How should multiple article authors be marked up?

Definition: Multiple article authors are represented by separate objects in the article's author array, a list of author records. As of October 2026, Google's Article guidance recommends including every author shown on the page, with an appropriate type and an identifying url or sameAs link for each author.

Key facts

• Google's Article documentation says to list each author separately and use Person for people or Organization for organizations.
• Schema.org defines sameAs as a reference page that unambiguously identifies the entity, with an official website among its examples.
• Google's ProfilePage documentation requires mainEntity, the property identifying the person or organization that a profile page is about.

What does the author array look like?

Structured data is a standardized format for describing page content. Google's Article examples include JSON-LD, a JSON format for structured data, with separate author objects inside an author array. The following excerpt reproduces the authors in Google's news article example:

{
  "author": [
    {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "Jane Doe",
      "url": "https://example.com/profile/janedoe123"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "John Doe",
      "url": "https://example.com/profile/johndoe123"
    }
  ]
}

This is the author portion of the example; the surrounding article record supplies its article type and other properties. Each person's name and profile address belong together in that person's object. The same documentation explicitly advises against combining multiple names into a single author.name value, such as Willow Lane, Regula Felix.

The name property contains the author's name. Google places a publisher's name in publisher and a job title in jobTitle; introductory wording such as “posted by” stays outside author.name.

Which identity links belong to each author?

Google's author URL guidance describes author.url as a page that uniquely identifies the author. Its examples include a social media page, an “about me” page and a biography page. Google also accepts sameAs as an alternative for distinguishing authors and recommends valid URLs.

Schema.org's sameAs definition makes identity the purpose of that link. Applied to an author object, the linked page identifies that particular person or organization. Each coauthor therefore has their own identity link in their own object.

For an internal author profile, Google recommends ProfilePage structured data. Its profile documentation lists an author page on a news site and an employee page on a company website as valid uses. On that profile page, mainEntity describes the author. The article's author object links to the profile through url.

How should the markup be checked?

Google's implementation guidance recommends the Rich Results Test to validate the code and URL Inspection to test how Google sees a deployed page. Its author best practices also require every author presented on the web page to appear in the markup.

A review therefore compares the visible byline with the author array, checks that each record uses the appropriate type, and opens each identity URL to confirm which author it describes. Google's Article properties are recommended properties, so validation also needs this comparison with the page's actual authorship.

Related terms

• Article structured data
• Author byline
• Author profile page
• Schema.org sameAs

FAQ

Can I put all author names in one name field?

Google's multiple-author guidance says to give each author a separate entry. Use an author array containing an object for each author shown on your page.

Can an organization be a coauthor?

Yes. Google's Article guidance supports both Person and Organization authors and gives an organization homepage as an identity link example. Use Organization when the author is an organization.

Do I need both url and sameAs?

Google's Article property documentation accepts sameAs as an alternative to url for author identification. The link should identify the author represented by that object.

Sources

1. Google Search Central, "Article (Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting) structured data", updated 8 September 2026
2. Schema.org, "sameAs", undated
3. Google Search Central, "Profile page (ProfilePage) structured data", updated 8 September 2026

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