Glossary › E-E-A-T
What Is E-E-A-T?
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It is the framework Google's quality raters use to evaluate whether a page's content is credible and worth ranking. It is not a direct algorithm input, but it shapes the signals that do affect rankings.
Plain-English Definition
Each letter in E-E-A-T points to a different quality signal. Experience asks: does the author have real, first-hand knowledge of the topic? Expertise asks: are they qualified or trained in this area? Authoritativeness asks: does the broader web recognize this person or site as a credible source? Trustworthiness asks: is the site accurate, transparent, and safe?
Trustworthiness is the most important of the four. A page can demonstrate experience and expertise but still fail on trust if it has no contact information, no privacy policy, or makes claims it cannot back up.
Why It Matters
Google's algorithms increasingly favor content that signals genuine expertise over thin, generic content. For service businesses, this means your website should show who is behind it, what qualifications or experience they have, and why a visitor should trust what they read. A roofing contractor who includes real project photos, customer testimonials, license numbers, and years in business signals higher E-E-A-T than a generic site with stock photos and boilerplate copy.
How to Improve It
Practical E-E-A-T improvements include: adding detailed author bios with credentials, publishing original content based on first-hand experience, displaying reviews and ratings, listing physical address and contact details, earning mentions or links from reputable industry sources, and keeping your content accurate and up-to-date. Schema markup helps communicate some of these signals to Google in a structured format.
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