What is Google Authorship and Does it Still Exist?

Google authorship was a program launched by Google in 2011 that allowed authors to connect their information with the content they published. Their author profile (name, photo, etc.) would then be displayed alongside the webpage on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

The idea was to allow search engine users to recognize particular authors and help them identify quality content. At times, this would even increase click-through-rates because people would naturally click on results from authors they recognized. Google Authorship was discontinued in 2014, but despite what others have said, something from it still exists which has an impact on ranking.

Does Google Authorship Still Exist?

Google authorship no longer exists as a program, but the concept it was created for still exists today. When Google authorship was discontinued, the ability to recognize particular authors directly on search disappeared for users, but remained for search engines.

Google algorithms still recognize credible authors and associate them with the content they create. Although the extent of which is unknown, the presence of author information likely contributes to content evaluation. Author information might not appear alongside pages in SERPs like it did with the Google Authorship program, but it still appears within the article, sometimes in the form of an author biography. In this instance, Google not only crawls the article, but the information about the person who created the article as well.

Google Authorship Timeline: 2011-2025

Why Google Authorship Matters More in 2025 Than It Did in 2011

Google Authorship was created to add credibility and accountability to online content. This is now more important than ever before because of Artificial Intelligence.

In 2013, Google released E-A-T—which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. This is a guideline for content creators to follow if they want to rank high on Google search.

Almost a decade later, they updated E-A-T to include an extra E, creating what is now E-E-A-T.

Why would Google go out of its way to add Experience as a ranking factor when it already had Expertise? What’s the difference?

• 2013: Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
• 2022-present: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T)

The reason is subtle but profound:

The update was made only one month after ChatGPT was released. With OpenAI, anyone can publish content at scale; in fact, many did. The internet became flooded with low-quality, unhelpful content that can sound like an expert wrote it, but which doesn’t consider the readers whatsoever.

AI can write like an expert, and writing like an expert gives the illusion of authority, and false authority builds trust with people by misleading them.

For example, someone can now use AI to write a comprehensive review article about a health product without actually using it. Since they can generate an article in a matter of seconds, they have an incentive to.

However, the only thing that Artificial Intelligence can’t do is provide insights from real experience; that’s why SEO writing requires human expertise. Experience is a human quality that AI does not have, so while Expertise is important, Experience is the thing that verifies it. Without real human experience, the line between truth and falsehood disappears.

The concept of Google Authorship is more important now than when the program was actually active because in a post-AI world, Experience is the only thing that can verify Expertise, Trustworthiness, and Authoritativeness (E-A-T). When experienced writers create content for websites, it signals E-A-T to Google, can help SEO ranking.

Does Google Authorship Still Have An Impact on SEO Ranking?

Google authorship was based on the idea of author credibility, and author credibility helps with SEO ranking. Credible authors help signal to Google that content meets E-E-A-T requirements. Google itself has said that the background of an author strongly indicates the reliability of content, and this reliability signals rank-worthiness.

Much like our brains, Google’s algorithm is like an associating machine. It matches users with what they want, pages with where they belong, and content with the author that created it. When Google recognizes that an experienced writer with a history of published work has created content for a website, it associates that article with credibility too, and this can help SEO ranking.

What We Can Learn From Google Authorship

Authentic human experience is becoming the most valuable asset in SEO content creation. While AI can mimic expertise, it cannot replicate genuine experience, making experienced authors more important than ever for SEO success.

As we move forward in the AI era, the websites that will dominate search results are those that invest in content creators with real experience, proven track records, and genuine expertise in their fields. The concept of Google Authorship may have evolved, but its core principle—that credible authors create credible content—remains more relevant than ever.