About authors

September 01, 2023

Rosie Atherton

What's inside this article:

Basic information
Who or what should be an author?
Author bio pages
Descriptions on author bio pages
Content links on author bio pages
Author names on content pages
Author highlight boxes
SEO for author bio pages
Update site localization
Learn more

Basic information

Internet users increasingly demand high-quality content written by experts. In the age of fake news, disinformation, and AI-generated content, it's never been more important to tell visitors exactly who is creating your content. On Pangea sites, this can be achieved by assigning authors to content pages.

To build trust with your audience and boost the authority of your content:

Consistently assign authors to content pages.
Publish high-quality author bio pages.
Make the bio pages easily accessible.

This article provides an overview of how you can share information about authors on Pangea sites.

Who or what should be an author?

In most cases, an author should represent an individual person. An author might also represent a third-party news agency (such as Reuters or Associated Press).

We don't recommend using the names of specific language services as authors. This approach implies that the content is editorial (representing the opinion of the service as a whole), which is normally not the case.

Author bio pages

Author bio pages showcase the experience and expertise of your content creators. High-quality bio pages boost the authority of your site and build trust with your audience.

NOTE: A bio page is published automatically for every author. It's not possible to create an author without a bio page.

The visible elements on each bio page are customizable. A bio page might include some or all of the following elements:

(A): Name: The author name (real name or pen name). Defined in the author settings.
(B): Image: An image representing the author. Defined in the author settings.
(C): Description: A description / biography. Visible only if provided in the author settings.
(D): Email: A contact email address. Visible only if enabled in the author settings.
(E): Follow: Links to social media profiles (X and / or Facebook). Visible only if enabled in the author settings.
(F): Subscribe: A link that lets visitors subscribe to content via RSS. Visible on all author bio pages unless disabled for the whole site.
(G): Content links: Links to recently published content. Visible only if enabled in the author settings.

For detailed information about configuring the author settings, see the following article:

Creating an author

Descriptions on author bio pages

The description / biography is the most important element on an author bio page. Although it's not required, we strongly recommend providing a description for every author. For details, see the following article:

Creating an author

Content links on author bio pages

A bio page might include links to the author's most recently published content pages. This functionality can be enabled or disabled in the settings for each individual author. For details, see the following article:

Creating an author

According to default configuration, a maximum of 20 items might be visible. Only the following content page types are listed:

Dynamic infographics
Article
Feature story
Photo gallery
Slider gallery
Transcript
Video

Contact Pangea Customer Care to set a custom configuration for your site. It's possible to change the maximum number of items and the content page types that are listed. The changes will apply for all authors on your site (changes for individual authors are not possible).

Author names on content pages

You can assign one or multiple authors to any content page. The names of the assigned authors are visible at the top of the published page. To learn how to assign an author to a content page, see the following article:

Assigning authors to content pages

The name of an assigned author might function as a clickable link to the author's bio page. This functionality can be enabled or disabled in the settings for each individual author. For details, see the following article:

Creating an author

We recommend assigning at least one author to every content page and ensuring that each name functions as a clickable link to the author's bio page. Otherwise, visitors are left wondering who produced the content and whether it can be trusted.

Author highlight box

On text-based content pages, an author highlight box for each assigned author might be visible below the main content. This makes the author information available directly on the page without an additional click.

When Highlight author is enabled in the author settings, the author highlight box is displayed automatically on content pages where the author is assigned. For details, see the following article: