John Mueller from Google wrote on Bluesky, "and let's be honest, people can tell when author bios are used purely as an SEO tactic. It's kinda awkward, not reassuring."
This was in response to a post from Nikki Pilkington who said "Stop treating author bios as an SEO tactic and start treating them as what they are – a tool for building trust with your actual human readers."
John amplified that post and said, "I don't know who needs to hear it ->" and quoted the thread.
Here is the original post:
Stop treating author bios as an SEO tactic and start treating them as what they are – a tool for building trust with your actual human readers.
— Nikki Pilkington (@nikkipilkington.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 4:30 AM
Like I said, John reshared it and wrote:
I don't know who needs to hear it ->... and let's be honest, people can tell when author bios are used purely as an SEO tactic. It's kinda awkward, not reassuring.
Here are some other related stories on this topic over the recent years:
- Google: Author Bylines Don't Help You Rank Better; Google Doesn't Check Credentials
- Google: Author Not A Direct Ranking Factor
- Google On Importance Of Bylines For Trust On Articles
- Google: You Should Document If A Doctor Reviewed Your Medical Content
- Google: YMYL Sites Should Have An Expert To Write The Content
- Google: Renting Specialist Or Expert Names Does Not Help With EAT
- Google: We Try Recognize Author Details, Reviewer Details & Overall Site Quality Details
- Google On How It Recognizes Authors Without Authorship
Forum discussion at Bluesky.
