In short. E-E-A-T is Google's framework for assessing experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness in web content.

Definition: E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Google uses these considerations in guidance for assessing the quality and reliability of web content, with trust at the center.

Key facts

As of 17 October 2026, Google's people-first content guidance describes E-E-A-T as qualities that a mix of ranking factors helps identify; E-E-A-T itself is not a specific ranking factor.
Google's Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, section 3.4, define trust through a page's accuracy, honesty, safety and reliability.
Google added experience to E-A-T on 15 December 2022, using actual product use and visits to a place as examples.
Google's AI features documentation applies existing search optimization practices to AI Overviews and AI Mode, including creating helpful, reliable content.

What do the different aspects mean?

Google's Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines distinguish the aspects by the evidence relevant to a page's purpose:

Experience concerns the creator's first-hand or life experience with the topic, such as personally using a product under review.
Expertise concerns the knowledge or skill needed for the topic. The guidelines use electrical rewiring advice from a skilled electrician as an example.
Authoritativeness concerns whether the creator or website is recognized as a reference for the topic. An official government passport page illustrates this aspect.
Trustworthiness concerns whether the page is accurate, honest, safe and reliable. For an online store, secure payments and reliable customer service contribute to trust.

The guidelines make trust the central consideration. The relevance of experience, expertise and authority varies with the page's topic and purpose.

How does Google use E-E-A-T?

Google's people-first content guidance explains that human search quality raters assess results to help Google evaluate changes to its systems. Their ratings provide feedback; raters have no control over individual page rankings, and their data is not used directly in ranking algorithms.

The same guidance gives greater weight to strong E-E-A-T for topics that significantly affect health, financial stability, safety or society's welfare. Google calls these Your Money or Your Life topics, abbreviated YMYL. It also explains that helpful content can draw on experience or expertise without demonstrating every aspect equally.

What evidence can a website make visible?

Google's content assessment guidance recommends accurate authorship information where readers expect it, including bylines linked to information about the author and their subject areas. For product reviews, it suggests explaining testing methods and results, with evidence such as photographs.

The rater guidelines also ask evaluators to examine independent reviews and references alongside a website's own descriptions. An About page is a starting point for that assessment. Visible work matters too: the guidelines give a hair-styling video as an example of evidence that can demonstrate expertise directly.

FAQ

Does Google require special E-E-A-T markup for AI search?

Google's AI features documentation says there is no special schema.org structured data required for AI Overviews or AI Mode. A page must be indexed and eligible for a search snippet to qualify as a supporting link.

How can you show experience in a product review?

Google's people-first content guidance recommends explaining how testing took place and presenting results with evidence such as photographs. These details let readers examine the work behind the review.

How does experience differ from expertise?

Google's announcement adding experience contrasts tax-return advice from an accounting expert with discussions by people who have used tax-preparation software. The question being answered determines which kind of knowledge is useful.

Sources

Check how a page reads to answer engines. Open the GEO score analyzer