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Despite the new features in HTML5, the use of rich snipers, microdata and what not...I still can't find a proper way to get credit for developing a page/site.

Of course, you have <meta name="author" content="Some name/company"> BUT that is for the OWNER of the site. I am simply the developer.

How can I properly code, within a page, myself? How do you do it/code it?

Omar
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    Although, it no standard but http://humanstxt.org/ is an initiative to give credit to those who helped with the webiste. – lazyprogrammer Oct 06 '13 at 02:15
  • I understand that there's ways to do it using microdata and other means, but I am not sure how – Omar Oct 16 '13 at 10:08
  • Are you interested in getting your name out there on search engines or is it about informing the people that use the site that you programmed it? – Lee Taylor Nov 03 '13 at 19:24
  • @LeeTaylor It's both. But I work for corporations, so the author is always the name of that corporation. `using xxx author=""` will have to be `author="corporation name"`. I am looking for a "web guy" recognition – Omar Jun 25 '14 at 20:51

7 Answers7

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There's also a growing tendency toward including a humans.txt file containing that type of information including whatever plugins you use.

Check out http://humanstxt.org/ for more info it is pretty cool.

Adam D Harrington
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Use a rel=author link. This is the semantic way to do it.

<a href="site" rel="author">Written by ME</a>

This will produce the rich text snippets in Google search results when done correctly. More information here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2539557?hl=en

Here's an example of what it looks like when it works:

enter image description here

And here is a tool that let's you know you've done it correctly: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

William Entriken
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  • For example, if I make a page for Microsoft. The author still is Microsoft, not me. -They hold all the copyrights and stuff. Using `rel="author"` will have to be Microsoft. There's no `rel="webdev"` or so... – Omar Jun 25 '14 at 20:46
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"The name attribute on the meta element must be either a defined metadata name or a registered metadata name ... A registered metadata name is any metadata name registered in the central MetaExtensions registration page." -http://www.w3.org/TR/html-markup/meta.name.html#registered-metadata-name

Defined names: application-name, author, description, generator, keywords

MetaExtensions registration page: http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/MetaExtensions

So, <meta name="web_author" description="http://stackoverflow.com/users/931377/omar"> seems closest.

RwwL
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The HTML5 CR specifies that in a meta element, name=author means that the value (i.e., the value of the content attribute) “must be a free-form string giving the name of one of the page's authors”. This corresponds to the descriptive examples in HTML 4.01.

So <meta name="author" content="Some name/company"> claims that “Some name/company” is an author of the page. That would be false information, but it does not matter much, since very few programs make any use of information in such tags.

Thus, you can use <meta name="author" content="Omar">, or replacing “Omar” with your full name. But it will normally not be displayed to users or recognized in any way. To claim authorship, you can write “This page was created by Omar.” in normal text content somewhere, possibly in a footer, possibly marked up as footer. Anyway, making it real text content is the only way to give all visitors access to the information.

Jukka K. Korpela
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You could also use comments. <!-- --> thats how I mostly credit myself.. Or put your link in the footer?

lepel100
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Footer link to your personal website works the best. Gets you exposure for your work as well as the credit you are looking for!

Eddie Martinez
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    You can do this, but in my experience it is something many clients don't want on their sites, and may actually be detrimental to your chance of getting clients in the future, due to it making you look unprofessional and/or desperate for work. – Braders Oct 18 '13 at 16:17
  • I think that's a matter of perspective. Because you can as easily argue that if you are a web designer of some renown clients are proud of showing who developed their site, almost like people that drive Mercedes or BMW's are fine with their car having their insignia in the front. – Eddie Martinez Oct 31 '13 at 15:24
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Just use <meta name="generator">

9pfs
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  • Could you please clarify as to how this solves the problem? – Skully Mar 10 '21 at 00:33
  • The generator meta tag is used by word processing programs such as Microsoft Word. As generators can be either software or people, it is perfect for the situation. – 9pfs Mar 10 '21 at 20:57