E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It is not a score Google shows you or a number you can measure. It is a set of signals Google's human quality raters use to judge whether content is trustworthy, and it shapes the guidance behind Google's ranking systems.
Here's what you need to know to strengthen your site's E-E-A-T, with practical examples I use on our own site.
What is E-A-T, and how did it become E-E-A-T?
When Google assesses a page's credibility and quality, its raters look at:
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
In short, Google wants to surface trustworthy sites that are the go-to source on a topic, written by people who either know the subject deeply or have real, first-hand experience with it.
Google's breakdown of the key trust signals
For example, Google gives more trust to a BBQ-techniques article on a site that specializes in BBQ than to the same article on a site that covers everything from the environment to BBQ.
E-E-A-T matters most for YMYL (your money or your life) topics, the sensitive subjects like health, finance, and legal, where bad advice can cause real harm.
How Google evaluates YMYL websites
An E-A-T example
Take a medical clinic:
- Expertise: the site details the staff's qualifications and experience, the clinic's accreditation, and the treatments it offers.
- Authoritativeness: patients leave positive reviews, and the clinic has a good reputation, awards, and coverage in relevant media.
- Trustworthiness: the site is clear about its policies, procedures, and patient rights.
How E-A-T became E-E-A-T
In 2022, Google added a second E to its Search Quality Rater Guidelines: Experience. As Google explained in the update, the new E rewards content where the author has first-hand experience with the topic.
For example, if you review hiking backpacks, have you actually used them, or are you just repackaging what's online? If it's the latter, your content may be deprioritized.
A checklist for stronger E-E-A-T
Because E-E-A-T is a set of signals rather than a metric, you can't measure it directly. But the following work as good proxies for what Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines describe, and they're what I check on our own content.
Is the author trustworthy?
- Who is the author?
- What does their digital footprint look like? Have they written about this topic before?
- Do they have education or experience in the subject?
- How often are they mentioned in relation to it?
- Are they quoted as an expert or referenced on other relevant sites?
Is the website authoritative?
- Does it use author boxes or pages that show who wrote the content and why to trust them?
- Is the content kept updated and refreshed?
- Is the user experience good, judged by signals like CTR and time on page?
- How often do other sites in the niche reference it?
- Does the site cover this topic often, or is it a one-off?
How to improve your E-E-A-T
Add real value with original content
Google's content-quality checklist is a good starting point. In practice, this is what moves the needle:
- Bring in first-hand experience. Write, or work with writers, who genuinely know the topic. If you run a hiking store, work with writers who actually hike.
- Cut shallow, keyword-only content. If a page can't give a unique, useful take that tells the reader what to do next, hold off. Focus on topics you can cover in depth to build your topical authority.
- Go beyond the obvious sources. Google can't be your only reference. Talk to experts, tap forums and social platforms, and run original research (which also earns backlinks).
- Aim to delight. Give readers a reason to bookmark it (a comprehensive guide with clear tables), share it (a fresh angle), or recommend it (new insight).
- Fact-check your claims to build trust.
- Use concrete examples.
Show clear authorship
Make it obvious who wrote each article. If you use ghostwriters, review the piece for accuracy and show your credentials in an author box or author page.
WebMD, in the YMYL medical space, names both the writer and the professional who reviewed the article for accuracy. Click a name and you land on a detailed author page:
Author boxes are a quicker fix, and I prefer them for our SEO Academy:
Build an authoritative digital footprint
Backlinks have always mattered, but for E-E-A-T you also want to show up in other trusted places about your topic: other websites, podcasts, and YouTube. For example, I've been interviewed by Starter Story and chatted with Tekpon on YouTube about growing traffic. This widens your footprint so Google can find more signals that your content is trustworthy.
Refresh your content
You probably have pages you published to target a keyword and then never touched again. Older content goes stale and slips in the rankings, which is called content decay. Review those pages and add fresh information as things change. SiteGuru's Content Decay report flags pages that are gradually losing organic traffic, with the month-by-month clicks and the queries behind each drop, so you know which pages to refresh first.
Pass the UX basics
Make sure your site is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate. You can get suggestions from the PageSpeed Insights test (or weekly, on autopilot, as a SiteGuru user). Keep an eye on your engagement signals:
- Click-through rate
- Bounce rate (now engagement rate in GA4)
- Time on page
- User journeys
Does link building change with E-E-A-T?
No. Keep focusing on backlinks from sites relevant to your niche that have strong E-E-A-T of their own. If you run a fintech SaaS, you want links from other fintech sites. Don't turn down organic links from other kinds of sites either, such as an ecommerce brand that uses your product, since positive sentiment is a signal too.
Cover the basic trust and security signals
Make sure your site has:
- Contact information
- Terms and conditions
- A privacy policy
- An "About us" page explaining your experience and credentials
- Social proof: testimonials and reviews
- For ecommerce: clear returns, shipping, and policy pages
It all gives Google broader context on who you are and where you fit in your industry.
Recap: how to improve your E-E-A-T
If you read this closely, you'll have spotted some of these techniques in action (scroll down for my author box). There's nothing mystical about building trust:
- Understand how Google evaluates content (see Google's questions and suggestions).
- Provide clear authorship information.
- Show your first-hand experience and expertise on the topic.
- Technically optimize your site so it's fast and easy to use.
- Add original research and analysis wherever you can.
- Build your digital footprint through links, mentions, and appearances on relevant sources.
- Keep your content up to date.
E-E-A-T is simply Google's way of making sure searchers find relevant, trustworthy content quickly. Keep these practices in mind and you'll be well on your way to becoming a source Google trusts.
