AI Visibility pillar / check author-credentials-generic

Author credentials

For the people a page names, whether it shows why to trust them: a role, a license or certification, or years of experience.

By Shimon Carroll, Founder, SEO for AI Agents · Last updated

What this check measures

On articles and on pages that name people in structured data, each named person: whether their Person markup carries a job title, credential, education, expertise or description, and whether the visible text near their name states a license, certification, degree or years of experience.

Why it matters

Google's helpful-content guidance asks whether content shows "clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author", and whether it is written or reviewed by someone who demonstrably knows the topic. The same page says Google's systems give even more weight to strong E-E-A-T on topics that could significantly impact health or financial stability. No certification is required to write well; the point is that a reader can see why to trust the writer.

How we score it

Editorial. It lowers the score only when people are named and none of them shows any credential, at low severity, or medium for merchant cash advance and funding sites. A page that names nobody is not scored here.

Confidence-flag rules

MEDIUM: markup is read exactly, but a credential stated in prose is a reading of nearby text.

Common mistakes

  • A byline with a name and no role or bio link.
  • Putting the job title inside author.name instead of jobTitle.
  • Credentials only in a photo caption or an image.

How to fix it

Next to each name, say what qualifies the person (role, license or certification, years of experience), link a bio page, and add jobTitle and hasCredential or alumniOf to their Person markup.

Primary sources

Changelog

  • · New. Runs for general businesses, funders, AI agencies and real estate. Law, medical and accounting sites are reviewed by their own credential checks instead, so nothing is counted twice.
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