Glossary
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, the four qualities Google uses to describe content that people can rely on. It is not a single ranking factor. Google calls trust the most important of the four, and the standard is highest for topics that affect health, money or safety.
The term comes from Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines, the handbook used by the people who review search results for Google. The guidelines describe each part:
- Experience: the creator has first-hand experience of the topic.
- Expertise: the creator has the knowledge or skill the topic needs.
- Authoritativeness: the creator or the website is a go-to source for the topic.
- Trust: the page is accurate, honest, safe and reliable.
The guidelines place trust at the centre, as the most important of the four. Google's guidance on helpful content adds that E-E-A-T is not a specific ranking factor, and that raters have no control over how pages rank. Their ratings help Google check whether its systems are working.
Why it matters to a business website
The standard is highest for what Google calls "Your Money or Your Life" topics: content that could significantly affect someone's health, financial stability or safety. A clinic or a financial adviser is held to a higher standard than a hobby site.
No tag or setting adds E-E-A-T to a page. A site shows it through plain things: content written by someone who has done the work, named authors with their real qualifications, information that is accurate and kept current, and clear details of who runs the business and how to reach them.
Related
Stryx works on this as part of content strategy and its SEO service. For healthcare practices, where the standard is highest, see healthcare websites and SEO. The related term for covering a subject in depth is topical authority.