaster",
"url": "https://fernhill.coffee/team/maya-ortiz"
}
}The author here is a person with a name, a job and a page of their own. That team page can then say more about Maya: how long she's roasted, where she trained, what else she's written. Google lists the author fields it reads in its article structured data guide.
Getting it right
Use the same name for the same person on every page, and link each author to one page about them on your own site. A byline that says "Maya O." on one article and "M. Ortiz" on another looks like two people.
Only name a real person who wrote or checked the page. If a team wrote it, mark it up as your organization. Markup that names an expert who had nothing to do with the page is a claim that can be checked, and it can count against you.
Author markup won't rescue a thin page. It helps a good page get credited to the right person.
In AnswerOrbit
One of the eight page checks looks for structured data on a page, and compares your page with the pages the platforms cite for the same prompt.