Person schema markup tells search engines exactly who you are—not just a name on a webpage, but a verifiable entity with credentials, expertise, and relationships. In 2026, with Google's Knowledge Graph and AI systems increasingly relying on structured data, Person schema has become essential for establishing authorial authority and entity recognition.
This guide covers Person schema implementation for Knowledge Graph optimization, including essential properties, JSON-LD code examples, and strategies for connecting your personal brand to search visibility.
Google's Knowledge Graph stores information about real-world entities and their relationships. For people—authors, executives, experts—the Knowledge Graph determines whether Google recognizes you as a distinct entity with verifiable credentials.
Person schema markup explicitly declares entity attributes that would otherwise require Google to infer from unstructured content. When you specify your job title, employer, educational background, and areas of expertise through schema, you're providing the structured data that Knowledge Graph integration requires.
Beyond Knowledge Panels, Person schema directly impacts E-E-A-T evaluation. Google's quality guidelines emphasize Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Person schema properties establish these signals programmatically—credentials that persist across all content you create.
Effective Person schema implementation requires the right properties. Not every available property matters equally for Knowledge Graph optimization.
name: Your full name as it appears across authoritative sources. Consistency matters—use the exact name format from Wikipedia, LinkedIn, and professional citations.
alternateName: Variations of your name that people might search. Include maiden names, shortened versions, or widely-known nicknames.
image: A high-quality professional photo URL. Knowledge Panels display this image, making quality important.
url: Link to your primary professional page—your author bio, personal website, or LinkedIn profile.
jobTitle: Your current professional title. Be specific: "Director of SEO Strategy" provides more signal than "Marketing Professional."
worksFor: The organization you work for, implemented as a nested Organization schema. This creates a relationship between your Person entity and your employer's Organization entity.
"worksFor": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Company Name",
"url": "https://company.com"
}
alumniOf: Educational institutions you attended. Include universities, professional certification programs, and notable training.
"alumniOf": [
{
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "University Name"
},
{
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Certification Program"
}
]
hasOccupation: Detailed occupation information including skills, responsibilities, and industry classification.
honorificPrefix and honorificSuffix: Professional designations like "Dr." or "PhD" that establish credentials.
knowsAbout: Topics and subjects you have expertise in. This property directly informs Google about your areas of authority.
"knowsAbout": [
"Search Engine Optimization",
"Content Marketing",
"Digital Analytics",
"AI Search Optimization"
]
hasCredential: Formal credentials, certifications, and professional qualifications. Link to verifiable sources where possible.
sameAs: Links to authoritative external profiles. This property is crucial for Knowledge Graph—it connects your Person entity to verified representations across the web.
Essential sameAs targets:
"sameAs": [
"https://linkedin.com/in/yourprofile",
"https://twitter.com/yourhandle",
"https://wikidata.org/wiki/Q12345678"
]
Here's a comprehensive Person schema implementation combining all essential properties:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Person",
"@id": "https://yoursite.com/#person",
"name": "Jane Smith",
"alternateName": "J. Smith",
"image": "https://yoursite.com/images/jane-smith.jpg",
"url": "https://yoursite.com/about",
"jobTitle": "Director of SEO Strategy",
"worksFor": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Marketing Agency",
"url": "https://agency.com",
"sameAs": "https://linkedin.com/company/agency"
},
"alumniOf": [
{
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "State University"
}
],
"knowsAbout": [
"Search Engine Optimization",
"Content Strategy",
"AI Search Visibility",
"Technical SEO"
],
"sameAs": [
"https://linkedin.com/in/janesmith",
"https://twitter.com/janesmith",
"https://wikidata.org/wiki/Q123456"
]
}
About/Bio pages: The primary location for comprehensive Person schema. Include all properties on the page dedicated to your biography.
Author bylines: When you author content, connect the article's author property to your Person entity using @id references.
Homepage: Include simplified Person schema if you're the primary entity associated with the site.
Person schema becomes powerful when connected to content you create. Use Article schema with author properties referencing your Person entity:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Article Title",
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"@id": "https://yoursite.com/#person"
}
}
The @id property creates a relationship between the Article and your Person entity, establishing authorship attribution that persists across content.
Add JSON-LD schema in the <head> section of your HTML. This ensures crawlers encounter structured data early in page parsing:
<head>
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Person",
...
}
</script>
</head>
Google's E-E-A-T framework connects directly to Person schema implementation:
Experience: Schema doesn't directly convey experience, but knowsAbout and hasOccupation properties establish domain involvement.
Expertise: jobTitle, alumniOf, hasCredential, and honorificPrefix/Suffix demonstrate formal expertise. The knowsAbout property explicitly declares knowledge domains.
Authoritativeness: sameAs links to Wikipedia, Wikidata, and industry authorities validate your standing. These external references create authority signals Google can verify.
Trustworthiness: Consistent information across schema properties and sameAs targets establishes reliability. Verifiable credentials and organizational affiliations build trust.
Before deploying Person schema:
Schema.org Validator: Test JSON-LD syntax at validator.schema.org. This catches structural errors and confirms proper nesting.
Google Rich Results Test: Validate that Google can parse your markup at search.google.com/test/rich-results. This confirms Google's interpretation matches your intent.
Knowledge Graph Search API: Check whether Google recognizes your entity at kgsearch.googleapis.com. This reveals entity recognition status.
Inconsistent names: Your schema name must match authoritative sources exactly. Variations fragment entity recognition.
Missing sameAs properties: Without external links, Google can't verify your entity against authoritative sources. sameAs is essential for Knowledge Graph connection.
Orphaned Person schema: Person schema without connection to content provides less value. Link your Person entity to articles, organization membership, and other relevant schemas.
Outdated information: Schema claiming current employment at a former company creates conflicts. Update schema when professional circumstances change.
Over-claiming expertise: knowsAbout should reflect genuine expertise, not aspirational positioning. Google cross-references claims against available evidence.
Person schema is one component of Knowledge Graph presence. Complement implementation with:
Person schema provides the explicit signals, but Knowledge Graph inclusion requires broader presence establishment.
AI systems from ChatGPT to Google's AI Overviews reference Knowledge Graph data when generating responses. Person entities with established schema markup and verified credentials appear more frequently in AI-generated answers about relevant topics.
When AI platforms like Perplexity or Claude generate responses about industry experts, they draw on structured Knowledge Graph data. Authors with clear Person schema markup, connected to verified credentials and authoritative sameAs links, receive more accurate citations and references.
The relationship extends to Google's AI Overviews as well. When generating answers about topics you have expertise in, Google's AI can more confidently cite you as a source if your Person entity is clearly established in the Knowledge Graph with verifiable credentials.
Investing in Person schema implementation positions you for AI search visibility—the same structured data that informs Knowledge Panels informs AI system understanding of who you are and what expertise you bring.
Person schema requires ongoing maintenance to remain accurate and effective.
Update schema immediately when job changes occur. Outdated worksFor information creates conflicts with current LinkedIn and other profiles. Similarly, update knowsAbout when your expertise expands or your focus shifts.
Periodically audit sameAs links to ensure they remain active. Deleted social profiles or changed URLs break the verification chain that Knowledge Graph relies on.
As you earn new credentials, add them to hasCredential. Publications, certifications, awards, and speaking engagements strengthen your entity profile over time.
Review your schema annually against current Schema.org specifications. New properties emerge that may benefit your implementation, while deprecated properties should be removed.
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