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Issue #125 · important

The article:author meta tag specifies the author of an article or blog post.

What is this issue?

The article:author meta tag specifies the author of an article or blog post. This helps social platforms and users identify who wrote the content, building credibility and enabling author attribution.

This issue checks whether your page has the article:author tag implemented (for article-type content). A passing implementation must include:

  • article:author - A URL to the author's profile page or the author's name

Example of passing implementation:

<meta property="og:type" content="article" />
<meta
  property="article:author"
  content="https://example.com/authors/john-doe"
/>

Or alternatively:

<meta property="article:author" content="John Doe" />

Why does it matter?

The article:author tag is valuable for author attribution and credibility:

  • Author attribution: Gives proper credit to content creators
  • Credibility signals: Helps establish author authority and expertise
  • Social sharing: Platforms may display author information in previews
  • Author profiles: Links content to author profile pages
  • AI Search / AEO: AI systems use author information for entity recognition

Without the article:author tag:

  • Authors don't receive proper attribution
  • Missed opportunity to build author authority
  • Reduced credibility signals for content

Resolving this issue improves author attribution in social sharing and contributes to a higher overall SEO health score by strengthening author signals.

How to fix it

  1. Add the article:author tag to your HTML <head> section (for articles):

    • Use a URL to the author's profile page (preferred for SEO)
    • Or use the author's name as plain text
    • Ensure the author is a real person or entity

  2. Only use for article-type content:

    • Set og:type to "article" on pages with this tag
    • Don't add to homepage, product pages, or non-article content

  3. Choose the best format:

    • URL format (recommended): Links to author's profile, enables richer attribution
    • Text format: Simple author name, easier to implement

  4. Test your implementation:

    • Use Facebook Sharing Debugger to verify author is detected
    • Check that author information displays correctly on social platforms

Examples

Example 1: Missing Article Author

Problematic state (what fails):

<meta property="og:type" content="article" />
<!-- Missing article:author tag -->

Corrected state (what passes):

<meta property="og:type" content="article" />
<meta
  property="article:author"
  content="https://example.com/authors/john-doe"
/>

Example 2: Author as Text vs URL

Text format (acceptable):

<meta property="article:author" content="John Doe" />

URL format (recommended):

<meta
  property="article:author"
  content="https://example.com/authors/john-doe"
/>

Example 3: Non-Article Page with Author Tag

Problematic state (what fails):

<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
<meta property="article:author" content="John Doe" />
<!-- Should not be on non-article pages -->

Corrected state (what passes):

<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
<!-- Remove article tags from non-article pages -->

How PixyScan detects this

PixyScan checks for the article:author tag by:

  1. Fetching the page HTML after following all redirects
  2. Identifying article pages: Checking if og:type is "article" or page appears to be article-like
  3. Parsing the <head> section to extract the meta tag with property="article:author"
  4. Validating presence: Checks that the tag exists on article pages
  5. Validating content: Ensures the tag has a non-empty value
  6. Flagging the issue if the tag is missing on article pages or is empty

The detection is performed on the raw HTML response without JavaScript execution, matching how social media crawlers see your pages.

References