a single source, nothing corroborates it · contested

Put the writer's credentials on the article

Readers who feel connected to a named person link to them, so the byline needs to carry more than a name. One version puts a compact biography at the top of the article where nobody has to go looking; the other reveals it on hover with a link to the editorial guidelines inside the same box.

The method

The builders behind this play disagree, and these steps argue one side of it. Read them as a position, not the verdict. The disagreement is below.

1. 01

   Put a compact author bio at the top of the article itself, which beats a hover box because nobody has to go looking for it.

2. 02

   Reveal the author bio on hover instead of behind a click, and put a link to your editorial guidelines inside the same box.

What it returned

• Glen Allsopp prefers this to tooltips and points to The Verge and NYMag, both Vox Media brands, as the implementations he would copy.

• Glen Allsopp found the pattern on Health.com and PCMag plus RollingStone, Byrdie, Billboard and VeryWellFit, and notes that readers who feel connected to a named person tend to link to them.

The disagreement

Allsopp recommends the hover box as a pattern worth copying and elsewhere argues the always visible bio beats it precisely because nothing has to be uncovered.

Both positions stay on the page; neither is averaged into the other. The dissenting article is marked in the sources below.

Sources

• How 16 Companies are Dominating the World's Google Search Results (2024 Edition) - Detailed.comGlen Allsopp · detailed.com · Tooltip Author Bio’s (With a Smart Addition) Are Used By At Least Three of the Brands · 2023-03-07