What is E-E-A-T and how do you show it?

What E-E-A-T means

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. It comes from Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines, the handbook for the people who evaluate search results, and it describes the qualities Google's systems aim to reward in helpful, reliable content. You show it through real evidence on your pages: who wrote them, what first-hand knowledge they draw on, and why a reader can trust them.

Experience

First-hand involvement with the topic: you have used the product, visited the place or done the work.

Expertise

The knowledge or skill needed to cover the topic well.

Authoritativeness

Whether the creator or the site is a recognized go-to source on the topic.

Trustworthiness

Whether the page is accurate, honest, safe and reliable. Google calls trust the most important of the four.

How Google uses it

Quality raters do not change rankings. Their ratings help Google check whether its systems are producing good results, so the guidelines describe the target rather than the mechanism. Google has said E-E-A-T is not itself a specific ranking factor; its systems use a mix of signals that can identify content with good E-E-A-T.

Trust sits at the center. Google's guidance says the other three qualities contribute to trust, and a page does not need to show all of them. A first-hand product review can be trustworthy without a credentialed author, while medical advice needs genuine expertise.

Why YMYL topics face a higher bar

YMYL stands for Your Money or Your Life: topics that could significantly affect a person's health, financial stability or safety, or the welfare of society. Medical, legal and financial advice are typical examples. Google says its systems give even more weight to content with strong E-E-A-T on these topics, and raters are asked to apply stricter standards.

If you publish in these areas, expect to show real qualifications, careful sourcing and clear accountability for what the page says.

Practical ways to show it

Google's own self-assessment questions ask who created the content, how it was created and why. Answer those questions visibly on the page.

• Name your authors, with a short bio that states their real role, credentials and experience, and link each byline to an author page.
• Show first-hand experience: original photos, your own test results, data you collected, and details only someone who did the work would know.
• Publish clear about and contact pages that say who runs the business, where it is and how to reach you.
• Cite sources for facts, figures and claims, especially on health, money and safety topics.
• Keep business details accurate and consistent across your site and profiles: name, address, phone, hours and prices.
• Earn genuine customer reviews and reply to them.
• Date your content and update it when facts change.

Adding author boxes or trust badges to thin content does not create E-E-A-T. The signals have to reflect something real about who made the page and why it can be trusted.