diff --git a/lib/jekyll-seo-tag/drop.rb b/lib/jekyll-seo-tag/drop.rb
index da6cf60..1973c65 100644
--- a/lib/jekyll-seo-tag/drop.rb
+++ b/lib/jekyll-seo-tag/drop.rb
@@ -240,15 +240,24 @@ module Jekyll
         end
       end
 
+      # Given a string representing the current document's author, return
+      # a normalized hash representing that author. Will try to pull from
+      # site.authors if present and in the proper format.
       def author_hash(author_string)
-        if site.data["authors"] && site.data["authors"][author_string]
-          hash = site.data["authors"][author_string]
-          hash["name"]    ||= author_string
-          hash["twitter"] ||= author_string
-          hash
-        else
-          { "name" => author_string }
-        end
+        site_author_hash(author_string) || { "name" => author_string }
+      end
+
+      # Given a string representing the current document's author, attempt
+      # to retrieve additional metadata from site.data.authors, if present
+      #
+      # Returns the author hash
+      def site_author_hash(author_string)
+        return unless site.data["authors"] && site.data["authors"].is_a?(Hash)
+        author_hash = site.data["authors"][author_string]
+        return unless author_hash.is_a?(Hash)
+        author_hash["name"] ||= author_string
+        author_hash["twitter"] ||= author_string
+        author_hash
       end
 
       def seo_name
diff --git a/spec/jekyll_seo_tag/drop_spec.rb b/spec/jekyll_seo_tag/drop_spec.rb
index 35fa38b..fe54161 100644
--- a/spec/jekyll_seo_tag/drop_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/jekyll_seo_tag/drop_spec.rb
@@ -231,6 +231,24 @@ RSpec.describe Jekyll::SeoTag::Drop do
         site
       end
 
+      context "with site.authors as an array" do
+        let("data") { { "authors" => %w(foo bar) } }
+        let(:page_meta) { { "author" => "foo" } }
+
+        it "doesn't error" do
+          expect(subject.author).to eql({ "name" => "foo", "twitter" => "foo" })
+        end
+      end
+
+      context "with site.authors[author] as string" do
+        let("data") { { "authors" => { "foo" => "bar" } } }
+        let(:page_meta) { { "author" => "foo" } }
+
+        it "doesn't error" do
+          expect(subject.author).to eql({ "name" => "foo", "twitter" => "foo" })
+        end
+      end
+
       %i[with without].each do |site_data_type|
         context "#{site_data_type} site.author data" do
           let(:data) do