E-E-A-T and the trust signals Google looks for

Two pages answer the same question with the same facts. One is signed by a named physiotherapist with a bio page, cites the guideline it's based on, shows when it was last reviewed, and sits on a site with an address and a page saying who runs it. The other is "by admin", undated, with no contact page. Google can't read a qualification, but it can read the evidence, and so can the reader.

E-E-A-T isn't a score Google assigns your page. It's the set of qualities Google's human quality raters are told to look for, and making them visible is how you give Google's systems, and your readers, something to find.

What E-E-A-T is, and what it isn't

E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. The terms come from Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines, a public document given to the people Google pays to evaluate search results. Raters don't rank pages; their judgements are used to check whether changes to Google's systems make results better or worse. The guidelines describe what a high-quality page looks like, and Google tunes its systems towards that description.

Google says this plainly in its guidance on creating helpful content: E-E-A-T itself isn't a specific ranking factor, but its systems use a mix of signals that can identify content showing those qualities. So there's no E-E-A-T tag to add, only signals, on the page and around the web, that together look like a trustworthy source.

Two details shape everything else. First, the guidelines say trust is the most important member of the family; the other three are ways of establishing it. Second, the bar rises with the stakes. The guidelines call topics that could affect someone's health, finances, safety or wellbeing "Your Money or Your Life" topics and hold them to a higher standard, so a site giving tax advice needs more visible evidence than one reviewing headphones. Google added experience as the first E in December 2022, announcing the change on its Search Central blog, to recognise first-hand use alongside formal expertise.

What each quality looks like on a page

Experience is proof you've done the thing. Your own photos instead of stock images. A sentence that says "we fitted this in a 1930s terrace and the problem was the joists". A page assembled from other pages has none of this.

Expertise is knowing the subject at the depth the topic demands, and saying who knows it. A byline naming a real person, linked to a bio that states what qualifies them, and content that gets the hard parts right rather than skating past them.

Authoritativeness is whether others treat you as a source. Links and mentions from sites in your field, being quoted, being listed where the credible businesses in your subject are. This one is mostly earned off the page, and the authority chapter covers how.

Trustworthiness is whether the page and the site are accurate and honest. Claims with sources, a true visible date, an about page, a contact page with a real way to reach you, clear policies where money changes hands, and nothing that misleads: no fake reviews, no hidden advertising, no unsupported "best in the UK".

Google's helpful content guidance offers a frame that covers all four: who created the content, how, and why. A page that answers those three questions honestly and visibly usually has the signals it needs.

What to add, page by page and site-wide

Most sites can close the gap in an afternoon; the missing pieces are structural rather than editorial.

1. Give every article a byline naming a real person, linked to a bio page that states their relevant experience or qualifications in plain words. "Editorial team" and "admin" are the absence of a signal.
2. Build an about page that says who the business is and why they're qualified, and a contact page with a real way to reach you.
3. Cite sources for any claim a reader might doubt, linking to the primary source rather than to another blog that cited it.
4. Show a date on every article, and a "reviewed" date where the subject changes, with both kept honest.
5. Add first-hand evidence to your most important pages: your own photos, your own measurements, a paragraph only someone who did the work could write.
6. Mark up what's real with structured data: Organization markup for your name, logo and contact details, Article markup naming the author, and a profile page for each author. Google's structured data gallery lists all three as rich result types, and even without a rich result the markup removes ambiguity about who is behind the page.
7. Don't fake any of it. Google's review snippet guidelines treat a business rating itself on its own page as ineligible, and its spam policies cover fabricated reviews and deceptive content. A fabricated credential is a trust signal in reverse the day someone checks it.

The same signals decide who AI assistants trust

AI assistants face the same problem Google's raters do: they can't verify expertise, so they rely on what's visible. A page with a named author and cited sources is easier to cite with confidence than an anonymous one, and an organisation whose name, address and description match everywhere it appears is easier to recognise as an entity. Brand mentions and entity SEO takes the entity side further.

What to take away

• E-E-A-T is what Google's quality raters are told to look for, and Google's systems are tuned towards it, but there's no tag for it, only visible evidence.
• Trust is the quality the other three serve, and topics that affect health, money or safety are held to a higher bar.
• Experience and expertise live on the page: bylines, bios, first-hand evidence, sources and honest dates. Authority is earned off the page.
• Structured data and consistent business details make the signals machine-readable, and faking any of them costs more than leaving them out.

Next

Trust signals matter most where an AI assistant picks a handful of sources. Continue with How AI assistants choose what to cite.