Author or contributor signal: what it measures

The check reads the response your server returns and records what it found. That observation is stored with the report, so reopening an old audit shows what was true on the day it ran rather than what the page says now. It is not a live measurement, and it is not a model’s opinion of your page.

Ruleset geo-author · category geo · reported but never counted

• —Whether that person exists or knows the subject.
• —Whether a byline is appropriate — plenty of good pages correctly have none.

Attribute the page to a real person and link to something that shows why they would know.

Then verify it yourself rather than trusting the next report: reload the page, view the source, and look at the thing the check described. A check you can falsify in ten seconds is the only kind worth having.

The free visibility checks this on one URL and needs no signup — the same rule, on the same page, with no credit spent. When you want the whole page assessed, an audit is covered by the trial credit.

• Text available in source
• Content structure
• Published or updated date
• Links to supporting sources
• About or contact discovery
• Generative search eligibility needs review

All checks and their definitions as JSON