E-E-A-T
Also known as: EEAT, E-A-T, Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, the concepts Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines use to describe how reliable a piece of content and its creator are.
The framework began as E-A-T. In December 2022 Google added an extra E for Experience. The guidelines describe trust as the most important element, with the other three supporting it.
- Experience: Has the creator actually done the thing, used the product, lived the situation?
- Expertise: Does the creator have the knowledge and skills for the topic?
- Authoritativeness: Is the person or site a go-to source on the subject?
- Trustworthiness: Is the information accurate, transparent and safe?
Is it a ranking score?
No. Google says E-E-A-T isn’t a single signal it measures directly; its systems try to reward content that shows these qualities. Quality raters don’t change rankings either. Their feedback helps Google check whether its algorithms are working.
Why it matters
For topics that can affect people’s health, finances or safety, which Google calls “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL), the bar for trust is much higher. AI assistants also seem cautious when picking sources on these topics, though they don’t disclose their criteria. Showing clearly who wrote a page, what qualifies them, and what the information is based on makes sense either way.
Example
A treatment page written by a doctor that shows the author’s name, specialty, credentials and the date it was last reviewed, with those details marked up as Person structured data, is strong from an E-E-A-T point of view.