Person schema is JSON-LD markup that defines an author or professional individual as a recognized entity in Google's Knowledge Graph. When implemented correctly, Person schema creates machine-readable author identity - linking your content creators to verifiable external profiles (LinkedIn, professional sites) and topic expertise areas. This author entity data directly feeds Google's E-E-A-T evaluation of your content: AI Overview citation models weight "Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness" signals, and Person schema is the structured data layer that communicates those signals in machine-readable format.
The most powerful property in Person schema for AEO is knowsAbout - an array of topic areas the person has acknowledged expertise in. Unlike free-text author bios, knowsAbout creates explicit, structured topic-authority associations in the Knowledge Graph that AI citation models can directly query when evaluating whether an author has credible expertise in the topic area of a specific query. An author with "knowsAbout": ["FAQPage Schema", "Google AI Overviews"] in their Person schema is recognizably authoritative for queries in those topic areas in a way that unstructured bio text cannot achieve.
Person Schema Anatomy: Every Property Explained
Click any property in the schema block to see its AEO purpose, Knowledge Graph effect, and implementation guidance. The impact rating reflects relative contribution to AI Overview citation authority for the articles this Person authors.
Hover any property to see its effect
knowsAbout Strategy: Maximizing Author Authority in the Knowledge Graph
The knowsAbout property is the most direct mechanism for establishing topic-specific author authority in Google's Knowledge Graph. Click each topic to see implementation strategy and examples of effective vs ineffective usage.