What Is E-A-T?
E-E-A-T is an acronym that stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust which is a set of website evaluation standards that comes from Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. E-E-A-T signals are a part of the ranking algorithm systems.
Also referred to as Double-E-A-T, the first E is new to Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. In December 2022, Google update the guidelines to include an extra E for Experience to underscore the importance of content being created to be original and helpful for people based on first-hand experiences.
Google wants to rank web pages for certain queries that demonstrate evidence of the creator having some degree of experience with the person, place, or thing they are publishing about; not just manufacturing the details from other people’s experiences.
A common example of content that requires E-E-A-T includes a product review from a person who actually bought, used, and tested it. Another example is a person sharing details about a location and having personally visited that place.
- First E refers to the experience of the content creator having the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic.
- Second E refers to the expertise of the content creator as having the necessary knowledge or skill for the topic.
- A refers to the authoritativeness of the content creator or the website as being known as a go-to source for the topic.
- T refers to the trust of the content by being accurate, honest, safe, and reliable.
The most important factor that is at the center of the E-E-A-T family is Trust. And having high degrees of Experience, Expertise, and Authoritativeness naturally raises the level of Trust for the content, its creator, and the website.
However, E-E-A-T is not a direct Google ranking factor, but there are other signals that Google’s algorithm uses to measure the Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust, including:
- Using original photos, videos, and audio files.
- Using the first-person point of view.
- Explaining how a particular person, place, or thing compares to similar items or people.
- Quantity and quality of backlinks on page and domain levels.
- Mentions of the brand, website, or content creator in trusted sources.
- Accuracy of content based on information stored in the Knowledge Graph.
- Content that requires freshness is kept up-to-date.
- Third-party reviews of the brand, website, or content creator.
- Notability and credentials of authors.
- What the creators and website say about themselves.
- Having transparent contact details.
- The website includes privacy, refund, and terms of service type pages.
- Having secure online payment systems.
- Using a secure version of the HTTP protocol that uses the SSL/TLS protocol for encryption and authentication (i.e., HTTPS).
Visit the SEO Glossary
Go to the SEO Glossary to find more terms and definitions that relate to the field of search engine optimization.
The Editorial Staff at SEO Chatter is a team of search engine optimization and digital marketing experts led by Stephen Hockman with more than 15 years of experience in search engine marketing. We publish guides on the fundamentals of SEO for beginner marketers.
