What does Google officially say about E-E-A-T?
Google Search Central (opened 2026-11-06, page undated) says three things:
- E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness; of these, trust is the most important, the others contribute to trust, and content does not have to show all of them.
- E-E-A-T itself is not a specific ranking factor.
- Google encourages answering three questions: Who (does a page where readers would expect a byline have one), How (how the content was made, including what role automation and AI played) and Why (was it written to help people).
The same page says fabricated author profiles are a form of deception. So the first rule of an author page is: write about a real person, with credentials you can substantiate.
Whether AI search products score sources by E-E-A-T or author pages, we found no official documentation from OpenAI, Anthropic or Perplexity, so it is unverified. Every "useful for AI" statement below is inference: an author or about page writes "who is speaking" as readable text so any system reading it does not have to guess.
What is the difference between an author page and an about page?
| Page | Answers | What goes in |
|---|---|---|
| About page (organisation) | Who made this product, when and where | Company or team name, founding date, location, Organization data (see the About page guide for how) |
| Author page (person) | Who wrote this article and on what basis | Name, how long they have done this, what they have done, contact, links to other profiles, plus Person or ProfilePage data |
If one person makes the product, the two can be a single page: put the founder on the about page. For how to write the organisation details, see How to write an About page so AI gets your company and product right; we do not repeat it here.
What should an author page say?
| What goes in | How to write it | Don't |
|---|---|---|
| Name or handle | A name you really use; indie developers may use a handle, but keep it consistent across the site | Signing under different names |
| How long you have done this and what you did | Checkable facts such as "building ExampleApp since 2026-03, N pages live" | Unverifiable descriptions such as "senior expert" or "industry-leading" |
| Where the data in this article comes from | Your own product data, tests, official documents, with dates | Numbers without a source |
| How the content was made | If AI drafted it, say how a person checked it | Pretending it is all handwritten, or that an expert reviewed it |
| Profiles elsewhere | Real accounts on GitHub, LinkedIn, X and so on | Accounts that do not exist or are not yours |
| Contact | An email address or a form | Only a form nobody answers |
How do you write Person and ProfilePage structured data?
Google Search Central (opened 2026-11-06, page undated) says ProfilePage suits user pages, author pages, a blog's "About me" page and employee pages. Required are mainEntity (a Person or Organization) and name; recommended are dateCreated, dateModified, alternateName, sameAs, description, image and others. Do not use a placeholder image.
jobTitle, worksFor and knowsAbout are properties of Person on schema.org (opened and confirmed 2026-11-06); Google's ProfilePage documentation does not list them as recommended, so they are optional extras. All URLs in the example are placeholders; replace them with your own:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "ProfilePage",
"dateCreated": "2026-11-06T00:00:00+00:00",
"dateModified": "2026-11-06T00:00:00+00:00",
"mainEntity": {
"@type": "Person",
"@id": "https://example.com/about/#alex",
"name": "Alex Example",
"alternateName": "alexbuilds",
"description": "Solo developer of ExampleApp. Builds and runs it since March 2026.",
"jobTitle": "Founder",
"worksFor": { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://example.com/#org", "name": "ExampleApp" },
"knowsAbout": ["LINE stickers", "image generation pipelines"],
"image": "https://example.com/alex-400.jpg",
"sameAs": [
"https://github.com/alexbuilds",
"https://x.com/alexbuilds"
]
}
}
Then point to the same person from each article with @id instead of rewriting it every time:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "How to size a LINE sticker",
"datePublished": "2026-10-16",
"dateModified": "2026-11-05",
"author": { "@type": "Person", "@id": "https://example.com/about/#alex" },
"publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://example.com/#org" }
}
Every item in the structured data must also be stated in the author page body; see How to write structured data.
Where do our own three sites stand?
On 2026-11-06 we checked the three sites we run; the gaps outnumber the good practice, and we state them as they are:
| Site | About page / author page | Author markup on articles |
|---|---|---|
| mochistamp.com | /about and /en/about both return 404 | In the guide pages' Article data, author points to the organisation (#org); no person |
| gammaslide.com | /about returns 404 | Unverified (not checked page by page) |
| kagentx.com | /about/ returns 404 | The guide pages' Article author is the Organization kagentx |
This is not recommended practice; it is a to-do. If you also build a product alone and want readers to know who is writing, make an about page first, then decide whether to put a personal name on each article. The byline must match the facts: if you did not write it, do not sign it.
How do you do it step by step?
1. Decide whose name goes on it
A personal or an organisation byline are both fine as long as they match the facts. If several people write, each signs their own.
2. Write an author page or about page
Write it following the table above, one fact per line, each checkable.
3. Add ProfilePage data and check it against the body
Adapt the example above; alternateName, sameAs and image must all be real.
4. Link articles to the author page
Put the byline and date in the article, and let the Article data's author point to the author with @id. For dates see How to mark content update dates.
5. Write the article itself in quotable sentences
The author page only says who is speaking; the body is the part that gets cited. See How to write content AI will quote.
FAQ
Is E-E-A-T a ranking factor?
Google's documentation says E-E-A-T itself is not a specific ranking factor; it stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, of which trust is the most important.
Does AI search look at author pages?
We found no official documentation from OpenAI, Anthropic or Perplexity on this, so it is unverified. Author pages help readers and follow Google's guidance; their effect on AI is inference.
I build a product alone; do I need an author page?
What you need is for "who is writing" to be readable. One about page is enough: the founder's name, how long they have done this, contact details and links to real profiles.
Can I invent an author?
No. Google's documentation calls fabricated creator profiles a form of deception. The byline must match the facts.
How do I sign an article drafted with AI?
Google suggests explaining how the content was made, including the role of automation or AI. Say how a person checked it, and sign with the person or organisation responsible for the content.
Sources
- Google Search Central · Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content （Viewed 2026-11-06; the page shows no update date）
- Google Search Central · Profile page structured data （Viewed 2026-11-06; the page shows no update date）
- schema.org · Person （checked 2026-11-06）
- kagentx evaluations: the data on the case study pages; each example gives its date.