E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness — the framework Google's quality raters use to assess content and its creators.
It is not a direct ranking factor but a description of what Google's systems attempt to reward. The signals it describes — identifiable authors with credentials, citations, corroboration, transparency — overlap heavily with what AI engines weigh when deciding which sources to trust.
It matters most in areas where bad information causes harm: health, finance and legal. Those are exactly the verticals where engines are most conservative about naming a business.
Why it matters
Anonymous content with no verifiable expertise behind it is discounted by both search and AI systems. In regulated verticals the effect is severe enough to determine whether you are recommendable at all.
An example
Two articles give the same advice on managing diabetes. One is anonymous, cites nothing and sits on a site with no About page. The other names a registered dietitian as its author, links to their credentials, and cites clinical guidance. Both systems — search ranking and AI answers — have reason to trust the second more.
Common mistakes
- Treating it as a single ranking factor that can be switched on.
- Inventing authors or credentials. Unverifiable claims undermine trust rather than build it.
Questions
- What does the extra E in E-E-A-T stand for?
- Experience. Google added it in late 2022 to the earlier E-A-T framework, recognising that first-hand experience of a subject is a distinct signal from formal expertise.
- How do I show E-E-A-T on my site?
- Name real authors with verifiable credentials, explain who is behind the business, cite sources for factual claims, and make contact and ownership details easy to find. The aim is to make trust checkable rather than asserted.