Person schema is structured data, written in the Schema.org vocabulary, that describes a real individual on a web page: their name, job title, the organisation they work for, their profiles elsewhere and what they are known for. It is most often used on an About page, a team profile or as the author of an article, so search engines can tell exactly who a person is.
How Person schema works
Like other schema markup, Person schema is code added to a page that search engines read but visitors do not see. Google recommends the JSON-LD format, a block of data in the page head or body. A typical Person entry includes properties such as name, jobTitle, worksFor (linking to an Organisation), url (the person’s profile page), image, sameAs (links to the same person’s LinkedIn, professional register or other official profiles) and knowsAbout (topics of expertise).
Person rarely appears alone. On a blog post it sits inside Article schema as the author. On a team page it connects to your organisation’s markup. Google’s guidance for article authors asks for the author’s name and a URL that identifies them, ideally a profile page on your own site, so it can tell two writers with the same name apart.
Google does not show a special rich result just for Person markup on an ordinary business page. Its value is in clarity: it helps search engines connect a person on your site with the same person elsewhere on the web, as one entity rather than a string of text that might refer to anyone.
Why it matters for a UK business
For many UK small businesses, the person is the brand: the solicitor, the physiotherapist, the architect or the consultant whose name clients search for. Google’s quality guidance puts weight on who is behind content, especially on topics affecting money, health or legal matters, and E-E-A-T is the shorthand for that thinking. Person schema does not create expertise, and it is not a direct ranking factor, but it makes real credentials easier to connect. A sameAs link to a Solicitors Regulation Authority listing, a General Dental Council registration or a Companies House officer page points to evidence that already exists.
There is a privacy side too. Under UK GDPR, staff details on a website are personal data, so get agreement from each person before publishing their profile and markup, and remove both when they leave. Sole traders working from home should never put a home address in Person or business markup.
Common mistakes
- Marking up details that are not visible on the page. Structured data should describe what visitors can see.
- Inventing or inflating credentials in jobTitle or knowsAbout. Markup is a statement of fact, and a false one is a trust problem.
- Using sameAs links to unrelated pages or profiles of someone else with the same name.
- Listing the business name as the author of every article when a named, qualified person actually wrote it.
- Adding a separate, slightly different Person block on every page instead of one consistent profile referenced by an ID.
- Forgetting to remove markup for staff who have left.
How to act on it
Start with the people who matter for trust: the owner, the main practitioners and the authors of your guides. Give each a proper profile page with a photograph, role, relevant qualifications that you can evidence and links to official registers or professional profiles. Pair it with a clear author bio on the articles they write. Then add Person markup that matches the visible profile, with a stable identifier so articles can reference the same person.
Test the markup with Google’s Rich Results Test and the Schema.org validator, and keep it updated when roles change. If you want this done properly across an author-led site, alongside your organisation and article markup, my schema markup service covers it.