E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) is a framework from Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines that describes what makes content reliable. Human raters use it to judge Google's results. Google says E-E-A-T itself is not a ranking factor, but its systems look for a mix of signals that match it.

Why E-E-A-T matters if it is not a ranking factor

E-E-A-T is the yardstick Google's raters use to check that its rankings work. In 2023 alone, Google ran 719,326 search quality tests, in which raters evaluate results "based on the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of the content." Their ratings "do not directly impact ranking", but they tell Google whether its systems favor the right pages.

Google is precise about the rest: "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." Those factors weigh even more on health, finance and safety topics. And since Google's AI features "are rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems", the content those systems favor is what AI Overviews and AI Mode draw on.

How E-E-A-T works

The rater guidelines define four qualities:

Experience: the creator has first-hand or life experience of the topic, such as having used the product.
Expertise: the creator has the knowledge or skill the topic requires.
Authoritativeness: the creator or site is "known as a go-to source for the topic."
Trust: the page is accurate, honest, safe and reliable. The guidelines call it "the most important member of the E-E-A-T family."

Raters judge these from three angles: what the site says about itself, what independent sources say about it, and what the page itself shows. When the first two disagree, they are told to "trust the independent sources." Experience is the newest letter: Google added it in December 2022.

Example: expertise or experience?

Google illustrated the difference with taxes. For "how to correctly fill out your tax returns", you want content from an accounting expert. For reviews of tax preparation software, a forum discussion between people who have used the services may serve you better.

The same split applies to prompts. "How do I report freelance income from two countries?" calls for expertise. "Is TurboTax worth it for freelancers?" calls for experience, and Google's AI guide notes that "a first-hand review provides a unique perspective based on personal experience." First-hand detail like this is a source of information gain.

How to show E-E-A-T

Google's helpful content guide frames it as Who, How and Why:

Who: bylines that lead to real author pages. Google calls fabricated creator profiles "a form of deception."
How: show how the content was made, such as how many products you tested and how.
Why: content made to help people, not to attract search visits.

Reputation is built off your site too, through earned media and topical authority. To see what that looks like in your category, Hawkscan lists the pages the engines cite for your prompts, so you can study what the sources they rely on have in common.