What does E-E-A-T mean?
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. It's part of Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines: the guidelines human quality raters use to score the quality of search results. E-E-A-T is not a single, direct ranking factor with its own score, but the underlying signals are weighed through other ranking systems, such as backlink quality and content analysis.
The 'extra E' (Experience) was added to the original E-A-T in December 2022. It emphasises first-hand, practical experience with a topic, alongside the existing three criteria.
Why does it matter?
E-E-A-T weighs heaviest on YMYL content: Your Money or Your Life — content about medical, financial, legal or other topics where inaccurate information can cause direct harm. Google assesses these pages more strictly than, say, a recipe or a travel blog.
For SMEs in sectors like accounting, law, healthcare or financial advice, E-E-A-T is therefore directly relevant to how much trust Google places in your content, and thus how high you can rank.
The four signals, concretely
Experience: do you have first-hand experience with the topic? Someone who has actually delivered a service or used a product writes differently than someone who only did theoretical research.
Expertise: do you have demonstrable knowledge and qualifications on the topic? Diplomas, certifications and years of hands-on experience all count.
Authoritativeness: do others recognise your authority? Backlinks from reputable sites, mentions in trade press and citations by peers are signals of this.
Trustworthiness: are you transparent, accurate and safe? According to Google's own guidelines, this is the most important of the four — a technically perfect page without trustworthiness scores poorly on E-E-A-T.
How do you improve E-E-A-T as an SME?
Improving E-E-A-T doesn't require a large investment, just consistency. These steps deliver the most:
- Add author attribution: name, role and a short bio under every article.
- Build out your About page with credentials, experience and team photos.
- Publish case studies with concrete, verifiable results.
- Make testimonials and reviews visible on your site, not just on Google.
- Link from author bios to LinkedIn profiles for external verification.
- Show contact details and your registration number transparently, not buried in the footer.
Common mistakes
Anonymous content without an author name undermines trust immediately. No About page, or one without concrete information, leaves Google (and visitors) guessing who's behind the content. No external mentions or backlinks limits your authority signal. And content without a visible 'last updated' date looks stale, even if the content is still accurate.
Want to know how your content scores on E-E-A-T?
Request a content audit →