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Glossary

E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — four quality criteria from Google's Quality Rater Guidelines. As of the December 2025 update, E-E-A-T applies to all competitive queries, not just YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics. For e-commerce that means every product listing, blog article and category page is judged against it.

The four pillars in detail

  • Experience — genuine first-hand experience with the topic. Have you used the product yourself? Worked in the industry? Evidence: your own photos, personal comparisons, "how we tested it" sections.
  • Expertise — subject-matter knowledge, formal or demonstrated through practice. Evidence: author bio, technical depth, correct terminology, honest limits ("doesn't work in this edge case").
  • Authoritativeness — authority of the author AND the publishing site. Evidence: being mentioned by other authoritative sources (backlinks from industry media), cited by Wikipedia or industry studies.
  • Trustworthiness — credibility. Evidence: imprint/about page, privacy policy, clear citations, HTTPS, no inflated or sensationalist claims.

Why E-E-A-T now affects everyone

E-E-A-T is not a direct ranking factor — there is no "E-E-A-T score" in the algorithm. It's a quality concept Google approximates through many smaller factors: backlink profile, on-page signals, brand mentions, author schema, HTTPS, site age, Wikipedia presence, etc.

With AI Overviews, E-E-A-T matters even more: AI Overviews only cite sources the algorithm classifies as "trusted". A site that hasn't built trust never appears in the AI answer — no matter how well it ranks the classic way.

How to build E-E-A-T

  1. Author bylines + bios — every article with author name and short bio (experience, background). "Staff author" works too if the organisation itself carries authority (Shopify, Stripe, Linear).
  2. Original data + methodology — don't write "studies show X", write "across the 1,200 listings we analysed we found Y". Disclose methodology in a methodology callout.
  3. Name limits and exceptions — "this strategy does NOT work in Z" builds more trust than 100% confidence.
  4. Link to external sources — authoritative industry media, platform documentation, peer-reviewed studies. Outbound links to trusted sources are themselves an E-E-A-T signal.
  5. Imprint + privacy policy — mandatory in EU/DACH, but a trust signal everywhere. Real address, real contact details.
  6. Backlinks from industry authorities — guest posts, industry media mentions, ProductHunt launches, Reddit discussions in vertical subreddits.

Common mistakes

  • Anonymous content — articles without an author and generic stock photos signal "content mill" and lose ranking.
  • "Studies show…" without a source — reads like AI slop and instantly reduces trust.
  • Inflated promises ("Guaranteed #1 in 7 days") — direct trust killer and often a spam-detection trigger.
  • No own voice — if your content is interchangeable with your competitors', it has zero E-E-A-T value.

Related terms

  • SERP — where the E-E-A-T effect shows up
  • Search Intent — what Google expects from a "trusted" source
  • Conversion Rate — on-page trust also converts better