The 8 Best Author Box Plugins for WordPress to Add Credibility to Posts
You’ve in all probability seen these neat little writer bio containers that seem on the finish of many weblog posts, particularly on websites with a number of authors. Moreover, you’ll have questioned the way you get these writer containers in WordPress. Again within the olden days, it was essential to tamper with the code in your theme to do it. Nonetheless, WordPress has advanced to make the lives of bloggers and web site creators simpler, and it’s now doable to point out a web page writer’s bio on the web page itself utilizing writer field plugins.
What Is an Creator Field?
An writer field is a delegated space (often the top) of a put up in WordPress to offer readers with details about the put up’s writer, i.e., their bio.
The writer bio often incorporates one thing concerning the writer’s expertise of their area, together with their image or Gravatar. So, for instance, under is my writer field that seems on the finish of all my posts on WPLift (besides those I ghostwrote – boo!), together with this one:
In addition to assist add credibility to articles (and website total) and achieve the readers’ belief, writer containers additionally profit the writers by hyperlinks to their web sites and social profiles.
What Is the Finest Creator Field Plugin for WordPress?
Creator field plugins make including your author’s bio quite simple. What’s extra, many additionally mean you can handle a number of visitor authors too.
In an effort to enable you discover the correct writer field plugin on your website, I’ve achieved all of the donkey work and sifted out eight of the most effective out there proper now. Curiously, the checklist contains loads of free choices, so you’ll be able to nonetheless add writer containers to your website even when you’ve got no price range to spare.
So, let’s soar straight in.
Elementor Professional
Provided that Elementor Pro is a web page builder, you’re in all probability questioning why the heck I’ve included it on this checklist. Nonetheless, please stick with me, as there’s a methodology in my insanity.
As you might know, Elementor Pro incorporates quite a few helpful components and widgets that may be dragged and dropped into posts and pages. Nonetheless, a type of is the writer field widget, which you’ll place wherever you want it, plus you’ll be able to customise it to match your website.
Different options of the writer field widget included with Elementor Professional are:
Article Continues Under
- Present (utilizing consumer’s dynamic WordPress information) or customized (makes use of static information) authors
- Add identify, HTML tag, hyperlink, and bio data
- Optionally available archive button to show all posts by an writer
- Wide selection of customization choices
- All the opposite options of Elementor Pro
- Updates and assist
Presumably, you might be utilizing Elementor Professional already, by which case you might have this widget out there to you. If not, the costs of this in style web page builder plugin begin as little as $49 per yr. That’s glorious worth for all the additional performance it gives.
Easy Creator Field
Easy Creator Field is a vastly in style writer bio plugin, boasting a powerful 50k+ lively downloads from WordPress alone and a 4.4/5.0 consumer rating. The plugin provides an writer field containing the author’s identify, Gravatar, bio, and social icons to the top of posts.
In its free guise, this freemium plugin contains options like:
- Model, shade, measurement, and textual content customization choices
- Responsive writer field for various system sorts
- The writer field is inserted routinely on the finish of posts
- Skill to manually insert the writer field right into a template file (single.php or writer.php)
- AMP (accelerated cellular pages) and RTL (proper to left) assist
- It’s superb for visitor posts and visitor authors
Whereas these options alone could also be ample for a lot of bloggers and website homeowners, upgrading to a Professional plan does deliver fairly much more performance, together with goodies like:
- Regulate the place of the writer field to both earlier than or after the put up
- An choice to hyperlink the writer’s identify to their web site within the present or a brand new tab (with an optionally available ‘nofollow’ attribute)
- Choose the place the writer field is and isn’t to be displayed
- Avatar rotate impact on hover
- Extra configuration choices, e.g., shade palette, fonts, font sizes, and so on.
- Social icon customizations
- Allow visitor authors and co-authors, together with utilizing visitor authors as co-authors
- Widget to show hottest authors
- Gutenberg block
- Updates and assist
- Seven-day moneyback assure
A single-site Professional license prices $39 per yr, whereas a three-site lifetime license is $89.
The free model of Easy Creator Field is a wonderful possibility for including primary writer bio data to your website, whereas the Professional model permits you to jazz it up properly.
Meks Sensible Creator Widget
Meks Sensible Creator Widget is a good free possibility for including easy however enticing writer bio containers. Because the identify implies, the writer containers show in WordPress widget areas (often the sidebars) as a substitute of on the finish of the content material. Personally, I favor that, because the writer is seen upfront slightly than hidden off-screen proper on the backside.
One useful function of this plugin is it will possibly routinely establish the proper writer for a put up and show the corresponding bio. Different options you get with it are:
- Customizable avatar measurement
- Hyperlink avatar picture and consumer show identify to writer archive
- Choice to switch the widget title with a consumer show identify
- Versatile show choices
Please be aware that this plugin makes use of knowledge from the writer’s WordPress profile. As such, it’s important that these profiles and full and updated. This will additionally apply to different plugins that use WordPress profiles to populate writer containers dynamically.
In addition to getting my thumbs up for its refreshing simplicity, Meks Sensible Creator Widget has a 4.4./5.0 score within the WordPress plugin listing. Greater than 30k lively downloads are in operation.
Starbox
Starbox provides a easy, easy-to-use method of including writer containers to your posts. The first focus of this plugin is giving authors the popularity they deserve – kudos to Starbox, I say! Subsequently, loads of flexibility on field aesthetics and site is on the market.
Key options you will see that with the free model of Starbox embrace:
- Constructed-in pre-made themes
- Simple customization for every writer, together with theme and social media icons
- Authors might be allowed to customise their very own writer containers
- Bins can seem solely on weblog posts, solely on pages, or each
- Bios can embrace writer identify, job title, firm (with weblink)
- Choice to not show the writer field for particular authors (e.g., workers or ghostwriters, AI content material, and so on.)
- Substitute Gravatars with photos
- Particular writer profile pages
- Appropriate with eCommerce websites
- Shortcodes so as to add writer containers to posts or widget areas
- Show newest posts for chosen authors
- HTML 5
- Show wealthy Snippets in Google searches utilizing Google Microformats (vCard)
- Hyperlink all articles written by that writer from the writer field
That is a wonderful function checklist for a free plugin. A Professional model is on the market for $35.99, however I struggled to search out details about its additional features. Nonetheless, after some digging and delving, I did discover clarification from the developer in a discussion board which states:
“The PRO model of Starbox has some additional options:
- The customized consumer picture is exhibiting globally in your web site (feedback, admin, and so on.)
- You may add extra social references to an writer
- You may choose to point out/disguise writer field for some put up sorts
- E-mail assist from our workers.”
In all honesty, that doesn’t appear to be rather more than you get with the free model, which is fairly spectacular already, however $35.99 isn’t a king’s ransom both.
Starbox could be very in style certainly, with over 50k lively downloads in operation and a very good 4.5/5.0 common consumer rating.
WP Put up Creator
WP Put up Creator is one other free providing that permits you to add comparatively easy however nonetheless enticing writer containers to your posts. In comparison with Starbox, it’s slightly primary and skinny on options, which can go well with folks searching for simplicity.
The options of WP Put up Creator embrace:
- Field content material might be aligned left, proper, or centered
- Customizable profile picture shapes
- Posts writer widget – fetches writer knowledge from their WordPress profile
- Widgets for particular put up writer (i.e., enter a consumer id to fetch the chosen writer knowledge from their WordPress profile) and customized put up writer (i.e., create customized writer containers)
- Shortcodes, e.g., title, align, present position, and so on.
- Social icons and hyperlinks
WP Put up Creator has been downloaded over 20k instances from WordPress, and customers have given it a full 5.0/5.0 star score. General, if you would like a clear, easy method of including writer information to your website, it’s actually one to strive.
Creator Bio Field
Creator Bio Field is similar to WP Put up Creator in that they’re free writer field plugins, each have a 5.0/5.0 star consumer score, plus every provides primary however usable writer bio containers to your WordPress website. One actual benefit of easy plugins like these is they’re light-weight on code and received’t considerably influence website efficiency.
The options you get with Creator Bio Field are:
- Proper to left (RTL) assist
- Accelerated cellular pages (AMP) assist
- Appropriate with all system sorts
- Creator Gravatars
- Hyperlinks to writer’s web site (opens in a brand new tab)
- Customizable colours, fonts, and so on.
Sure, it’s primary, and no, it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles. However Creator Bio Field does precisely what it says on the tin – provides neat writer bio containers to posts.
Visitor Creator
Staying with the super-basic, free theme for the second, Visitor Creator is one other no-frills plugin that allows you to add a easy visitor writer bio to any put up with out registering them as a consumer.
The options checklist of Visitor Creator is spartan:
- Visitor authors are handled as if they’re common ones
- Add an avatar picture as a substitute of utilizing Gravatar
- It’s doable to hyperlink to a customized web page for the visitor writer
Nonetheless, regardless of its minimalist options, Visitor Put up is good in case you solely often have visitor authors writing for you.
Greater than 6k lively downloads of Visitor Creator exist, and customers charge it 4.4/5.0 stars.
PublishPress Authors
I’m concluding this checklist with a freemium plugin that provides nice free options you can improve with a paid subscription.
As with the opposite plugins I’ve listed, PublishPress Authors embeds an writer field on the finish of your posts. Nonetheless, you aren’t restricted to only one writer (the WordPress default) – you can too embrace co-authors, a number of, or visitor authors.
Different options of the free model of PublishPress Authors embrace:
- Place containers in widgets, shortcodes, or Gutenberg blocks
- Add writer identify, e-mail, bio, and avatar
- Customized put up sorts assist
- Visitor authors don’t must be registered customers
- A number of format choices, i.e., easy checklist, boxed, centered, inline, and inline with avatars
If you happen to want to improve to the Professional model of PublishPress Authors, it should price $69 per yr for a single area, $129 for 5, or $199 if that you must cowl numerous websites. These costs add the next to the free plugin:
- Customized writer profile fields and layouts
- Admin space entry management
- White label, i.e., no PublishPress advertisements or branding
- Updates and assist
I like the truth that PublishPress Authors permits you to add multiple bio to posts. For instance, you might wish to attribute the writing in a put up to an writer and the photographs to a photographer – this plugin can do this.
PublishPress Authors has a strong 5.0/5.0 star score with customers, and over 4k lively downloads of the free model alone are in operation.
What’s your favourite Creator Field plugin?
In conclusion, being a content material author myself, I advocate having writer attribution towards my posts as a result of displaying my bio helps elevate my profile and provides credibility to my articles and the websites that publish them.
Are you authoring your individual posts, or do you utilize exterior writers to do them for you? Do you place writer bio containers anyplace in your website, and in that case, are you utilizing one of many plugins on this article? Please do drop a remark under, as I really like to listen to about what you might be doing together with your websites.