E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust, what Google really evaluates

The four letters, as Google defines them

“EEAT” is searched 1,300 times a month in France. The acronym comes from the guidelines Google gives its search quality raters (the Search Quality Rater Guidelines). It was written E-A-T until 15 December 2022, when Google added Experience. The guidelines, in their version of 11 September 2025, define each letter:

• Experience: does the content creator have first-hand or lived experience of the topic? Google asks whom you would trust: the review of someone who has used the product, or that of someone who has never held it.
• Expertise: do they have the necessary knowledge or skills? Google’s example: advice on rewiring a house, from a qualified electrician or from an enthusiast of old houses with no knowledge of electrics.
• Authoritativeness: is the creator or the site known as the go-to source on the topic? Google cites a local shop’s page on a social network, the authoritative source on what is for sale today.
• Trustworthiness: is the page accurate, honest, safe and reliable? For Google, it is the most important member of the family.

The guidelines put it bluntly: a page that is not trustworthy has low E-E-A-T, however experienced, expert or recognised its author seems. They also state that the level of trust required depends on the page: an online shop needs secure payment and reliable customer service; a product review must be honest and written to help people decide.

The real role of E-E-A-T in ranking

Google discusses it in its guide to helpful content. Its automated systems use many factors to identify content that shows the expected experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust. But it says so clearly: E-E-A-T is not a specific ranking factor.

The role of the raters is often misunderstood. They are people who help Google check that its algorithms work. The guidelines state that no single rating can by itself change how a page appears in search; Google adds that their ratings have no direct impact on its ranking algorithms.

• What E-E-A-T is: a framework for reading what Google seeks to reward, useful for judging your own pages.
• What it is not: a score, a box to tick, or a setting a tool could measure.
• What follows: nothing replaces accurate, useful content signed by someone who truly knows the subject.

YMYL topics: where E-E-A-T weighs most

Google gives even more weight to strong E-E-A-T when a topic could significantly affect people’s health, financial stability or safety, or the welfare of society. It calls these YMYL topics, for “your money or your life”.

For these pages, Google expects content to be highly accurate and consistent with expert consensus. Many small businesses are in this category without knowing it: a law firm, an accountant, a broker, a health professional, an electrician giving safety advice.

1. 1
   Have the pages written or reviewed by the qualified person, and say so on the page.
2. 2
   Cite the source of every rule or figure: official text, organisation, study.
3. 3
   Date your pages and update them when the rule changes.
4. 4
   Refer readers to the professional when the answer depends on the case: it is also your best call to action.

Who, how, why: Google’s three questions

Google suggests evaluating every piece of content with three questions. They apply to a blog post as much as to a service page:

• Who created it? The author should be obvious to the visitor, with a byline where one is expected and a link to their background. Google warns that fabricating profiles (AI-generated portraits, invented names, fake credentials) is deception that makes the page untrustworthy.
• How was it created? Explain the method: products actually tested, jobs photographed, data collected. If automation or AI played a significant part, Google advises saying so where readers would expect it.
• Why was it created? The answer should be: to help visitors. If the main purpose is to attract search engine traffic, that does not match what Google seeks to reward; mass-producing content for that purpose breaks its spam policies.

The rater guidelines also look at what the site says about itself: About page, contact details, customer service. For a shop, they explicitly cite customer service information as a trust signal.

What E-E-A-T means for a small business website

For a small business, E-E-A-T translates into very concrete elements you can check page by page:

1. 1
   Trust: a complete legal notice, address, tappable phone number, terms and prices shown, payment through a well-known provider, reachable customer service.
2. 2
   Experience: your own photos of jobs, products and team; real cases described with what was done.
3. 3
   Expertise: the qualifications, labels and certifications you actually hold, with their number where one exists; pages signed by the person who knows.
4. 4
   Authoritativeness: being cited by others (press, partners, professional bodies), having a complete Google Business Profile with genuine reviews.
5. 5
   Accuracy: sourced figures, update dates, no invented review or result.