Do not invent an author. Google wrote that into the help page
The Who section of Google’s helpful-content page gained a few lines. The doc says avoid deceptive authorship information. Fabricating creator profiles, including AI-generated headshots, made-up names, or false credentials, so the page looks as if a human expert wrote it, is deception. Deception makes a page untrustworthy to people and to their quality systems, and it is a signal of a low-quality page.
This is not an order to put a personal name on every post. The page is there to stop fake people. A common page on news and content sites this year has a polished portrait and a name that sounds like a local adviser, and there is no such person when you follow it. The draft came from a model. Google called that deception, not an advanced search technique.
Our notes say “we.” The about page states the studio in Taipei Zhongshan, who the technical lead is, that there is no public phone, and that contact is the form. Readers can follow the studio. They do not need a columnist whose title changes every week. The technical lead is named when the engineering responsibility matters, not as the byline on every note, and not with awards he does not have.
If the site articles are written outside the company, one line in the contract is enough: do not use an author who does not work there, do not use a generated face as a headshot, and the job title has to match the work that person actually does. Before a draft goes up, a person still checks the price, the address, and the phone. That check is the fact-check note. A fake author and a fake phone number often arrive in the same draft.
Markup counts. If Article names an author the page does not show, the markup and the words disagree. Our article markup points at the about page. The display name matches the site. We do not add a chief adviser. How markup stays aligned is on the structure page.
The check this week is short, and each step still has to be finished. Open the last five posts. See whether there is an author portrait. After you open the portrait, see whether that person exists. See whether the job title is one you added for the page, such as a decade as head of strategy. If one post does not match, remove the portrait and the invented name. Use the company name, or the person who actually wrote the piece. Do not generate a team page of people who are not there, just so the site looks experienced.
The about page is one page: address and how to write. Ours is Fuxing North Road in Zhongshan, a form or email, no public phone. That page is for a person to check. It is not a row of generated smiles. If the team is a few people, write the work those people do. Delete an empty adviser slot.
Two bylines that show up in drafts
One service page ends with the byline of an adviser and a generated photo. The company does not employ that adviser. That version cannot go live. Change the byline to ZhuYun Digital and link it to the about page.
The other has no fake person, but every opening says the founder stated something the founder never read. Change the opening to the studio’s judgment. The about page still names the technical lead. Words nobody said do not go inside quotation marks.
Questions
Does a post without a byline get marked down?
Google encourages a clear who, where readers would expect one. No fake person is safer than a fake expert. Company notes say “we,” and the about page says who the studio is.
May we generate an author portrait?
Do not use a generated face as someone who stands behind the piece. If that person does not exist, do not use the face.
May the technical lead be named?
Yes, on the about page, as the technical lead. Do not turn every note into a personal column, and do not add credentials he does not hold.
How the about page says who we are Have someone read the byline
Source: Google Search Central, helpful content, Who section. Search Engine Land summarized the addition on 6 Oct 2026.