E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust. It is not a direct ranking factor but the framework Google uses in its Quality Rater guidelines to judge the quality of content and its creators. Pages with demonstrated experience, clear authorship and trust signals are preferred — especially on so-called YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) topics.
Experience: first-hand, practical experience with the topic. Expertise: the author's subject knowledge. Authoritativeness: the standing of author and site in their field. Trust: trustworthiness — security, transparency and accuracy.
Google says Trust is the most important element; the other three feed into it. A brilliant expert text on an insecure, anonymous site earns no trust — and trust without depth isn't enough on demanding topics.
Google wants to protect users from low-quality or harmful content. On YMYL topics — health, finance, law, safety — E-E-A-T weighs especially heavily, because wrong answers can cause real harm.
Generative AI engines also weigh authority and trust signals when deciding which source to cite in an answer. So E-E-A-T feeds directly into AI visibility (GEO).
Name real authors with a profile and qualifications instead of anonymous text. Prove experience with case studies, own data and concrete examples. Connect brand and person via consistent sameAs references and mark them up with structured data (Organization, Author).
Don't forget the technical trust base: HTTPS, imprint, privacy policy, and accurate, current facts. E-E-A-T is the sum of many small signals, not a single switch.
No, not directly. It is a concept from Google's Quality Rater guidelines; the algorithms approximate it through many individual signals. In practice you don't optimize E-E-A-T itself but the signals that feed into it.
In 2022 Google added Experience in front of the previous E-A-T — the author's first-hand, practical experience with the topic.
Your Money or Your Life — topics around health, finance, safety or important life decisions. Google applies especially strict E-E-A-T standards there.