What is E-E-A-T?
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — Google's framework for evaluating content quality, codified in its Search Quality Rater Guidelines. The first 'E' (Experience) was added in December 2022 to specifically reward first-hand experience over second-hand summary.
What to know in practice
- Experience: first-hand demonstration that the author actually did or experienced the topic. Photos, screenshots, anecdotes, specific numbers from real engagements.
- Expertise: relevant credentials, qualifications, or demonstrated knowledge depth. Named author with verifiable LinkedIn and field-specific knowledge.
- Authoritativeness: third-party recognition. Citations FROM authoritative sources, mentions in industry publications, Wikipedia presence.
- Trustworthiness: the most weighted factor for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics including finance, health, legal. Includes transparent sourcing, clear ownership, accurate information, secure site.
Common misconception
E-E-A-T isn't a ranking factor in the algorithmic sense — there's no E-E-A-T score in Google's index. It's a framework human raters use to evaluate sample SERPs, which feeds back into algorithm tuning. Pages that rank well on E-E-A-T heuristics indirectly rank better over time.
Related terms
- Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) → SEO & AEO
- YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) → SEO & AEO