Person is the Schema.org type for an individual. On company sites it is used for authors, founders, executives and expert reviewers. Google has no standalone rich result for Person, but it uses Person within Article author markup and within ProfilePage markup, and a clear Person entity helps connect a writer's work across the web.
Properties that identify a person
The goal is to make the person unambiguous. A name alone is weak, since many people share one. Add a url to their profile page on your site, sameAs links to their other profiles, and context such as jobTitle and worksFor.
- name and, if useful, alternateName
- url: their author or bio page
- image: a headshot
- jobTitle and worksFor (an Organization)
- sameAs: professional profiles, personal site, publications
- knowsAbout: topics they cover, as text or links
Where Person markup lives
Define the full Person on their profile page, ideally inside ProfilePage markup with the Person as mainEntity. Reference that Person by @id from articles they wrote or reviewed. This gives one canonical description rather than a slightly different author object on every post.
Person markup and E-E-A-T
Google's guidance on helpful content encourages making it clear who created content. Person markup states that in machine-readable form. Google has not said that author markup is a ranking factor; it is a way to be explicit, and it should reflect real people with real bios on the page.
Example
Founder and author profiles
An HR software company, Larchwell, gives each of its writers a bio page with a photo, role and links. The page template outputs ProfilePage with a Person as mainEntity. Blog posts reference the Person by @id, and the CEO's Person node is also referenced as founder from the Organization.
Common mistakes
Fake or composite authors
Marking up invented personas misrepresents the content and conflicts with Google's guidelines on accurate structured data.
Linking to other people with the same name
Check that every sameAs link points to the right person.
Questions
Yes. If no individual is credited, use an Organization as the author. Do not invent a person to fill the field.
