Person schema: How to describe who someone is, what they know, who they work for and why they should be trusted as an authority with JSON-LD.

🔔 December 2023 update: Google has adopted ProfilePage schema type. As such, I’ve revised the schema markup to use the required ‘mainEntity’ property instead of the ‘about’ property (as demonstrated originally in the video).

“2023 is the year of Person schema” – I claimed on a Linkedin post.

To put this into context, I had recently come across a Search Engine Journal article entitled, ‘Google Search Updates: About This Author, Diverse Views, + More’ that explored an announcement made by Google.

The article spoke about authors, specifically, how Google wants to rely more on verifying and validation authors of content so that information it serves to its users is credible.

In my opinion, the correct nesting of Person schema type is going to become a foundation of the future of search.

This is because Person schema can be used to:

  • describe who the author of content is
  • describe who the editor or reviewer of content is
  • what an author bio page is about (i.e., the person itself)
  • communicate what makes them an authority in the subject matter
  • communicate what makes the person qualified to talk about the topic

If you’re someone who wants to trigger a Google Knowledge Panel, you will want to have correct Person schema markup on your entity home. And in this video, I show you how Person schema is created using various schema.org item properties and how to connect Person schema with the author bio page.

Play

Here is the complete JSON-LD from the video:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph":[
  {
    "@type":"ProfilePage",
    "headline":"Joanna Kirlagitsi, Greek Speaking Psychologist | New Vision",
    "url":"https://newvisionpsychology.com.au/team/joanna-kirlagitsi/",
    "@id":"https://newvisionpsychology.com.au/team/joanna-kirlagitsi/#profilepage",
    "inLanguage":"en-AU",
    "mainEntity":{"@id":"https://newvisionpsychology.com.au/team/joanna-kirlagitsi/#person"},
    "isPartOf":{
      "@type":"WebSite",
      "name":"New Vision Psychology | Culturally-Sensitive Psychologists Near You",
      "url":"https://newvisionpsychology.com.au/",
      "@id":"https://newvisionpsychology.com.au/#website",
      "publisher":{
        "@type":"Organization",
        "name":"New Vision Psychology",
        "url":"https://newvisionpsychology.com.au/",
        "@id":"https://newvisionpsychology.com.au/#organization"    
      }
    }
  },
  {
    "@type":"Person",
    "name":"Joanna Kirlagitsi",
    "url":"https://newvisionpsychology.com.au/team/joanna-kirlagitsi/",
    "@id":"https://newvisionpsychology.com.au/team/joanna-kirlagitsi/#person",
    "worksFor":{"@id":"https://newvisionpsychology.com.au/#organization"},
    "honorificSuffix":"M. Psych.",
    "alumniOf":{
      "@type":"Organization",
      "name":"Western Sydney University",
      "@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1141452"
    },
    "sameAs":[
      "https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/counselling/joanna-kirlagitsi-hurstville-nsw/775994",
      "https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannakirlagitsi/"
    ],
    "jobTitle":{
      "@type":"DefinedTerm",
      "name":"registered psychologist",
      "alternateName":"psychologist",
      "sameAs":"https://resources.workable.com/psychologist-job-description"
    },
    "knowsLanguage":["english","greek"],
    "knowsAbout":[
      {
        "@type":"Thing",
        "name":"acceptance and commitment therapy",
        "alternateName":"ACT",
        "@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q424533"
      },
      {
        "@type":"Thing",
        "name":"dialectical behaviour therapy",
        "alternateName":"DBT",
        "@id":"https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/dialectical-behaviour-therapy-dbt"
      },
      {
        "@type":"Thing",
        "name":"cognitive behavioral therapy",
        "alternateName":"CBT",
        "@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1147152"
      },
      {
        "@type":"Thing",
        "name":"mindfulness-based therapy",
        "alternateName":"MBT",
        "@id":"https://newvisionpsychology.com.au/general-counselling/a-guide-to-different-types-of-therapy-counselling-styles/#mindfulness-based-therapy"
      },
      {
        "@type":"Thing",
        "name":"addiction",
        "alternateName":"addictions",
        "@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12029"
      },
      {
        "@type":"Thing",
        "name":"PTSD",
        "alternateName":"post-traumatic stress disorder",
        "@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q202387"
      },
      {
        "@type":"Thing",
        "name":"social anxiety",
        "@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3557657"
      }
    ]
  }
  ]
}
</script>

Did you enjoy this content?

Did you learn something new about semantic SEO?

Then make sure you subscribe to Scheming Schemas – a YouTube channel dedicated at showing the behind-the-scenes of semantic search.