Title: TrustBio — Author Credentials, Medical Reviewer Bylines & Author Box
Author: Rayhan Uddin
Published: <strong>November 12, 2026</strong>
Last modified: November 12, 2026

---

Search plugins

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# TrustBio — Author Credentials, Medical Reviewer Bylines & Author Box

 By [Rayhan Uddin](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rayetun/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/trustbio.1.0.0.zip)

 * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/trustbio/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/trustbio/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/trustbio/#installation)
 * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/trustbio/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/trustbio/)

## Description

Google does not just want to know who wrote your health article. It wants to know**
who checked it**, what they are qualified to say, and when they last looked.

**TrustBio puts that on the page and in your structured data.** Attach a real credential
to an author — MD, RN, JD, CPA — with the issuing body, licence number and a public
verification URL. Name a separate reviewer. Stamp the date the content was last 
reviewed. TrustBio renders it as a byline readers trust, and emits the matching `
hasCredential` and `reviewedBy` JSON-LD for search engines.

> Written by Dr. Jane Smith, MD · Medically reviewed by Alex Rivera, RN · Last reviewed
> 14 March 2026

If you publish **health, legal, or financial** content, that line is not decoration.
It is the credibility signal readers look for, and the one search engines increasingly
expect on Your Money or Your Life topics. A name, a bio and a row of social icons
do not carry that signal. A structured credential does: the qualification, the body
that issued it, the licence number, a public verification URL, and an expiry date—
written into the page and into your structured data, so a reader and a search engine
are told the same thing.

#### What makes TrustBio different

 * **Structured credentials, not a text field.** 13 credential types plus custom,
   each with an issuing body, licence number and verification URL.
 * **Credentials that expire.** Set an expiry date and TrustBio hides the credential
   automatically, on the page and in the schema, so your site never claims a lapsed
   qualification.
 * **Reviewers as a first-class concept.** “Medically Reviewed By” is not a label
   you type — it is an author category that maps to the `reviewedBy` schema property.
 * **A last-reviewed date on every post**, with the reviewer named and their credentials
   shown.
 * **`hasCredential`, `reviewedBy` and `knowsAbout` JSON-LD** on top of the usual`
   Person` markup.

And the fundamentals are all here too: co-authors, guest authors, custom profile
fields, box position, typography, colours and author archive pages are **all in 
the free plugin**. There is no licence key, no account, no trial, and no feature
that stops working after a while.

#### 🎓 Credential Badges

The reason to choose TrustBio.

 * Attach professional credentials to any author: MD, PhD, RN, MBA, JD, CPA and 
   more, plus any custom credential you need
 * Record the **issuing body**, **licence number** and a public **verification URL**
   so a reader can check the claim themselves
 * **Optional expiry dates** — an expired credential disappears from the page and
   from the schema automatically
 * Credential labels appear beside the author name on every box and bar layout
 * Each credential is emitted as its own `hasCredential` JSON-LD entry
 * Choose per credential whether it shows as a visible badge, in the schema, or 
   both

#### 🏷️ Author Categories — “Written By” vs “Reviewed By”

Your editorial process has roles. TrustBio makes them real.

 * Create the roles you actually use: Medical Reviewer, Clinical Reviewer (RN), 
   Fact-Checker, Editor, Contributing Writer
 * Each category carries its own display label — “Written By”, “Medically Reviewed
   By”, “Fact-Checked By”
 * Each category maps to a **schema.org property**: `author`, `reviewedBy`, `contributor`
   or `editor`
 * Assign several people with different roles to the same post, and each is attributed
   correctly in the markup

#### 🗓️ Last Review Bars

 * Show the reviewer’s name, their credentials, and the exact date the content was
   last reviewed
 * **2 layouts**: Classic Bar and Minimal Inline, or render it as plain inline text
   inside the author box
 * Set the review date, reviewer and a custom label per post, right in the editor
 * Auto-insert before or after content, or place it with `[trustbio_review]`
 * Configurable stale threshold, plus a dashboard widget listing every post that
   is overdue for review

#### 📐 Author Schema / JSON-LD

 * `schema.org/Person` structured data for every author on every post
 * `hasCredential` entries for each verified, unexpired credential
 * `reviewedBy` for content reviewers
 * `sameAs` array built automatically from the author’s social profiles
 * `knowsAbout` on author archive pages, as part of `ProfilePage` schema
 * **Yoast SEO and Rank Math compatibility** — TrustBio detects them and merges,
   rather than emitting a second author node

#### 👤 Author Boxes

 * **4 layouts** with a live-preview builder: Classic Byline, Card Simple, Minimal
   Inline, and Quote Card
 * 33 styling controls: accent colour, background, border, font sizes, avatar size
   and shape, and more
 * Assign multiple co-authors to any post and drag to reorder them
 * Per-post options to hide the box, or use a different box design
 * Auto-insert after content, before content, both, or place it yourself with a 
   shortcode or the Gutenberg block

#### 👥 Author Profiles

 * Profile editor with General, Avatar, Social and SEO tabs
 * **31 built-in social and profile fields**: Twitter/X, LinkedIn, GitHub, ORCID,
   Google Scholar, Wikipedia, ResearchGate and more
 * Add your own custom profile fields
 * **Guest author support** — full profiles for contributors who have no WordPress
   account
 * Custom avatar upload with Gravatar fallback
 * Author archive pages at a URL base you choose, e.g. `yoursite.com/authors/dr-
   jane`
 * Completeness progress bar on the Authors list, so you can see which profiles 
   still need a photo, bio, job title, social link, credential or expertise topic

#### 🧭 Author Expertise Topics

 * Tag an author with the WordPress categories they actually know about
 * Outputs `knowsAbout` structured data on their archive page

#### 🧩 Editor & Developer Integration

 * Gutenberg sidebar panel with author search and assignment
 * Gutenberg author-box block
 * Classic Editor meta box
 * Quick Edit and Bulk Edit support
 * REST API endpoint at `/wp-json/trustbio/v1/authors`
 * Full JSON export and import of every TrustBio table — import is non-destructive

#### ⚙️ Feature Modules

Not every site needs everything. The **Features** screen lets you switch off any
module you are not using — a disabled module removes its menu items, unregisters
its AJAX handlers and stops injecting output. Nothing is locked; this is a workflow
preference, not a paywall.

#### Shortcodes

**Author Box — [trustbio]**
 [trustbio] — author box for the current post [trustbio
id=”5″] — a specific author by TrustBio ID [trustbio slug=”dr-jane-smith”] — a specific
author by slug [trustbio box=”Compact”] — use a specific author box by its title[
trustbio category=”medical-reviewer”] — only authors in a given category

**Last Review Bar — [trustbio_review]**
 [trustbio_review] — review bar for the 
current post [trustbio_review post_id=”42″] — review bar for a specific post [trustbio_review
style=”inline”] — inline text instead of a bar [trustbio_review label=”Fact-checked
by”] — override the label for this instance

#### Who this is for

 * **Health and medical publishers** — “Written By [Author, MD]”, “Medically Reviewed
   By [Reviewer, RN]”, with licence numbers on file and a verification URL for each
 * **Legal sites** — author plus legal reviewer plus compliance officer, each with
   their bar admission on record
 * **Finance and insurance** — author plus CPA or CFP reviewer, with credentials
   that expire when the certification does
 * **Clinics, hospitals and practices** — a named clinician behind every piece of
   patient-facing advice
 * **Addiction and recovery** — medical director, clinical supervisor and recovery
   coach, each attributed correctly
 * **News and media** — author, editor and fact-checker, each mapped to the right
   schema property
 * **Any multi-author site** — a clear, auditable record of who wrote and who reviewed
   every piece of content

#### Privacy

TrustBio adds no analytics, no tracking and no external CDN dependency, and all 
social icons are bundled locally as inline SVG. Everything you enter stays in your
own WordPress database.

There is one outbound request, and it is the avatar fallback: when an author has
no uploaded photo, their Gravatar is requested, which sends a hashed form of their
email address to Gravatar — the same request WordPress already makes for user avatars.
Upload a photo for every author and no request is made. See “External Services” 
below for the full detail.

The only outbound request TrustBio can make is the standard Gravatar avatar request
WordPress itself makes — see “External Services” below.

#### TrustBio Pro

Everything above is free, for any number of sites, with no account and no key. Nothing
in this plugin is locked, time-limited or switched off later.

For teams that need more there is **TrustBio Pro**, a separate add-on that installs
alongside this plugin. None of its code ships here — this plugin does not contain
disabled Pro features waiting for a licence.

What the add-on adds, against what the free plugin already does:

 * **NPI Registry verification** — free lets you type a verification URL; Pro checks
   the claim against the CMS registry
 * **Credential change log** — free keeps no record of credential edits; Pro logs
   every change with who made it
 * **Credential audit** — a dated, exportable record of every credential and its
   status that day
 * **Expiry reminders** — free hides a lapsed credential; Pro emails you before 
   it lapses
 * **Reviewer workflow** — free displays a review; Pro requests one by a date and
   chases it
 * **Content review scheduler** — recurring review cycles across the whole library
 * **Front-end profile editing** — authors update their own profile without an admin
   account
 * **Author health and leaderboard** — a composite E-E-A-T score per author, ranked
 * **Deeper medical schema** — Physician and MedicalWebPage types for YMYL sites
 * **ORCID publications** — pulls an author’s publication list from their ORCID 
   iD
 * **Disclosure blocks** — reusable funding, conflict-of-interest and disclaimer
   statements
 * **Team directory** — a single “our team” page, grouped and filterable
 * **Sidebar author boxes** — a widget and shortcode with their own builder
 * **Elementor integration** — a TrustBio section in Elementor’s Document Settings
 * **Author importers** — one-click import from Co-Authors Plus, PublishPress Authors,
   Molongui and CSV

Details are on the **TrustBio  TrustBio Pro** screen inside the plugin.

#### For Developers

Action hooks:

 * `trustbio_before_box` / `trustbio_after_box` — before and after each author box
 * `trustbio_register_admin_pages` — add submenu pages to the TrustBio menu
 * `trustbio_register_admin_hooks` / `trustbio_register_public_hooks` / `trustbio_register_cron_hooks`
 * `trustbio_settings_panels` / `trustbio_settings_saved`
 * `trustbio_dashboard_panels` — add panels to the Overview screen

Filters:

 * `trustbio_box_output` — the complete box HTML
 * `trustbio_box_layouts` / `trustbio_box_templates` / `trustbio_box_template_dir`—
   register your own box layouts
 * `trustbio_review_bar_layouts` / `trustbio_review_bar_template_dir` — register
   your own review bar layouts
 * `trustbio_social_fields` / `trustbio_author_fields` — add or remove profile fields
 * `trustbio_schema_data` — the schema data array before output
 * `trustbio_review_label` — the default review label string
 * `trustbio_feature_modules` — register a module on the Features screen

Every extension point is documented in `includes/class-pro-bridge.php`.

### External Services

**Gravatar — author avatar fallback**

When an author has no custom photo uploaded, TrustBio displays their Gravatar. This
is the same request WordPress itself makes for user avatars.

 * What is sent: a hashed (MD5) version of the author’s email address, and the requested
   image size.
 * When it is sent: only when an author box is displayed on the frontend and that
   author has no custom photo.
 * Who receives it: Automattic Inc., operator of Gravatar.
 * Service URL: https://gravatar.com/
 * Privacy Policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/
 * Terms of Service: https://wordpress.com/tos/ (Automattic’s terms, which cover
   Gravatar)

To stop all Gravatar requests, upload a custom photo for every author on their profile
page.

**Google Rich Results Test — convenience link only (no data sent)**

The author SEO tab includes a link to Google’s Rich Results Test. Clicking it opens
Google’s website in a new browser tab. TrustBio itself sends nothing.

 * Service URL: https://search.google.com/test/rich-results
 * Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
 * Terms of Service: https://policies.google.com/terms

**Freemius checkout — upgrade link only (no data sent)**

The “TrustBio Pro” screen in the plugin’s own admin menu describes the separate 
paid add-on and links to its checkout page, which is operated by Freemius, the vendor’s
payment provider. Clicking it opens that page in a new browser tab. TrustBio itself
sends nothing: the link carries no query string, no site address and no account 
information, and the plugin makes no request to Freemius at any time. The screen
is not registered at all once the paid add-on is installed and licensed.

 * Service URL: https://checkout.freemius.com/plugin/44707/plan/78805/
 * Operated by: Freemius, Inc.
 * Privacy Policy: https://freemius.com/privacy/
 * Terms of Service: https://freemius.com/terms/

**CMS NPI Registry — verification link only (no data sent)**

When you record an NPI number on a credential, TrustBio builds a link to that provider’s
public entry in the US National Plan & Provider Enumeration System, so a reader 
can verify the clinician themselves. The link is stored with the credential and 
rendered on your own page. TrustBio never contacts the registry — no request is 
made and no data is sent.

 * Service URL: https://npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov/
 * Operated by: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a US government agency
 * Privacy Policy: https://www.cms.gov/privacy
 * Terms of Service: the NPI Registry does not publish one. It is a US government
   
   service and its records are public information; CMS publishes the privacy policy
   linked above instead.

Leave the NPI field blank and no such link is ever built.

**JSON-LD structured data — self-hosted, no external call**

TrustBio outputs JSON-LD in `<script type="application/ld+json">` tags in your page
HTML, which crawlers read like any other HTML. It includes only the fields you have
entered: author name, job title, bio, website URL, social profile URLs and verified
credentials. There is no outbound HTTP request and no third party involved.

## Screenshots

[⌊The byline TrustBio builds — "Written By Dr. Jane Smith, MD" and "Medically Reviewed
By Alex Rivera, RN" with credential badges⌉⌊The byline TrustBio builds — "Written
By Dr. Jane Smith, MD" and "Medically Reviewed By Alex Rivera, RN" with credential
badges⌉[

The byline TrustBio builds — “Written By Dr. Jane Smith, MD” and “Medically Reviewed
By Alex Rivera, RN” with credential badges

[⌊Credential Manager — badge type, issuing body, licence number, verification URL
and expiry date⌉⌊Credential Manager — badge type, issuing body, licence number, 
verification URL and expiry date⌉[

Credential Manager — badge type, issuing body, licence number, verification URL 
and expiry date

[⌊Last Review Bar — Classic layout showing the reviewer, their credentials and the
review date⌉⌊Last Review Bar — Classic layout showing the reviewer, their credentials
and the review date⌉[

Last Review Bar — Classic layout showing the reviewer, their credentials and the
review date

[⌊Author Categories — mapping "Medically Reviewed By" to the reviewedBy schema property⌉⌊
Author Categories — mapping "Medically Reviewed By" to the reviewedBy schema property⌉[

Author Categories — mapping “Medically Reviewed By” to the reviewedBy schema property

[⌊Author Profile editor — General, Avatar, Social and SEO tabs with credential badges
attached⌉⌊Author Profile editor — General, Avatar, Social and SEO tabs with credential
badges attached⌉[

Author Profile editor — General, Avatar, Social and SEO tabs with credential badges
attached

[⌊Authors list — completeness progress bar showing what each profile still needs⌉⌊
Authors list — completeness progress bar showing what each profile still needs⌉[

Authors list — completeness progress bar showing what each profile still needs

[⌊Overview dashboard — live counts, review coverage and the setup checklist⌉⌊Overview
dashboard — live counts, review coverage and the setup checklist⌉[

Overview dashboard — live counts, review coverage and the setup checklist

[⌊Author Box Builder — live preview beside the full customisation panel⌉⌊Author 
Box Builder — live preview beside the full customisation panel⌉[

Author Box Builder — live preview beside the full customisation panel

[⌊Last Review Bar Builder — layout picker with live preview⌉⌊Last Review Bar Builder—
layout picker with live preview⌉[

Last Review Bar Builder — layout picker with live preview

[⌊Gutenberg sidebar panel — author search, reviewer roles and per-post box layout⌉⌊
Gutenberg sidebar panel — author search, reviewer roles and per-post box layout⌉[

Gutenberg sidebar panel — author search, reviewer roles and per-post box layout

## Blocks

This plugin provides 1 block.

 *   TrustBio Author Box

## Installation

 1. Upload the `trustbio` folder to `/wp-content/plugins/`, or install through **Plugins
    Add New**
 2. Activate through the **Plugins** menu
 3. Go to **TrustBio  Author Categories** and create the roles you need, e.g. “Medical
    Reviewer”
 4. Go to **TrustBio  Authors** and add your first author profile
 5. On that profile, open the **Credentials** screen and add their qualification, issuing
    body and verification URL
 6. Edit any post — the **TrustBio Authors** panel appears in the editor sidebar
 7. Assign an author, assign a reviewer, and set the review date
 8. The author box and review bar appear automatically

The **Setup Guide** button on the TrustBio Overview screen walks you through steps
3 to 8 if you would rather be guided.

## FAQ

### Is anything in this plugin locked behind a payment?

No. Every feature described here works in full, on any number of sites, with no 
licence key and no account. There is no trial period, no usage cap and no feature
that stops working later.

There is a paid add-on, TrustBio Pro, but it is a separate plugin — its code is 
not in this one, so there is nothing here to unlock.

### Do I need TrustBio Pro?

Only if you want what it adds: credential verification against the NPI registry,
an audit trail of credential changes, scheduled review cycles, front-end profile
editing, ORCID publications, deeper medical schema, a team directory page or the
importers. Everything this plugin’s description lists is free and stays free.

### What happens to my data if I install Pro and later remove it?

Nothing is lost. Authors, credentials, categories, author boxes and review bars 
all live in this plugin’s own tables. Removing the add-on takes away its screens,
not your content.

### What happens when a credential expires?

TrustBio hides it automatically, on the frontend and in the schema output, so your
site never displays a lapsed qualification. Leave the expiry date blank for credentials
that do not expire, such as a university degree.

### Can one post have both an author and a separate reviewer?

Yes — that is the main thing TrustBio is for. Create an author category such as “
Medically Reviewed By”, map it to the `reviewedBy` schema property, and assign a
second person to the post under that category. Both appear in the byline, and both
are attributed correctly in the JSON-LD.

### Do the credentials actually appear in my structured data?

Yes. Each credential an author holds is output as a separate `hasCredential` entry
on their `Person` node, including the issuing body and verification URL where you
have supplied them. Expired credentials are excluded.

### Does TrustBio conflict with Yoast SEO or Rank Math?

No. TrustBio detects whether Yoast SEO or Rank Math is active and adjusts its schema
output so you do not end up with two author nodes. For extra safety, enable “Schema
Compatibility Mode” in **Settings  Advanced**.

### Can I add authors and reviewers who do not have a WordPress account?

Yes. Guest authors get a full profile — photo, bio, job title, social links, credentials
and expertise topics — with no user account and no login. Most medical reviewers
are not WordPress users, so this is the normal case.

### Can I use TrustBio with the Classic Editor?

Yes. A meta box appears below the Classic Editor for author assignment, and every
feature works in both Gutenberg and the Classic Editor.

### Can I assign a different author box layout per post?

Yes. In the TrustBio panel in the post editor, pick any box design to override the
global default for that post.

### Can I hide the author box on specific posts?

Yes. Tick “Hide Author Box on this post” in the TrustBio Authors panel in the editor.

### Does TrustBio support custom post types?

Yes. Go to **TrustBio  Settings  General** and enable TrustBio for any registered
post type on your site.

### How do I find posts that are overdue for review?

A dashboard widget lists them, based on the stale threshold you set in **Settings
Review Bars**. Each entry links straight to the post.

### Can I change the author archive URL structure?

Yes. Go to **Settings  General**, set your own base slug, and click “Apply and Flush
Rewrite Rules” — for example `yoursite.com/authors/dr-jane`.

### Will deleting the plugin remove my data?

Only if you explicitly enable “Delete all data on uninstall” in **Settings  Maintenance**.
By default your authors, boxes and credentials are preserved even if you delete 
the plugin.

### Is TrustBio GDPR compatible?

Yes. TrustBio does not track visitors and collects no personal data beyond what 
you type into author profiles, and all of it stays in your own WordPress database.

The one exception is the avatar fallback. If an author has no uploaded photo, TrustBio
shows their Gravatar, which sends a hashed form of their email address to Gravatar—
exactly as WordPress does for user avatars. Upload a photo for each author to stop
it entirely.

### Can I export and re-import all my data?

Yes. **Settings  Maintenance** exports all authors, categories, fields, boxes, review
bars, credentials and field values as a single JSON file. Import is non-destructive—
existing records are updated and nothing is deleted.

## Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

## Contributors & Developers

“TrustBio — Author Credentials, Medical Reviewer Bylines & Author Box” is open source
software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Rayhan Uddin ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rayetun/)

[Translate “TrustBio — Author Credentials, Medical Reviewer Bylines & Author Box” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/trustbio)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trustbio/), check out
the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/trustbio/), or subscribe 
to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/trustbio/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/trustbio/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.0.0

 * Initial public release.
 * Credential badges with issuing body, licence number, verification URL and optional
   expiry, output as hasCredential JSON-LD. Expired credentials are hidden automatically.
 * Author Categories with schema property mapping (author, reviewedBy, contributor,
   editor) and a per-category display label.
 * Two Last Review Bar layouts with per-post review date, reviewer and label, and
   a dashboard widget for posts overdue for review.
 * Automatic Person, sameAs, hasCredential, reviewedBy and ProfilePage JSON-LD, 
   with Yoast SEO and Rank Math duplicate avoidance.
 * Author profiles: unlimited registered and guest authors, 31 social and profile
   fields, user-defined custom fields, custom avatar with Gravatar fallback.
 * Author expertise topics, output as knowsAbout on author archive pages.
 * Four author box layouts with a live-preview builder and 33 styling controls.
 * Multiple co-authors per post with drag-to-reorder, plus per-post hide and layout
   overrides.
 * Author archive pages at a configurable URL base, with pagination and SEO meta.
 * Gutenberg block and editor sidebar panel, Classic Editor meta box, Quick Edit
   and Bulk Edit.
 * Shortcodes: [trustbio] and [trustbio_review].
 * REST API endpoint for author data.
 * Full JSON export and import of every TrustBio table; import is non-destructive.
 * Feature Modules screen for switching off any module you do not need.

## Meta

 *  Version **1.0.0**
 *  Last updated **6 hours ago**
 *  Active installations **Fewer than 10**
 *  WordPress version ** 6.2 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **7.1.4**
 *  PHP version ** 7.4 or higher **
 * Tags
 * [author box](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/author-box/)[co-authors](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/co-authors/)
   [guest author](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/guest-author/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/trustbio/advanced/)

## Ratings

No reviews have been submitted yet.

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/trustbio/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/trustbio/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Rayhan Uddin ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rayetun/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/trustbio/)

## Donate

Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?

 [ Donate to this plugin ](https://wise.com/pay/me/mdrayhanu2)