E-E-A-T

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — the framework Google uses to evaluate content quality.

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) was updated from E-A-T in December 2022 when Google added "Experience" — first-hand experience with the topic being discussed. It comes from Google's Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, the manual used by human quality raters to evaluate search results. While E-E-A-T itself is not an algorithm, it informs how Google's algorithms are calibrated.

Trust is the most important E-E-A-T factor. Experience means demonstrating actual hands-on experience (reviews by people who used the product, advice from practitioners, not just researchers). Expertise is domain knowledge. Authoritativeness is recognition from others in the field (links, citations, mentions). Trustworthiness covers site security (HTTPS), transparency (clear authorship, About page, contact info, privacy policy), and accurate information.

E-E-A-T signals most affect YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) pages — health, finance, legal, and safety topics where bad information can cause real harm. For these topics, Google applies its quality standards most stringently. Author bios, bylines, expertise credentials, and clear editorial policies are all E-E-A-T signals.