Glossary · E-E-A-T
What is E-E-A-T? How Google judges quality, and why it isn’t a score
Where E-E-A-T comes from
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 Google pays to review sample search results. Their ratings don’t move any single page; Google uses them to check its ranking systems show good results.
The first E, Experience, was added in December 2022, recognising that hands-on use of a product or place can matter as much as formal expertise. In the same update, Google said trust is the most important of the four.
What each part of E-E-A-T looks like on a page
Experience
The writer has done the thing: used the product, visited the place, run the process. It shows in details someone who only read about it wouldn’t know.
Expertise
The writer knows the subject: formal qualifications for a medical or financial page, deep knowledge for a hobby.
Authoritativeness
Others treat the site or author as a go-to source. That shows in citations, links and mentions from people who would know.
Trustworthiness
The page is accurate, honest and safe, and you can tell who the business is and how to reach it. Without this, the other three count for little.
Where E-E-A-T advice goes wrong
- Adding an author box and calling it done
- A byline only counts as evidence if it leads to a real person with a background readers can check. It does nothing for a page that’s thin or wrong.
- Treating it as a score to raise
- Tools that report an "E-E-A-T score" measure their own stand-ins. Moving the stand-in doesn’t make you more trustworthy.
- Faking the signals
- Stock-photo authors, borrowed credentials, testimonials nobody gave and "as seen in" logos used without permission are exactly what raters are trained to spot. Faked trust is worse than a modest, accurate page.
- Holding every page to the same standard
- A recipe and a page about medicine aren’t held to the same bar. The guidelines ask for the most evidence where a bad answer could hurt someone, so put the effort there.
What you can measure about E-E-A-T
Nobody outside Google can measure E-E-A-T itself, only the evidence a rater would look for. BOOSTD’s Growth Score checks that in its E-E-A-T and Trust category: are authors and credentials shown, is the company open, are claims sourced, are contact and legal details published, is the business described consistently, and is there relevant proof?
The free checkup checks what you can see from outside a site, such as a linked contact page, legal pages, an about page and a published address, and reports them as evidence, not a verdict on quality.
This site applies the same test to itself: one named person is accountable for it, there’s no made-up team, and the editorial policy explains how pages are sourced and reviewed.
Questions about E-E-A-T
Is E-E-A-T a ranking factor?
Not as a single signal. Google has said E-E-A-T itself isn’t a ranking factor; its systems use a mix of signals meant to reward content that shows these qualities, and raters use the idea to check those systems work.
So you can’t optimise for E-E-A-T directly. You can only make the evidence for it real and easy to find.
Does every page need a named author?
No. Google cares about who is responsible for a page, and that can be the business itself. A named author matters most where personal experience or expertise is the point: advice, reviews and anything about health or money.
Where there is an author, it should be a real person with a background readers can check.
Which sites does E-E-A-T matter most for?
Sites on "your money or your life" topics, such as health, finance, safety and legal matters, where a poor page could harm the reader. The rater guidelines set the highest standard there.
References
Sources for E-E-A-T
The official documents and research this page is based on. Platform rules change, so check the source before you act on a detail.
Last updated · Published by Zubair Afzal, responsible editor
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