Look at the bottom of one of your blog posts. If it says “Posted by admin”, or shows a username like “user_1987” next to a grey silhouette, readers are left guessing who wrote the advice they just read. A short WordPress author bio with a real name and a photo fixes that, and it takes about ten minutes per person.
The details all live in each user’s profile. Where, and whether, they appear on the site depends on your theme, and that second half is what confuses most people, so it gets its own section below.
Where the author details come from
Every piece of author information WordPress shows is taken from the profile of the user account that published the post. Open Users → Profile for your own account, or Users → All Users and click a name to edit someone else’s. The fields that matter are:
- First Name and Last Name, which feed the display name options.
- Nickname, which is required and starts out the same as the username.
- Display name publicly as, a dropdown that decides the name readers see. It offers the username, nickname, first name, last name and combinations of them.
- Website, under Contact Info. Some themes link the author’s name to it.
- Biographical Info, under About Yourself. This is the bio text.
- Profile Picture, which is not uploaded here at all. More on that below.
The username itself cannot be edited from this screen. If an account was created with an awkward username, see what you can do when a WordPress username needs changing; for the public name, the display name is all you need.
Writing the WordPress author bio
- Fill in First Name and Last Name with the name the person uses professionally.
- In Display name publicly as, choose the full name. This is the single most useful change, because it replaces “admin” or a username on every post at once.
- In Biographical Info, write two to four sentences. Say who the person is, what they do in the business and why they are in a position to write about the topic. A plumber who has fitted boilers for years should say so; a founder writing about their own service can say that too.
- Add a website link if it helps, such as the person’s page on your team page or a professional profile.
- Click Update Profile at the bottom.
A good bio is specific and modest. “Priya runs the accounts side of the practice and handles most client questions about GST returns” tells a reader more than three lines about passion and excellence. Avoid claims you cannot back up, and keep it in the third person if your other pages are written that way.
If several people write for you, create a separate user account for each and give each their own bio. Posts published under a shared login all show the same name, which defeats the purpose.
Adding a photo: Gravatar or a plugin
WordPress does not have an upload button for profile photos. By default it shows a Gravatar: a picture linked to an email address through the free Gravatar service. The profile screen says as much, with a link to change the picture on Gravatar.
- Go to gravatar.com and sign in or create an account using exactly the email address on the WordPress profile.
- Upload a photo and crop it to a square. Head and shoulders, plain background, reasonable light.
- Back in WordPress, reload the profile page. The new picture can take a little while to appear everywhere, because browsers and caching plugins hold the old one.
Avatars must also be switched on for the site. Check Settings → Discussion, under Avatars, that Show Avatars is ticked.
If you would rather not use an outside service, or a staff member does not want a Gravatar account, there are plugins that add an upload field to the profile and store the photo in your own Media Library. Pick one that is actively maintained and test it on one profile first.
Making the author profile show on posts
A filled-in profile is not the same as a visible one. The theme decides. What you do next depends on which kind of theme you have.
Block themes
In a block theme, such as Twenty Twenty-Five, every page is assembled from blocks, and that includes the template for single posts. To add an author box:
- Go to Appearance → Editor, then Templates, and open the template for single posts (often called Single Posts).
- Click where you want the box, usually after the post content, and add a Row or Group block to hold it.
- Inside it, add the Avatar, Author Name and Author Biography blocks. Each picks up the details of whoever wrote the post being viewed. Older versions had a single Author block that did all three; recent versions mark it as deprecated and no longer offer it in the inserter.
- Save, then view a real post to check it.
Because the template is shared, this change appears on every post at once. If something goes wrong, the Site Editor lets you reset the template to the theme’s original.
Classic themes and page builders
Many classic themes show an author box automatically once Biographical Info is filled in. Others have a setting for it in Appearance → Customize, often under a blog or single post section, and some have no author box at all. If your theme has none, options include a theme with better blog layouts, a small author box plugin, or a change to the theme’s post template made in a child theme. Page builders such as Elementor usually have an author box widget for their post templates.
Author pages and what they reveal
WordPress automatically creates an archive page for every author who has published posts, at an address like /author/name/. It lists their posts and, in many themes, shows their name, avatar and bio at the top. Block themes use an Author or Archive template for it, which you can edit in the Site Editor like any other template.
The last part of that address comes from the account’s username by default, not the display name. So an account with the username “admin” or an email address as its username can give away more than you meant to. Changing the display name does not change the address. This is another reason to set up writing accounts with sensible usernames from the start.
If one person writes everything and you would rather not have an author archive, some SEO plugins can switch author archives off or mark them noindex. Look in the plugin’s archive settings.
Author details and search engines
Readers are the main reason to do this, but it helps search engines understand your content too. SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO and Rank Math usually add author information to the structured data they output for articles, using the display name and author page. Some also add extra profile fields for social profile links. None of this promises any change in rankings. It simply makes it clear who is behind the post, which is what a real author box does for people as well.
Keep the author bio consistent with how the same person is described elsewhere on your site, such as a team members page. If the bio says one job title and the team page says another, fix one of them.
Bios are one small part of looking after the people who use your site; the wider guide to managing users in WordPress covers accounts and access, and the full complete WordPress guide covers the rest.
Frequently asked questions
How do I change the author of a post that is already published?
Open the post in the editor and look for the Author setting in the Post tab of the settings sidebar, then choose another user and update. To change many posts at once, select them in the Posts list, choose Edit from Bulk actions, pick the new author and update. Only users with a role that can write posts appear in the list.
Can a post show two authors?
Not in core WordPress, which allows one author per post. Plugins such as Co-Authors Plus add support for several authors and for guest authors without a login. Your theme also needs to display them, so test it on a draft first. A simpler option is to name the second contributor in the post itself.
Can the bio include a link or bold text?
Basic formatting such as a link usually works, because WordPress allows simple HTML in the Biographical Info field for users who are trusted to post it. Keep it to a link or two. Long markup, images and scripts are either removed or make the author box look broken in many themes.
Why is my new Gravatar photo not showing?
Check three things. The Gravatar account must use exactly the same email address as the WordPress profile, Show Avatars must be ticked under Discussion settings, and the image may be cached. Clear your caching plugin and browser cache, then look again. Also check the photo’s rating on Gravatar is allowed by your site’s maximum rating setting.
Some themes simply have no sensible place for an author box. Adding one that matches the rest of the site is the kind of change our WordPress theme customization work covers, done without editing the theme’s own files.
Next in this series: Customize the WordPress Login Page With Your Logo
