E-E-A-T shapes how Google ranks your content. Learn what it means, why it matters for SEO, and how to build trust, authority, and credibility online.
When we talk about E-E-A-T, we’re no longer talking solely about website content and its creation by subject matter experts.
We’re now talking about a full-blown brand strategy.
E-E-A-T guidelines help websites rank and convert users across the
entire search landscape, from Google search to AI platforms like
ChatGPT, as well as social media platforms like TikTok or Instagram.
In
this article, we cover E-E-A-T in modern SEO, including how to
demonstrate it on your website, why it matters for AI search, and expert
tips for improving E-E-A-T.
What is E-E-A-T?
E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authority, and trust. Strictly speaking, E-E-A-T is a framework used by Google’s search quality raters, who evaluate search engine results worldwide. Findings from raters are used to evaluate and refine changes made to search.
More broadly, E‑E‑A‑T is a concept that marketers use to assess and strengthen the credibility of their brand across all channels. For example, E-E-A-T can be demonstrated both through social media posts and by speaking at a large, reputable conference.
E-E-A-T is not a ranking factor in and of itself. It’s a framework. Still, it’s thought that E-E-A-T principles are indirectly incorporated into Google’s algorithm for search rankings.
For example, a website using https:// is more secure and, therefore, signals trust. Https is a ranking factor and also represents the trust component of E-E-A-T, effectively working it into Google’s algorithm.
When it comes to SEO and on-page optimization, the goal is to create a website with strong E-E-A-T signals. A page with high levels of experience, expertise, authority, and trust is more likely to rank well in search engines.
The role of Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines and E-E-A-T
In this article, we frequently reference the Search Quality Rater Guidelines.
Why?
Because these guidelines provide insights into how Google defines quality content, which is the key to ranking well in the search results and getting surfaced in SERP features. The document is over 180 pages long.
The guidelines are intended to be used by the search quality raters as a reference when conducting manual evaluations of websites and search. Thousands of raters worldwide refer to this essential and detailed document.
It’s fair to say that Google’s algorithm may not be sophisticated enough to conduct an evaluation as a human would, but you can think about the Search Quality Rater Guidelines as the north star for digital content and brand E-E-A-T.
Throughout this article, claims supported by the Search Quality Rater Guidelines are accompanied by a page citation.
Every digital marketer, especially SEO professionals, should read the Search Quality Rater Guidelines at least once.
E-E-A-T: What does it mean for SEO, and why is it important?
Trust is earned by demonstrating experience, expertise, and authoritativeness, according to Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines.
Building trust with your audience will result in other positive engagements that indicate to the algorithm that your site is one to trust and rank. Positive engagements include clicks to your website and on-page signals, such as time on page and engagement rate.
As a quality signal, E-E-A-T feels more than reasonable. After all, in the real world, we trust sources that are qualified and would prefer to obtain information or advice from authoritative individuals.
Google wants to provide accurate information to its users. To gain traction in search engine results pages (SERPs) and achieve top rankings, you need to demonstrate E-E-A-T.
E-E-A-T connects Google’s Helpful Content System, core updates, and AI Overviews
No matter what happens in the world of search, all roads lead to E-E-A-T. At its core, E-E-A-T is marketing done well.
It’s central to the Helpful Content System, which rewards pages created for humans rather than algorithms.
It also plays a role in core updates. As algorithms and updates become more sophisticated, they (in theory) move SERPs closer to listing those pages with the highest levels of E-E-A-T.
Simply put, if you focus on E-E-A-T and the guidelines, you will easily weather updates because you’ll be one step ahead of the technology. Humans can already showcase and identify E-E-A-T to the highest standard. The algorithm replicates it as closely as it can.
Furthermore, with the rollout of Search Generative Experiences (SGE) like AI Overviews and, most recently, AI Mode, E-E-A-T matters more than ever. Sources cited within summaries are typically high-trust, high-authority sites. Demonstrating strong E-E-A-T is how you rank on Google and gain citations in AI-generated content.
Demonstrating E-E-A-T to Google
SEO is highly accountable for delivering what’s needed to meet E-E-A-T standards, but what exactly does it mean, and how do you prove experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness?
The good news is that most conscientious website administrators, SEOs, and marketing teams are already doing what’s necessary for developing E-E-A-T.
The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab compiled 10 guidelines for building web credibility based on three years of research with over 4,500 participants:
- Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site
- Show that there’s a real organization behind your site
- Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide
- Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site
- Make it easy to contact you
- Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose)
- Make your site easy to use—and useful
- Update your site’s content often (at least show it’s been reviewed recently)
- Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers)
- Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem
– Stanford Web Credibility Research
If the above doesn’t scream, “Be a human; care about your users and your website experience,” then what does?
Let’s break down E-E-A-T and see how SEO can influence it, keeping the guidelines in mind. If you’re looking for more tactical advice, there’s a section below with specific tactics that powerfully demonstrate E-E-A-T. Don’t miss it.
Experience
Think of lived experience—specifically, first-hand experiences that your business or the people within it bring.
The extra “E” stands for “experience” and precedes the original E-A-T concept of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
We know that E-A-T was already of high importance. Google itself confirms:
Google’s automated systems are designed to use many different factors to rank great content. After identifying relevant content, our systems aim to prioritize those that seem most helpful. To do this, they identify a mix of factors that can help determine which content demonstrates aspects of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, or what we call E-E-A-T.
Of these aspects, trust is most important. The others contribute to trust, but content doesn’t necessarily have to demonstrate all of them. For example, some content might be helpful based on the experience it demonstrates, while other content might be helpful because of the expertise it shares.
While E-E-A-T itself isn’t a specific ranking factor, using a mix of factors that can identify content with good E-E-A-T is useful. For example, our systems give even more weight to content that aligns with strong E-E-A-T for topics that could significantly impact the health, financial stability, or safety of people, or the welfare or well-being of society. We call these “Your Money or Your Life” topics, or YMYL for short.
It’s clear to see:
- E-E-A-T is important
- Google wants to prioritize helpful content
- Trust is the most important component of E-E-A-T
- Google gives more weight to E-E-A-T-aligned content
To rank in Google’s SERPs, you must demonstrate E-E-A-T in your content strategy.
This comprehensive overview will dig deeper into E-E-A-T—specifically, what it means, why it matters to SEO, and how to use it to your advantage.
An example of demonstrating experience
A case study section on your website demonstrates that you truly have experience. Instead of simply listing your skills, case studies demonstrate your team in action, problems solved for clients, and the approach taken to achieve results. For maximum engagement, provide detailed case studies. Include screenshots, metrics, and client testimonials.
Why demonstrating experience matters
Experience is especially important in a digital world with generative AI content.
AI can never demonstrate true experience with anything. At best, it can make assumptions about the human experience, but it won’t be unique.
Expertise
Expertise relates to the extent of knowledge demonstrated within your article or by the writer.
The Rater Guidelines (page 75) suggest that an author’s expertise or authoritativeness on a subject would count considerably toward demonstrating expertise.
Expertise will build confidence with the human reading your content.
An example of demonstrating expertise
When creating a new piece of content, you can demonstrate expertise by including the following:
- The author’s name
- A descriptive bio containing:
- Their relevant qualifications
- Links to their social media profiles
- Person schema with relevant properties for certifications or professions (covered as a tactic for showcasing E-E-A-T in the section below)
Why demonstrating expertise matters
Higher levels of expertise lead to higher levels of E-E-A-T.
Here’s a snippet from a page quality (PQ) rating and evaluation of a blog post (see page 75 of the Search Quality Rater Guidelines):
The author of this blog post has established a reputation as an expert on parenting issues (Expertise) and is a regular contributor to various media websites, showcasing positive content (positive content creator reputation).
Google’s Search Quality Raters Guidelines are clear on what expertise entails (see page 26 of the guidelines):
“…which would you rather trust: home electrical rewiring advice from a skilled electrician or from an antique home enthusiast who has no knowledge of electrical wiring?”
Authoritativeness
Authoritativeness refers to the extent to which a content creator is recognized as a reliable and credible source on a particular topic.
Authority, expertise, and experience are closely intertwined. You can’t be an authority on a topic without experience and expertise, and vice versa.
An example of demonstrating authority
Authority can be demonstrated in three core ways:
- Establishing a strong content architecture covering all aspects of a particular topic
- Earning backlinks from other authoritative sites
- Building a digital profile or personal brand as an expert in a particular topic
Why demonstrating authority matters
Ranking well for desired keywords requires authority levels suitable for satisfying the search query.
The level of authority required depends on the nature of the search and the user’s search intent.
In the Search Quality Rater Guidelines, it says:
“A local business profile page on social media may be the authoritative and trusted source for what is on sale now. The official government page for getting a passport is the unique, official, and authoritative source for passport renewal.”
The searches provided in the example above are very different. Details about getting a passport are incredibly important and would be considered a “Your Money or Your Life” query.
Google places even greater emphasis on strong E‑E‑A‑T when evaluating content related to topics that could affect a person’s health, financial stability, safety, or overall societal well-being.
Ultimately, to have high levels of authority, you need to be the go-to source for information. A business’s website is the best place to find information about its sales and products. A government website is the most reliable source for information on passport renewal.
Trustworthiness
When we break it down, it’s clear that trust is developed by showcasing experience, expertise, and authority in aggregate.
Google provides a perfect example of this in the Google Search Central Blog, pointing out that if you want to find tax information, you’ll want to see content produced by an accounting expert.
A tax advisor or accountant would be a highly desirable source, as they possess experience, expertise, and authority on the subject, so we trust their advice. We can be confident that we’re receiving accurate and reliable information.
E-E-A-T is demonstrated at a page level (e.g., good, high-quality content with a subject matter expert author) and sitewide (e.g., backlinks from relevant and prolific publications within your industry).
When search quality raters work, they assign a level of E-E-A-T to pieces of content.
Levels of E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T is a wide spectrum, and some sites have higher levels of E-E-A-T than others.
Within Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines, there’s guidance on what E-E-A-T looks like at various levels. Below is a screenshot of what a portion of this section looks like. The section spans 55 pages. It’s that important. It starts on page 29 and finishes on page 84.
Within the table, we can see:
- The type of page (notice how even login pages are assessed—an entire site should meet the E-E-A-T criteria)
- Justification for the quality score given (Lowest, Low, Medium, High, Highest)
- Explanation about the page quality rating
The goal for SEOs and webmasters is to build E-E-A-T to the highest possible level, but every website will need to move through the levels over time—likely taking several years.
It’s worth noting that most websites won’t have low E-E-A-T, provided the content they publish is genuinely helpful and informative.
The lowest E-E-A-T websites will look and read spammy. For these sites, achieving high levels of E-E-A-T will be challenging.
Website owners must share accurate knowledge and build topical clusters that serve their users at every step of their journey.
All that said, it’s beneficial to understand the different levels of E-E-A-T as outlined in the guidelines.
Lowest E-E-A-T
Pages with the lowest E-E-A-T will probably look and feel spammy to the human eye. Not surprisingly, the lowest E-E-A-T pages fail to meet the criteria for an optimal page experience.
“Obstructed or obscured MC [main content]” relates more to page experience than anything else.
Pages with the following characteristics should be considered untrustworthy:
- Inadequate information about the website or content creator for its purpose
- Lowest E-E-A-T or lowest reputation
- Deceptive purpose, deceptive page design, or deceptive intent
- Deliberately obstructed or obscured MC
- Characteristics of scams, malicious downloads, or other harmful behavior
- Any webpage or website designed to manipulate people into actions that benefit the website or other organization while causing harm to self, others, or specified groups
Low E-E-A-T
The Rater Guidelines suggest that a website can lack E-E-A-T on a subject despite having a positive reputation elsewhere. This suggests that page and topical relevancy are of high importance.
As described below, it wouldn’t make sense for a cooking website to share a tax form download. In that context, it doesn’t matter that the cooking information might be otherwise trustworthy as the topical relevance regarding tax information is low.
Low-quality pages often lack an appropriate level of E-E-A-T for the topic or purpose of the page. Here are some examples:
- The content creator lacks adequate experience (e.g., a restaurant review written by someone who has never eaten at the restaurant)
- The content creator lacks adequate expertise (e.g., an article about how to skydive written by someone with no expertise in the subject)
- The website or content creator is not an authoritative or trustworthy source for the page’s topic (e.g., tax form downloads provided on a cooking website)
- The page or website is not trustworthy for its purpose (e.g., a shopping page with minimal customer service information)
Important note: A low rating will be assessed if the page lacks appropriate E-E-A-T. No other considerations, such as a positive reputation or the type of website, can overcome a lack of E-E-A-T for the topic or purpose of the page.
Medium E-E-A-T
Websites with a medium level of E-E-A-T have beneficial purposes and goals. The Search Quality Rater Guidelines state that “there is nothing wrong with Medium quality pages.”
Medium level of E-E-A-T pages:
- Have a beneficial or non-harmful purpose
- Are not expected to cause harm
- Have titles that summarize the page
- Ads and supplementary content (SC) do not block or significantly interfere with the MC
- Have adequate information about the website, content creator, or customer service for the purpose of the page
- MC created with adequate effort, originality, talent, or skill, such that the page achieves its purpose
- Reputation information found about the website or content creator is not concerning, but not positive enough to justify a higher rating
- Have adequate level of E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page
High E-E-A-T
Websites with high levels of E-E-A-T will achieve and demonstrate experience, expertise, authority, and trust.
Google describes high E-E-A-T websites as news or government sites, as well as highly relevant videos, small business websites, and blog posts.
Pages with high levels of E-E-A-T:
- Have a beneficial purpose
- Are not expected to cause harm
- Have titles that summarize the page
- The Ads and SC do not block or significantly interfere with the MC
- Have adequate information about the website and content creator for the purpose of the page
- MC created with a high level of effort, originality, talent, or skill, such that the page achieves its purpose well
- Positive reputation of the website for the topic of the page
- Positive reputation of the content creator for the topic of the MC
- High level of E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page
Don’t be discouraged about achieving high levels of E-E-A-T. Every website has a chance!
Highest E-E-A-T
Websites that showcase the highest levels of E-E-A-T will look good to the user.
Highest E-E-A-T pages will satisfy search intent and will be home to high-quality, well-written articles that demonstrate knowledge and expertise.
In the documentation, Google says:
“The standards for Highest quality MC may be very different depending on the purpose, topic, and type of website. Here are some examples of Highest quality original content:
- For news: Original reporting that provides information that would not otherwise have been known had the article not revealed it. Accurate, original, in-depth, and investigative reporting requires a high level of skill/talent and effort. Very high-quality news content will include a description of primary sources and other original reporting referenced during the content creation process. Very high-quality news content must be accurate and should meet professional journalistic standards.
- For artistic content (videos, images, photography, writing, etc.): Unique and original content created by highly skilled and talented artists or content creators. Such artistic content requires a high level of skill/talent and effort. If the artistic content is related to a YMYL topic (e.g., artistic content with the purpose of informing or swaying opinions about YMYL topics), YMYL standards should apply.
- For informational content: Original, accurate, comprehensive, clearly communicated, and should reflect expert consensus as appropriate. Expectations for different types of information may vary. For example, scientific papers have a different set of expectations than a social media post sharing information about a hobby such as stamp collecting. However, all types of very high-quality informational content share common characteristics of accuracy and clarity of communication, in addition to meeting standards appropriate to the topic or field. The Highest rating may be justified for pages with very satisfying MC created with a very high level of effort, originality, talent, or skill.”
When building a high level of E-E-A-T, it’s essential to ask if something feels right on your website.
Aim to be consistently useful across the site, showcasing genuine knowledge and expertise, and you should deliver E-E-A-T.
Measuring E-E-A-T: The quantifiable signals
Measuring E-E-A-T has always been somewhat debatable. Clearly, E-E-A-T is not measurable in the same way as the number of backlinks or clicks is measurable.
But E-E-A-T is measurable.
And it’s quickly becoming more quantifiable as AI becomes more and more intrinsic to SEO.
In the age of AI, brand perception has never been more important. A well-known brand with a distinct offering and strong digital presence is more likely to earn citations in AI tools like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, or Gemini.
There are tools available to help you measure E-E-A-T, and in this article, we’re talking about two.
Semrush’s Enterprise AIO is a comprehensive tool that measures the share of voice and brand sentiment.
Even better?
You can benchmark performance and see how Google E-E-A-T signals improve over time.
What this tool offers (which many do not) is brand tracking across virtually all AI platforms. This means you can maintain a view of how your brand is performing and see how things change over time relative to the site’s past and its competitors.
The truth is that measuring a brand’s presence like this isn’t new. Tools like Semrush, Hootsuite, and Buzzsumo have included share of voice for years. Share of voice has long been a measure of how well a brand’s marketing and PR efforts are working.
It just hasn’t been on SEO’s radar…until now.
If you’re not ready for the all-encompassing Enterprise AIO tool and are happy to forgo the tracking element and other metrics, then HubSpot’s AI Search Grader is a useful tool. While it’s free but limited compared to comprehensive and paid tools, you can get a snapshot of performance, including brand sentiment and share of voice.
Here’s what the AI Search Grader looks like:
E-E-A-T can’t be measured with a single score, but you can set quantifiable targets outside of signals like share of voice and brand sentiment.
For example, set rules and workflows like:
- Every author has a byline with detailed schema
- Guest post or appear on reputable websites or podcasts X times/month
- Every service page and case study has a testimonial from a happy client
- An easy-to-find contact page that includes details like the address, a map, and preferred contact methods
- Site links to all active social media profiles
- Schema and structured data are in place and valid
E-E-A-T has a place in all of marketing, so this bullet list should get very long! Plus, it should become an integral part of your workflow. For every service page created, a workflow and a list of required items should be established (e.g., a testimonial, a link to a relevant case study, and a list of core team members involved, if applicable).
SEO tips and tactics for achieving E-E-A-T
The most conscientious of us are already on the trajectory for achieving high levels of E-E-A-T.
According to the guidelines, sites showing the lowest and low levels of E-E-A-T are fraudulent, spammy, or factually incorrect. And no reputable business behaves like that.
It’s likely that your E-E-A-T signals are at least medium, and now you can work on reaching the highest levels.
Here are some tips.
Content architecture and topical authority
Your content strategy should consider everything your potential buyer or site visitor wants to know. Develop and document a strategy to deliver answers in a way that exhibits E-E-A-T in every article.
Demonstrating E-E-A-T in content requires a long list of components, many of which you’ll do naturally, but here are a few:
- The author is a subject matter expert
- Schema and structured data have been used to share more information with search engines
- The content is factually accurate and meets high standards of spelling and grammar
- The content exists within a broader content cluster, demonstrating expertise and authority on the subject
- Internal links are strategically used to demonstrate relationships between content.
- Content is well-structured with headings
The more of your high-quality content is successfully indexed by Google, the more authoritative your site becomes on a particular subject.
Helpful content that supports buyers through their journey will naturally achieve all of these items.
The goal with content is to build topical authority, which is where a site showcases a business’s breadth and depth of knowledge through content. This makes sense in terms of appeasing E-E-A-T and is applicable in the real world.
Think about it this way:
If you were hiring an SEO consultant who could tell you about keywords, you might consider them fairly authoritative.
If the same SEO could tell you about keywords, backlinks, and technical SEO with confidence, they’re going to seem even more authoritative.
If the SEO professional can accomplish all of the above and demonstrate their expertise through case studies (experience) and effectively relate SEO to other forms of marketing, they will appear highly authoritative.
You’re more likely to trust and hire the person with the highest amount of authority.
Regarding E-E-A-T, you can demonstrate authoritativeness with a solid content strategy.
Further reading: Content Marketing Strategy: A Practical Guide
Backlinks from authoritative sites
Backlinks are an indicator of an authoritative site. If someone links to your site referencing information you published, this is a sign that you can be trusted.
Earning backlinks from other authoritative sites will also indicate that your site is trustworthy.
For example, Google recognizes Search Engine Land as an authority in SEO. A search for “SEO publications” ranks Search Engine Land on Page 1. At the bottom of the SERPs, Google provides Search Engine Land as an SEO source.
As a trusted website, a link from Search Engine Land to an article about SEO carries some weight.
Google knows it can trust Search Engine Land when it comes to SEO, so if there’s an outbound link to a topically relevant website (such as an SEO study or research), it will indicate that the linked site can also be trusted.
E-E-A-T is really about trying to bring real-world experiences into the digital world. Think of backlinks like a vote. If an authoritative source, such as a physiotherapist, recommends five exercises for your bad back, you’re more likely to trust them and take their advice over whatever remedy your neighbor recommends. Backlinks mimic this experience.
Building a digital profile or personal brand
If you can show Google who you are and what you do, you can establish authority and expertise on a particular subject.
Developing expertise in a particular subject is ideal for AI search, as people often seek more specific solutions. Instead of typing “SEO publications,” for example, they might get more specific, such as “best SEO news publications for someone learning SEO.”
Demonstrating E-E-A-T in a particular area increases your chances of reaching the right audiences through AI search.
Here’s an example of how a good brand secures citations in AI:
Your brand-building will take place in many ways, but here are some good examples:
- Writing about your niche on your website
- Sharing insights across social media
- Earning PR and mentions in reputable industry-leading publications
- Speaking at conferences, webinars, or attending podcasts as a guest
- Guest posting on respected, relevant websites
- Participating in community discussions through social media like Reddit
Further reading: The new SEO imperative: Building your brand
Show the faces behind your business and website
Don’t be afraid to share the faces behind your business and shout about their experience from the rooftops!
This statement lines up with Stanford’s web credibility guidelines to:
- Show that there’s a real organization behind your site
- Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide
- Demonstrate that honest and trustworthy individuals are behind your site
Achieving this doesn’t have to be complicated. Consider creating a detailed “About Us” page or an “Our Team” page to showcase your team’s credentials and qualifications. Another option is creating an Awards page if your industry values them.
Law firms typically do this really well.
Why?
Because hiring a lawyer hinges so strongly on trust. It’s cliche, but it’s true: People do business with people.
Here’s an example of a good page:
What’s even better about this particular example is that each team member has their own page. And that page includes schema and structured data, further demonstrating experience and expertise.
This is an excellent example of E-E-A-T. However, even more could be done with schema and structured data.
Schema and structured data
Schema and structured data is code that you can add to your website. The purpose is to provide context or details about a page’s content or elements.
The opportunities are vast, and when it comes to choosing the schema and structured data that will help your E-E-A-T the most, you need to see what schema is available.
To do this, review schema.org, which details all types of schema.
To get you started, here are some schema and structured data types you should consider using, at a minimum:
- Organization schema includes data about your company and helps search engines verify it as a legitimate company. You can include details such as founding dates, founders, addresses, affiliations with industry chambers or communities, and much more.
- Person schema can support pages where a person is featured or mentioned, for example, as an author, or on a profile page, such as the one from the law firm above.
- Article or BlogPosting schema helps define elements within content. You can include details such as author, publication date, headlines, and more.
- Review and AggregateRating schema allow you to share testimonials from buyers. Both of these schema types can also appear in Google SERPs. You’ll likely be familiar with the rating stars that appear below a listing.
Pro tip: If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, schema can be added manually. You can also set it up with tools like Yoast. If you’re new to schema, this is a great place to start.
A final tip for schema: Use the sameAs property.
You can use sameAs with many schema types, and it’s very useful.
For example, you can:
- Connect organization properties and entities, such as social media channels, across the web using sameAs schema
- Connect people with their professional social media channels or connect their guest-authored articles within industry-leading publications and authoritative sites
- For reviews, use sameAs to connect the review with its original placement (e.g., if a review was left on your Google Business Profile, you can add that)
Further reading: Schema markup: Deciphering the language of search engines
Optimize page experience
While we heard about page experience a while ago, it remains imperative.
Look at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s BMI calculator page. In the Rater Guidelines, Google classifies it as having the highest E-E-A-T.
As seen in the screenshot, the page quality rating and explanation considers numerous factors, including the site’s reputation and expertise in medical topics, as well as the general functionality of the page.
The page’s functionality and the BMI calculator’s usability feed into its E-E-A-T.
Get technical
It’s not a significant leap to assume that if page experience matters, then so does the website’s functionality.
Keep your site tidy and maintain technical SEO foundations, like:
- Reducing 404s, which results in a poor user experience
- Reducing crawl rate so Googlebot can find all the relevant information on your site, avoiding duplicate or missing pages and daisy-chained redirects
- Adding alt text to your images so all users have a positive experience
Link to authoritative sources
You wouldn’t have known everything you know now without researching and learning from other credible sources, right?
Don’t be afraid to link to the sites that helped you develop your content, particularly in article and blog writing.
Linking to credible resources demonstrates that you’ve done your research, allowing your users to access related content (don’t worry, they’ll come back). Google can also verify the information you’re sharing.
Add or update content regularly
Add new content as regularly as possible—without compromising quality—to keep your site competitive and up to date. This gives you something to share with your target audience and demonstrates to Google that you’re active and in business.
Don’t forget to update existing content. Some queries demand updates, such as breaking news, product releases, or recurring events.
Naturally, Google will prioritize updated pieces of content in these instances. But we wouldn’t recommend sleeping on regular content uploads if your site operates outside the above categories.
At the turn of the New Year, a joke circulates in the SEO community that we need to update our blogs from “Best Dancing Shoes to Buy in 2024” to “Best Dancing Shoes to Buy in 2025.”
This update is unlikely to pass the E-E-A-T checks as Google inevitably gets smarter. Take your time to update content properly. Ask yourself, what’s changed since the content was first written? What else do people need to know?
Perhaps there’s an argument to say that no content is truly evergreen. At some point, it’ll need a slight adjustment to maintain the most recent and trustworthy information.
Build topical clusters
The importance of topical clusters has been mentioned already, but it’s crucial to showcase expertise.
You can’t prove subject matter expertise with a single webpage. (Well, maybe you can if it’s book-length content. But users don’t want 60,000 words on one webpage.)
Use internal links
If you’ve written many articles around a subject, link them together.
You don’t need to do anything exceptionally clever to build authority through internal links.
Simply link relevant pieces of content together so that it’s useful for your audience. Consider a related webpage that the user might want to view next.
Include different content types
Content is more than just words on a page. On top of the typical blog post, consider creating:
If a video is the best way to satisfy user intent, use it to your advantage.
Try for a Wikipedia page
Wikipedia is known for having a robust process. It’s not easy to get a Wikipedia page, and you can’t create one yourself, so having one makes you appear more authoritative.
Wikipedia also contributes to people and organizations earning knowledge graphs in the SERPs. A clear indicator that Google pays attention to Wikipedia.
To be eligible for a Wikipedia page, you need to have significant coverage in major news outlets or publications. We’re back to building your brand already…
Engage experts
If you’re adding content to your site, include quotes from experts or have experts write the article.
An article written by someone known for their knowledge on the subject is going to be far more compelling than one written by a previously unknown author. Additionally, you can add schema to help drive the E-E-A-T to search engines.
A high E-E-A-T blog post on parenting is highlighted in the Rater Guidelines. It’s written by an author known as an expert on parenting issues.
You can develop expertise on a subject by building your brand and showcasing your content on other sites through guest posting.
Encourage reviews
Reviews provide proof of expertise. If your customers are happy and Google can see this in the data or entities related to your website (such as Google Business Profile), this can only work in your site’s favor.
At the end of a project or after someone has purchased a product, automate an email that requests a review. You can incentivize reviews with a discount.
E-E-A-T in the era of AI and zero-click searches
Demonstrating high levels of E-E-A-T is your ticket into AI search. In the era of zero-click searches, this is important.
While your site may not receive the click for the search, you can still get valuable brand visibility.
Here’s an example:
The search shown in the example provides a brief answer to the query. For many, this might be enough. The searcher will be fulfilled and won’t click through. In this case, Search Engine Land also appears at the top of Google’s organic results in addition to the AI Overview citation. The win becomes more about brand visibility and impressions and less about clicks.
That said…
There will always be a percentage of people who want more. Those who want to read will click through. With a SERP like the one above, who is likely to win the click? Search Engine Land.
Furthermore, regarding AI and E-E-A-T, it’s no coincidence that Google announced the addition of “experience” to its Search Quality Raters Guidelines (December 22) shortly after the launch of ChatGPT (November 22).
E-A-T (expertise, authority, and trust) became E-E-A-T.
Why?
Most likely because Google needed a way to differentiate content generated by AI from content created by actual experienced authorities.
Don’t get the wrong idea: There’s nothing wrong with using AI to create content, provided that the content is helpful. Creating low-quality content to manipulate algorithms is what causes the problem.
The addition of “E” for experience certainly felt like a quantifier for the one thing that AI can’t do: write authentically about a genuine and unique experience. And this is where brands truly stand out.
Your E-E-A-T questions answered
Does Google still use E-A-T?
Yes, Google still uses E-A-T. Google’s search quality raters use the E-E-A-T framework to evaluate the quality of content and the credibility of websites. It’s used as part of a manual review process where rater feedback helps influence changes.
What is the difference between E-A-T and E-E-A-T?
The difference between E-A-T and E-E-A-T is the additional “E” for experience, added in December 2022.
- E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust
- E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust
Is E-E-A-T still relevant?
E-E-A-T is relevant and will continue to be relevant as long as Google uses the E-E-A-T framework to train search quality raters on how to manually assess the quality of content and the credibility of websites.
Is E-E-A-T a ranking factor?
No, E-E-A-T is not a ranking factor; however, components that demonstrate E-E-A-T can be.
What are the three levels of E-E-A-T?
The three levels of E-E-A-T are low, medium, and high; however, there are officially five levels: lowest, low, medium, high, and highest.
What is the meaning of YMYL? Why is E-E-A-T important for it?
YMYL stands for “Your Money or Your Life.” It describes content that could impact—no surprise here—your money or your life (i.e., your finances or your health).
For example, content on subjects like:
- Medical advice
- Financial planning
- The law
- News
Final thoughts on E-E-A-T
While E-E-A-T can be an overwhelming concept, if you read the guidelines, you’ll see that it is a straightforward and effective way to gauge content quality. It’s really quite sensible.
Most people reading this article will not need to worry about the lowest or low quality ratings because websites that show low E-E-A-T signals are frankly awful: factually incorrect at best, extremely spammy to the point of being dangerous or fraudulent at worst.
This should be seen as a positive for all. If you’re a legitimate business trying to serve customers in the best way possible, then you’re likely starting with at least medium page quality, and now you can build upon it.
Developing E-E-A-T is a long-term game, and it involves taking fundamental business and marketing concepts and applying them to a digital world.
Unsure where to begin?
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