In the world of SEO, we all know that content is king and creating engaging, informative content for your website is extremely important. However, it doesn’t just end there and one aspect that can often be overlooked but can significantly impact your E-E-A-T signals is author pages. Even though author pages are not a direct ranking factor, they can play a significant role in building trust and credibility and can enhance your website’s overall SEO performance. In this blog, we will discuss what an author page is and why it is important that you include them on your website.
What Is An Author Page?
An author page is a dedicated page on your website that showcases the expertise and credentials of the people who have contributed to your website, whether they have written a blog or reviewed a service page, an author page should be created. The author page will highlight the author’s background, experience, expertise and knowledge for a certain topic or field.
What Should Be Included On Your Author Page
In order to maximise the impact of your author pages, you should include the following:
- ➡️ Name – clearly identify the author at the top of the page.
- ➡️ Role/ title – include their role so users know where their expertise lies.
- ➡️ Image – including a high quality image/ headshot will help to humanise the author and give the author page a more professional look.
- ➡️ Bio and expertise – provide an overview of the author’s background, experience and different areas of expertise, this should all be relevant to your website.
- ➡️ Qualifications – include a list of relevant qualifications to showcase the author’s expertise within the industry.
- ➡️ List of articles written – include a list of articles that the author has previously written to further showcase their knowledge and expertise.
- ➡️ Links to other profiles – if relevant, provide a link to the author’s other profiles, such as LinkedIn, to build a strong online presence.
- ➡️ Contact information – include an email address/ phone number so that users can get in touch with the author.
By including all of the above information, you can truly showcase the expertise and knowledge of the author and provide those all important E-E-A-T signals for search engines and users.
Below is an example of an author page with all of the relevant information showcasing expertise and experience signals which will provide users with trust. This author profile is linked to throughout the website so that users can see the expertise behind the website easily and they can then build trust with the people behind the brand.
Why Are Author Pages Important To Have On Your Website?
Creating author pages does involve an extra step when creating content, however they can offer significant benefits for your website. By including author profiles on your website and showcasing the expertise and experience of your authors, you can easily improve your website’s E-E-A-T signals, which Google heavily favours in their search quality guidelines. Google actually mentions the term ‘E-E-A-T’ 116 times in the Search Quality Rater Guidelines, therefore emphasising the importance of establishing trust and authority throughout your website.
It also states the following as one of the guidelines: “Assess how trustworthy the page is. Experience, Expertise and Authoritativeness can help with your assessment of Trust. Some types of pages require a high level of Trust.”
Building E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) signals is one of the main benefits of author profiles and this is extremely important for SEO because it will contribute to quality content that can go on to perform well in the SERPs. Even though E-E-A-T is not a confirmed direct ranking factor for Google, it is important to showcase these signals throughout your website to show that you are meeting Google’s requirements relating to quality and trustworthiness.
Author pages can significantly help strengthen your E-E-A-T signals. By showcasing to Google and other signals that your content is written by knowledgeable people who have relevant expertise and experience, you are demonstrating that your content is trustworthy and that it will be providing users with factual, helpful information.
However, as well as building E-E-A-T signals for your website and showing to search engines that you are providing trustworthy content, you can also build trust and credibility for your users. One of the most important reasons to have author pages is to build that trust with your audience, particularly if your website falls under the YMYL category. Building trust with your website users is crucial for any online business – trust can significantly contribute to user engagement, brand loyalty and conversions so building this on your website is key.
If a user trusts your website and the content you are providing them, they are more likely to engage with your content, share their personal information and become a return user who may purchase from your site. If a user does not trust the site, or the content that is written, it is likely that they will not engage with the website and they will leave the website and go onto a competitor’s site who is showcasing their trust signals clearly.
By incorporating author profiles into your website and including these on your blogs, service pages and other pages throughout your website, you are showing your users that your content is written by experts who know what they are talking about and they can trust that the information they are being provided with is true.
Summary
Author pages can often be overlooked for websites but they can be a key component of a successful website. By creating thorough, informative and engaging author profiles, you can easily enhance your website’s credibility and build trust with your users. In doing so, you will be able to improve your E-E-A-T signals which can help to build your overall SEO performance – remember that even though E-E-A-T is not a direct ranking factor, it is still a crucial element of organic search and the addition of author pages on your website can significantly contribute to these signals.
If you are looking to find out more about E-E-A-T and author pages and how these can contribute to a successful SEO strategy, make sure to get in touch with us today and our team of SEO experts can help provide you with the information you need to build strong E-E-A-T signals through author pages.
