What is E-E-A-T in SEO?

With digital content continuously flooding media channels, meeting Google’s E-E-A-T standards Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness has become a critical focus. These principles guide how Google assesses content quality, especially in sensitive “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) areas, such as health, finance, and legal matters. But what does E-E-A-T mean, exactly, and how can content creators and SEO experts meet these standards effectively?

Guidelines for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness

The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab compiled ten guidelines to enhance online trustworthiness. Here’s a quick summary:

• Ensure information accuracy: Make it easy for readers to verify your claims.
• Showcase real organizational presence: Demonstrate that your site represents a legitimate entity.
• Highlight expertise: Emphasize qualifications within your organization.
• Build trust: Show that credible individuals stand behind your site.
• Provide contact information: Make reaching you straightforward.
• Maintain professional design: Your site should look polished and purposeful.
• Prioritize usability: Ensure your site is both user-friendly and valuable.
• Regularly update content: This shows that information is current and cared for.
• Use restraint in promotional content: Avoid overuse of ads or offers.
• Eliminate errors: Avoid all types of errors to build credibility.
• Google considers these guidelines essential to establish trust and reliability, particularly for YMYL topics where inaccuracies can have serious consequences. Now, let’s delve deeper into each component of E-E-A-T and how you can incorporate these standards into your content strategy.

Experience

Experience refers to the extent of first-hand knowledge that the content creator has about the topic. Google instructs its Quality Raters to consider whether content comes from personal experience. For example:

• Has the reviewer actually transacted with the business they are reviewing?
• Has the influencer used the product they recommend?
• Has the writer visited the places they feature?

This aspect is about proving genuine, lived experiences, which are often more persuasive and valuable to readers. For instance, user reviews for products and businesses provide a sense of authenticity that consumers trust—research by Moz shows that only 14% of consumers trust what brands say about themselves, compared to what user reviews say.

Examples of valuable experience-based content include:

• Safe and non-medical pregnancy tips shared by those who have experienced third-trimester sleep struggles.
• Forum discussions on coping with liver cancer treatments, showing empathy and real-life support.
• Retirement saving reviews by people who have first-hand experience with different services.
• Personal stories on the importance of voting in local elections.
• By emphasizing direct experience, content creators can build a solid foundation of trust with their audience, leading to stronger credibility.

Expertise

Expertise goes beyond experience, focusing on specialized knowledge and skills. Google evaluates the level of knowledge a content creator has in a particular field and considers it especially important for technical topics like healthcare, finance, or legal advice.

For instance, you’re more likely to trust home electrical wiring advice from a certified electrician than from a home decor enthusiast. Similarly, Google expects content about sleep medications during pregnancy, cancer treatment options, and retirement investments to come from verified experts with credentials in those fields.

In YMYL categories, it’s often essential to display certifications, licenses, and professional associations to validate expertise. For example, a licensed CPA explaining tax filing is far more trustworthy than a hobbyist discussing income tax. However, expertise can also include practical, hands-on knowledge. A quilt shop owner with years of quilting experience may not hold a formal degree, but her technical expertise and tutorials demonstrate her skill.

When creating content in sensitive fields, emphasize credentials and knowledge, and be transparent about qualifications.

Authoritativeness

Authoritativeness refers to the recognition of content creators or websites as reputable sources within their field. This reputation can be built over time through links from authoritative sites, positive reputations, and strong digital profiles of individual authors.

It’s essential to remember that Domain Authority (DA)—a metric created by Moz to predict search ranking—is different from E-E-A-T’s concept of authority. While DA is based on link quality and volume, E-E-A-T looks at whether others regard the author or site as a trustworthy source.

Examples of authoritativeness strategies include:

• Backlinks from other reputable sites.
• Prominent placement of high-value posts. For instance, a post closer to the homepage (e.g., example.com/hotel-reviews/post-url ) carries more authority than one buried deep within the site (e.g., example.com/travel/trends/hotels/reviews/post-url ).
• Seasonal homepage placement: Pinning posts, such as highlighting beach tourism articles on your homepage before summer, can establish authority in anticipation of seasonal searches.
• By aligning with authoritative sources and optimizing content placement, you can build a strong, credible foundation for your brand.

Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness is about the reliability and integrity of both content and the site hosting it. Google places high importance on users’ ability to trust the information provided.

How to build trustworthiness:

• Fact-check content and update regularly.
• Provide transparent contact information and a detailed privacy policy.
• Use HTTPS to ensure site security for your readers.
• For example, adding an “Updated On” note to blog posts and linking to a contact page can reassure readers about content accuracy. Trustworthiness is particularly important in sensitive fields, where misinformation could impact users' lives.

FAQs

What is the concept of E-E-A-T?

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It’s a guideline Google uses to assess the quality of content, particularly for sensitive topics that affect users' well-being.

What is Google E-E-A-T ranking?

The E-E-A-T ranking is part of Google’s criteria for evaluating content. It involves analyzing content creators’ experience and expertise, as well as the authoritativeness and trustworthiness of the site. High E-E-A-T scores improve a page’s credibility and can boost its ranking.

What is experience in E-E-A-T?

In E-E-A-T, experience evaluates the direct, first-hand knowledge that a content creator has about a topic. Content based on personal experience—like product reviews from actual users—is seen as more authentic and trustworthy.

What is an example of E-E-A-T SEO?

An example of E-E-A-T in SEO is a medical website displaying licenses and certifications to validate expertise, such as showing a therapist's license number. For experience, product reviews by users who have tested the products themselves can boost credibility and trust.