The Authorship Signal: Why AI Needs to Know Who You Are

In the era of "Slop"—the flood of low-quality, AI-generated content filling the web—trust has become the most expensive commodity online.

When Google or ChatGPT is deciding which answer to serve a user, it isn't just analyzing what is said. It is analyzing who is saying it.

This is the Authorship Signal.

If you are publishing content anonymously, or under a generic "Admin" user profile, you are actively telling AI models that your content is low-value commodity text. To win at Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), you must prove that there is a human expert behind the machine-readable code.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are terrified of hallucinations. They are programmed to minimize liability.

Scenario A: An anonymous blog post says "Eating rocks is good for digestion."

Scenario B: A verified Geologist with a linked University profile says "Eating rocks is bad."

The AI will cite Scenario B 100% of the time. Not just because the facts are better, but because the Entity (The Author) has a higher trust score.

This concept is known in SEO as E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). In the AI era, E-E-A-T isn't just a guideline; it's a filter.

You can't just be an expert; you have to signal it in a way a robot understands. Here is the 3-step framework we use at cite-met.

Most startups treat their About page as an afterthought. In AEO, it is your ID card.

AI crawlers look for an "About" page to resolve the identity of the website. If it's vague ("We are a passionate team"), the AI assigns a low confidence score.

The Fix:

• List specific founders/authors.

• Link to external validation (LinkedIn profiles, Crunchbase, University bios).

• Mention specific credentials (years of experience, awards, degrees).

Why do you think cite-met lists our patents and lectureships? It's not ego; it's AEO.

This is the technical secret weapon.

In your structured data (JSON-LD), there is a property called

Without this, the AI has to guess if you are the famous expert or just someone with the same name.

The Code:

Copy
{
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Mahmoud Halat",
  "jobTitle": "Co-Founder",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahmoudhalat",
    "https://twitter.com/mahmoudhalat"
  ]
}

AI models build a "Knowledge Graph" of the world. If your website says you are an "AI Expert" but your LinkedIn says you are a "Dog Walker," the disconnect creates a "Trust Gap."

Ensure your bio is consistent across:

• Your Website

• Social Media (Twitter/LinkedIn)

• Guest Posts

• Crunchbase/AngelList

My philosophy of "Hospitality by Default" applies here.

When you walk into a nice hotel, the concierge introduces themselves. They wear a nametag. They take responsibility for your experience.

An anonymous website is like a hotel with no staff, just a kiosk. It feels efficient, but it doesn't feel safe.

By reclaiming your authorship, you are offering hospitality to the user (and the AI). You are saying, "I wrote this. I stand by it. You can trust me."

We see many "vibecoded" sites that are brilliant tools built by brilliant people, but the site itself is completely anonymous.

The code is there, but the Soul is missing.

When you deploy with cite-met, we don't just optimize your HTML; we encourage you to populate your metadata with robust Author signals. We want the AI to know that you built this.

Don't let your expertise be anonymous.

Is your Authorship Signal weak?

Our visibility report checks for proper "About" page structure and Schema validation.

👉 Check your site's Trust Score for free.