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What Google’s E-E-A-T Means and Why You Should Care

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by Lars

Google’s focus on E-E-A-T and helpful content is becoming ever stronger. Learn about the underlying principles of E-E-A-T and how Google evaluates your website!

I dug deep into Google’s Search Rater Guidelines for this guide, so you don’t have to.

You’ll learn what the acronym E-E-A-T means exactly and how you can future-proof your blog to be less vulnerable to future Google updates and algorithm changes.

At a glance

  • E-E-A-T Meaning: Google uses Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust to assess a website’s quality, especially for YMYL topics, where accuracy is crucial.
  • Experience: Highlighting first-hand experiences in content creation, like personal product reviews, is highly valued (rather than secondhand information!)
  • Expertise & Authority: Showcasing the creator’s knowledge and becoming a recognized go-to source within a niche adds to a site’s credibility.
  • Trust: The culmination of experience, expertise, and authority leads to trust, the core of E-E-A-T. Trust is built through accurate, transparent, and user-focused content.
  • Improvement Tips include regular content audits, expert collaboration, citing trustworthy sources, and having a user-friendly website. Check out all 13 tips below!

Definition of E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust.

Google uses these factors to determine the helpfulness of websites. They are not ranking factors of Google’s search algorithm per se but guidelines that search raters use to assess the helpfulness and quality of your site.

Googles Danny Sullivan on EEAT Being a Ranking Factor

Around 16,000 Search Quality Raters worldwide work for Google and provide ratings based on real-world experiences following Google’s guidelines. Search Raters check for:

  • Quality: Is there anything misleading or harmful? When writing about YMYL (Your Money Your Life) topics, they are examined particularly critically. A “Page Quality Rating” is given taking into account E-E-A-T and these additional factors:
  • Did creating the content take significant effort, originality, talent, or skill?
  • Is it clear who is responsible for the website and who created the content on the page?
  • Do the website and creator have a good reputation? A website’s reputation is based on the experience of real users, as well as the opinion of experts on the topic of the website.

Good to know: The type of content does not determine the Page Quality Rating. A humor website also serves a purpose and can be well or poorly made and, therefore, have a good or bad quality rating.

Additionally, there’s a “Needs Met Rating” that indicates how well the searcher’s intent has been met. Can one quickly and comprehensively find the solution without having to look at other search results?

All aspects ultimately feed into how trustworthy your website appears; trust is, therefore, the most important component.

Experience

Experience is the latest addition to Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines.

Experience, according to Google:

Consider the extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic. Many types of pages are trustworthy and achieve their purpose well when created by people with a wealth of personal experience. For example, which would you trust: a product review from someone who has personally used the product or a “review” by someone who has not?

Do you have hands-on experience with the topic you’re writing about? Have you been to the place you’re writing about as a travel blogger or using the product you’re reviewing as a tech blogger?

Consider, for example, a person who’s been building computers for 20 years — they probably know the ins and outs of this topic, have overcome all kinds of challenges along the way, and have, therefore, a great deal of experience!

Be sure not to venture too much into topics you personally don’t have experience in. Or if you do so, see if you can collaborate with someone with the relevant experience in the field and be transparent about the collaboration.

Let your readers know about your personal struggles and give people a unique angle on a particular topic, if possible.

To demonstrate your experience and show proof of your connection with a topic, use your own photos whenever possible instead of cheesy stock photos (or Amazon product photos).

If you’re reviewing a product:

  • ideally, you want to possess the product and have first-hand experience
  • keep your readers in mind, solve their problems, and answer their questions instead of just trying to sell a product
  • be as specific as possible
  • share your personal struggles and anecdotes — don’t copy everyone else
  • mention different use cases for the product

Expertise

The second E of E-E-A-T.

Expertise, according to Google:

Consider the extent to which the content creator has the necessary knowledge or skill for the topic. Different topics require different levels and types of expertise to be trustworthy.

Experience and expertise can be considered two different sides of the same coin. Experience can, in some contexts, be just as important, if not more important, than expertise.

When it comes to fixing your computer, you probably prefer experience and want to listen to the advice of someone who’s built and repaired computers for 20 years instead of someone who’s just graduated in computer science (expertise!).

In other areas, though, like curing an illness or getting proper nutrition advice, expertise is king and you’ll want to follow the advice of someone with the necessary education, like a Registered Dietitian.

Let your readers and Google know about your background and qualifications — great places to highlight your education and credentials are your About page, sidebar, and author box below each article.

Authority

Authority, according to Google:

Consider the extent to which the content creator or the website is known as a go-to source for the topic. While most topics do not have one official, Authoritative website or content creator, when they do, that website or content creator is often among the most reliable and trustworthy sources.

Are you a great and all-encompassing resource for your topic?

This is easier to achieve if you narrow down and cover a smaller niche (think gluten-free, vegan baking recipes instead of vegan recipes in general) but become the go-to website for that particular niche.

If you’re just starting out with your website, definitely begin with a smaller scope and, if you want, broaden it over time.

Have you been interviewed by prominent podcasters or news outlets? In short, do you have a good reputation and are respected in your industry?

Trust

Trust, according to Google:

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-E-A-T) are all important considerations in PQ rating. The most important member at the center of the E-E-A-T family is Trust.

All prior factors, Experience, Expertise, and Authority, ultimately lead to a sense of trust in your website.

Google EEAT Circles

Is the content you share accurate, up-to-date, safe, and trustworthy?

Are you citing other highly authoritative sites, and are the facts you share aligned with the broader scientific consensus?

Make it clear who’s behind the website by sharing insights about you and your team, and make this info easy to find — place your About page in your main navigation for super easy access.

A Contact page that includes your address and email address(es) helps to solidify the trust in your site (here’s a good example of a nicely done Contact page) — as do Privacy and Terms & Conditions pages.

Quality Rater Guidelines state: “Understanding who is responsible for a website is a critical part of assessing E-E-A-T for most types of websites. High quality pages should have clear information about the website so that users feel comfortable trusting the site.”

Lastly, you want to ensure that your site’s design, layout, and navigation are user-friendly and convey trust. Is the content nicely clustered and easy to find via your navigation and search? Does the site load quickly, and is the content easy to read, well-formatted, and not riddled with too many intrusive ads or popups?

13 tips to improve your E-E-A-T game

  1. Make your content helpful and original: Whenever you create new content, ask yourself: “Is this truly helpful to my readers? Are their needs met, or will they have to visit other websites?
  2. Create people-first content instead of writing for search engines or trying to “hack” them with keyword stuffing, aiming for a specific word count, or updating the date of your blog post when little has changed.
  3. Share your unique perspective: Be specific; share your own experience, opinion, struggles, and unique angle instead of copying what others have already written. When reviewing a product, explain different use cases and answer any questions your readers might have with an FAQ section in your post.
  4. Regularly audit your blog posts: Keep them up-to-date, make improvements whenever necessary, or delete content that’s no longer serving you.
  5. Make it clear who is creating the content: Create an About page on which you share your mission, values, and motivation, as well as any relevant education, work experience, and credentials. Share high-quality photos of you (and your team members), link to your social profiles and collaborations with other experts, or your appearances on other websites/podcasts/news outlets. Have any published books/eBooks or other products? Great! Link them here and include customer testimonials. Also, consider an author bio box in your sidebar and at the bottom of each blog post, with a link to the About page.
  6. Collaborate with other experts: If you’re not an expert in a particular topic, either don’t write about it and refer to experts in the field or let a subject matter expert write/review your content. You can also interview an expert, let them write a guest post for you, or collect a roundup of expert advice. Know your limits, and focus on topics of your core expertise and experience when in doubt.
  7. Always use trusted, reliable sources and make sure your content is factually correct and free from grammar or spelling mistakes.
  8. Give your Contact page, Terms & Conditions, and Privacy Policy some love, as these can improve the trust in your website.
  9. Show evidence of you interacting with the topic: When reviewing a particular product, show photos of you using it, or when sharing a recipe, include pictures of you preparing that recipe. Stay away from boring and often overused stock photos!
  10. Keep a narrow focus, cover your niche entirely, and become a true expert in your field. Consider getting further education or completing courses to get the necessary certifications.
  11. Cluster your content into different silos and have a clear site structure.
  12. Build authoritative backlinks by writing guest posts on other highly regarded sites in your niche or using HARO (Help A Reporter Out) to connect with journalists.
  13. Bonus Tip: Become a thought leader: Ensure you’re following Subreddits, TikTok, Google News, and all the usual spots to identify topics you could write about. By monitoring trends on these platforms and writing about them first, you can be considered an influencer or thought leader in your industry.
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about the author.

Hey, I'm Lars. I'm into all things tech, design, cats, and coffee.

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