Google E-E-A-T (E-A-T + Experience): Your Guide to Expertise, Authority & Trust
Everybody wants to produce top-ranking content that gets clicks, but it is always easier said than done. These days, if you want your website and content to stand out from the crowd, you will need to get on top of Google’s quality guidelines. One element of its guidelines is the E-E-A-T formula. But what do these letters stand for, and how can you ensure your content meets the latest requirements? In this blog, we’ll look deeper at Google E-E-A-T principles, how you can demonstrate them in your content, and how the search engine determines whether your website is up to scratch with its content.
Foundation Of Google’s EEAT: Google’s EAT:
Over the years, Google has taken its search experience for users more seriously and has developed a framework to ensure only quality and useful top-ranking content is displayed following a search. This framework is known as the Search Quality Rater Guidelines and is where Google’s E-A-T principles can be found.
E-A-T stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Let’s explore these three principles in greater detail.
Expertise
Whether you’re Googling which washing machine to buy for your new home or want to know the benefits of seeing a chiropractor, you want to know you’re getting your information from an expert. Google understands this and will only display good content from:
- An established expert in the field, like qualified professionals or trusted figures within the industry. For instance, if you are searching for information about purchasing a property, Google is more likely to offer content from lenders, real estate agents, or other experts in the property industry
- A person with proven real-life experience in creating content around a particular topic or subject, such as a public speaker, content creator, or entrepreneur
- An individual who can demonstrate expertise across particular subjects and topics by sharing personal experiences. For example, someone who has struggled with fertility issues posting about their experiences through blogs or forums
It’s important to remember that under the expertise principle, Google prioritizes the page for its content, not the website itself. This means that Google believes the author is the expert, not your business.
Authoritativeness
When talking about authority, we generally think about someone with the knowledge and expertise to make major decisions. And when it comes to sourcing good content online, you and your website must be regarded as the ‘go-to’ for information on particular topics related to your industry.
Of course, there is no easy way to determine which website is more ‘authoritative’ than the other, which is why Google uses two sources to determine the authoritativeness of a website: the voice of the people and the opinion of other experts. Google collects this information via reviews, media coverage, awards, other accolades, references, and more.
Trustworthiness
Like anything in the digital space, trust is crucial. Users should be able to trust that the website they are visiting is not only legitimate but transparent and is providing true and accurate information. Google does not and will not direct users to websites it believes have unethical practices or has very little information providing the business’ legitimacy.
Here are a few factors Google looks for when considering trustworthiness:
- Sufficient contact information, such as a physical address, phone number, email, or social media handles
- References or mentions to trustworthy sources and websites
- Accurate information that can be supported with another resource
- Transparency for the owner of the business or website
More On Google E-A-T later.
What about the extra ‘E’ in EEAT?
Until recently, digital marketers and content specialists developed and published E-A-T content to help businesses and online websites improve their search engine optimization (SEO). However, in December 2022, Google launched its latest formula update for content, E–E-A-T.
While this was a minor update, E-E-A-T content means creators have one more element to consider with their content. However, the search engine has reassured creators that if their websites are already following the standard E-A-T formula, the new addition will not cause a major change in content production.
But what exactly does this extra ‘E’ stand for?
Experience
The additional ‘E’ in the E-E-A-T content formula stands for experience, making the new formula stand for experience, expertise, authority, and trust. This addition refers to the ‘extent of experience’ the creator has to justify producing the content. Or, as Google puts it:
“Does content also demonstrate that it was produced with some degree of experience, such as with actual use of a product, having actually visited a place, or communicating what a person experienced?”
Think of ‘experience’ as a review for a product you’re interested in buying. Would you trust a review from someone who hasn’t even used the product? The same logic applies to Google’s understanding of experience.
How do you demonstrate ‘experience’?
As we mentioned, if your website has already adhered to the previous E-A-T content formula, you may not need to make major changes to your existing or upcoming content.
In fact, according to Google, content creators with a wealth of experience in their respective fields may already be considered to have high E-E-A-T for topics where trust is essential.
What is the importance of Google’s EEAT principles for SEO?
Many factors make for effective SEO, from high-volume keywords to internal linking and unique content. E-E-A-T is also essential for successful SEO, as Google prioritizes and ranks pages that follow standard SEO best practices and the Google EEAT content formula.
What is YMYL in relation to E-E-A-T?
YMYL stands for ‘Your Money’ or ‘Your Life,’ which can reference various topics, sites, or industries where the content can impact a person’s livelihood — websites pertaining to finance, well-being, health, or personal safety. Websites that fall into the YMYL bracket must have a high level of E-E-A-T to get to the top ranking in Google.
The seven types of YMYL websites
Wondering if your website falls under the YMYL category? It’s important to ensure you know your digital standing, as failing to acknowledge your obligations can impact your SEO tactics. Google considers the following websites to be a part of the YMYL category:
- News and current events sites — This refers to any news sites or publications reporting on topics that impact a person’s well-being, such as politics, natural disasters, and major business decisions.
- Government and law sites — These are sites that deal with a person’s civilian rights, local government, local community developments, and more.
- Finance sites n— From financial comparison sites to financial advisors, banks, and insurers, these websites provide information surrounding financial or investment advice.
- Health and safety sites — These websites provide information about medicine, hospitals, medical treatments, and personal and workplace safety, which can impact a person’s well-being.
- Online retail sites — These websites are considered eCommerce or provide information about shopping or other shopping services.
- Community sites — This can refer to a website that focuses on a specific social group, including religion, sexual orientation, nationality, disability, and more.
- Other sites relating to a person’s decision-making — While these may not carry as much weight as the sites mentioned above, these sites can still impact a person’s decision-making process, such as fitness and nutrition, college selection, or employment opportunities.
What was Google’s E-A-T before it got updated?
As stated above, Google E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. These are the three pillars that Google lists in its Search Quality Rater Guidelines to protect searchers from low-quality content.
Why does this matter?
Google’s goal is to ensure that its users not only get relevant and useful content that’s tailored to their searches, but also that they get the highest quality of results possible. This means content on websites that users can trust, created by people who know their stuff. Expertise-Authority-Trustworthiness is Google’s way of filtering out the junk to show the most reliable and useful content possible for its users.
Let’s look at this in action. Say you’re running a Google search for the best exercises for lower back pain. An article on WebMD that’s written by a physiotherapist is going to be far more trustworthy than an article on joesfitnesstips.com written by an anonymous author with no track record in the industry.
Google quality raters look at three components when evaluating Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness:
- Overall website quality
- Page quality
- The quality of the content on a page
- The expertise and authority of the content’s author(s)
“[Google has] a collection of millions of tiny algorithms that work in unison to spit out a ranking score. Many of those baby algorithms look for signals in pages or content.”
– Gary Illyes, Google
What Are the Google E-A-T Criteria and Why Do They Matter for SEO?
Understanding the Google E-A-T criteria—which stand for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness—is essential for improving how your website ranks in search results. When we talk about E-A-T, Google is essentially evaluating the quality and credibility of your content, especially for topics that impact people’s health, finances, or overall well-being (known as YMYL content).
To meet these standards, content should be created by subject matter experts, backed by reliable sources, and hosted on a secure, reputable site. Whether you run a blog, eCommerce store, or service-based business, aligning with Google’s E-A-T principles helps boost your visibility, user trust, and long-term SEO performance.
Google E-A-T: Understanding Expertise, Authority & Trust for SEO Rankings
Google’s E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, and Trust) criteria play a crucial role in determining search ranking and website credibility. More recently, Google introduced an extra “E” for Experience, emphasizing that hand experience—firsthand knowledge of a topic—can boost content authenticity and relevance.
As part of Google’s Search Quality guidelines, E-A-T helps evaluate whether content is reliable, well-sourced, and created by knowledgeable individuals. Websites that demonstrate strong hand experience, especially in fields like health, finance, and legal topics, are more likely to gain visibility in search results. To improve search ranking, businesses should focus on publishing high-quality, experience-driven content that aligns with Google’s Search Quality standards, reinforcing trust and authority in their industry.
Why is Google E-A-T so important?
E-A-T SEO is important because it’s one of the key factors that Google quality raters use to determine whether a website is high-quality or low-quality. If these quality raters audit your website and decide that your website, content, or authors don’t tick all three boxes for their E-A-T criteria, you’ll have a pretty tough time ranking well in Google’s search engine results.
However, Google E-A-T quality rating matters more for some queries than others. For example, if someone’s looking up “Lord of the Rings memes”, E-A-T won’t be as big a ranking factor as a search query about mixing ibuprofen and paracetamol. This is because, with the former, anyone can create content without needing to have a qualification or expertise; whereas with the latter, misleading or incorrect information could literally put someone’s life in jeopardy. These are known in Google Quality Rater Guidelines as “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) topics or YMYL sites.
Google says:
“Some types of pages or topics could potentially impact a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. We call such pages “Your Money or Your Life” pages, or YMYL.” – Google
Think of it this way: when a person is searching for information that requires expertise or experience, chances are an E-A-T score will play a big role in the websites that appear at the top of search engine results. And if your business is built upon YMYL topics, like a medical practice offering medical advice or a personal training business offering fitness news, articles and tips, you’ll need to have a high level of E-A-T to get to page #1 in Google search.
Topical Authority: Your Path to a High E-A-T Score & Better SEO
While E-A-T is an important initiative that businesses should be using to evaluate the subject matter, most marketers struggle to understand or measure it objectively (in other words, in the way Google sees it). This can have huge run-on effects when it comes to building an SEO campaign, investing in the right initiatives, or knowing which tactics to prioritise over others.
So how can you turn E-A-T into something that helps your SEO efforts instead of just another acronym? It all comes down to understanding and improving your topical authority on any given subject.
Guide to mastering topical authority:
Topical authority refers to your website’s perceived authority over a broad range of ideas within an idea set. In a nutshell, this is how Google measures your website against its E-A-T to evaluate how trustworthy and reliable your content is. When it comes to SEO, you can think of it is as targeting a broad net of keywords related to your industry and area of expertise, and generating significant volumes of high-quality content on your topic.
If you map it out, it looks like this:
Image: Spyfu
Beyond search, building your topical authority offers a TON of benefits to your business:
- You’ll be the go-to source when people look for a reference or a link to share via social (for instance, Gymshark for fitness advice or Hubspot for inbound marketing).
- If customers have a question, they’ll be able to find the answer on your site — rather than having to turn to your competitors.
- You’ll have more answers to the questions that your audience is searching for in Google.
Bottom line: you’ll have more high-quality pages, more target keywords, more backlinks to your site, and massively improved rankings.
Measuring your website’s authority
Before you get to improving your topical authority, you need to know how your site currently stacks up. Your topical authority boils down to the depth and breadth of content you create for keywords in your broad topic or industry.
For example, if you’re a B2B business that’s offering a product management tool, your content should cover keywords and questions like these:
Image source: Spyfu
Make a list of relevant keywords and questions based on your industry and the topics that are relevant to your audience. Once you have this, you can begin to get a sense of your authority based on how well you’re ranking in Google search results. If you hold the top spot for 50 out of 55 of your target keywords, chances are your topical authority is pretty strong in your field.
Another way you can do this is to hop onto a tool like Answer the Public and see what people are searching for in any given topic. For example, entering in the topic “widgets” returns a graph like this one:
Image source: Search Engine Journal
Using this chart, you can get a pretty good idea of the types of subjects you need to target for topical authority and begin to analyse where you stack up.
Benchmark your topical authority with competition
After you’ve pulled together your list, you’ll need to benchmark your topical authority against the competition — also known as a content gap analysis. A content gap analysis reveals the type of content you’re ranking for versus your competitors and helps you understand where you need to focus your time and effort.
If you already know who the competition is, you can map out a list of your target keywords and see each site is performing in search. In this case below, this heatmap from MarketMuse uses data to show how an SEO website compares to others for keywords related to topical authority:
Image source: Market Muse
Every red block indicates an area with a content gap. If this is you, it’s time to focus on filling that gap with high-quality beneficial content for that related topic. On the other hand, if there’s an industry-wide content gap (like “geo topical authority”), this is a chance for you to build up your own topical authority and own this space.
Another way to do this is to work backwards from a keyword to unearth your topical keyword competitors. For example, in Spyfu, you can take a look at the top pages for any given keyword like so:
From here, you can then generate a Top Pages report to see what your competitors are doing with their content and where they’re trying to build topical authority. In the case of ProductPlan, their list of top pages suggests they’re trying to improve their authority for keywords around “agile product management”:
You can also do this using SEMrush’s Keywords Gap tool or Ahrefs’ Content Gap analysis.
Boost Organic Traffic with Content Based on Topical Authority Metrics
Got an idea of your own topical authority and how you stack up versus the competition? Now it’s time to get to work building up your topical authority with content in order to improve your organic search engine rankings. Topical authority should be one of the foundational considerations in your content marketing strategy and your Search Engine Optimisation SEO strategy, as it’ll help improve your rankings AND the overall user experience for your customers.
Determine where you want to build your topical authority
The first step to building up your E-A-T through topical authority is to figure out which topics you want to focus on (i.e. “agile product management” or “women’s health and fitness”). Once you’ve defined this, you can start building out topic clusters to group your content based on your previous research.
Let’s take that women’s health and fitness example. In this case, you might have topic clusters that break down news articles into training for beginners, training while pregnant, meal plans, and workout calendars. Break this down even further into target keywords within each cluster.
Create your link structure
Your site structure plays a big role in your topical authority. Using the topic cluster model, you can begin to build out a site structure that:
- Makes it easy for your audience to understand and navigate your website
- Makes it easier for search engines to crawl your site
- Passes on internal link juice for pages that sit within a specific topic or cluster
You should end up with a framework that looks like this:
Image source: Animalz
On top of your landing page for your competitive keyword, you can also build up topical authority by creating a long-form piece pillar post that serves as your main content resource for any given topic. Going back to the women’s health and fitness example, this could be something like “The Ultimate Female Training Guide” or “The Essential Guide to Women’s Health and Fitness”.
Step up your on-page SEO game
On-page SEO is a great way to make your content work as hard as possible to build up your topical authority. When you’re building out any piece of content, ensure you’re following on-page best practices, such as:
- Using meta titles and meta descriptions that talk about your target topic and the purpose of the page.
- Structuring your content effectively using heading tags that feature long-tail keywords.
- Internally linking to other relevant articles whenever possible.
- Including links for your audience to subscribe or share your content on social media.
- Adding relevant target keywords into your image alt text.
- Optimising your site speed to make browsing as snappy as possible on any browser.
Build your authority with off-page SEO (AKA link building)
Backlinks are an essential part of off page seo to increase your website’s topical authority. If your website has a ton of backlinks from high-quality domains, Google is more likely to see you as an authority on a specific topic — and bump your website up in search engine results.
Good backlinks should be from websites that people know and respect, be relevant to your topic and your industry, and natural. Generating a handful of links from trusted sources like Forbes or a .edu or .gov website are going to be far more valuable than a ton of backlinks from random blogs that have no link to your topic or your industry.
You can get an idea of your current backlink profile and domain authority using a tool like Moz’s Free Domain SEO Analysis Tool, Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker, or SEMRush’s Domain Overview. The same goes for websites linking to you: you want to target sites with a high domain authority out of 100.
Some of the tried-and-tested ways you can build up your backlink profile include:
- Doing round-up posts on your target topic or topics with insights from industry experts. Once you’ve published the post, ask the experts to link back to your site or share the article on social media.
- Getting your website into link round-ups. These could be lists of the best articles in your industry (i.e. “25 top content marketing articles of 2021”) or links promoting a specific product or service (i.e. “10 amazing gifts for mum under $100”).
- Check for broken links on a relevant authoritative website using Check My Links. Once you find one, email the site owner to let them know about the link and offer your site as a replacement.
- Sign up to SourceBottle or Haro and respond to journalist requests for your relevant industry or area of expertise.
E-A-T SEO: 4 practices to avoid at all costs
Omitting sources or evidence
If you want to demonstrate E-A-T, you need to prove that your evidence is well-researched and written by a credible author. The last thing your audience (or Google) wants is a piece of content by “Guest blogger” with no links to substantiate any of the claims.
Avoid these 5 practices if you don’t want to damage your E-A-T and your rankings:
- Not listing out the content creators or biography
- Not including any evidence or links to expert content, particularly for YMYL sites
- Not citing resources
- Not having proof to back up your claims
- Offering dangerous medical advice, financial advice or legal advice
Duplicate content
Duplicate content is a surefire sign that a website or author DOESN’T know what they’re talking about. On top of this, having duplicate content may also put your business at risk of being penalised by Google, which can further hurt your rankings and online visibility. There have been countless core updates to Google’s ranking algorithms that have been designed to weed out duplicate content, including the Google Panda and Penguin core update, so doing this is an absolute no-no.
Creating generalist content
Creating content about every topic that’s vaguely relevant to your business may seem like a good idea, but it could actually be hurting your E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). This “jack of all trades, expert of none” approach means that you never end up actually being an expert in any given subject. If you want to boost your expertise and authority, it’s best to focus on publishing content that’s hyper-relevant to your area of expertise.
Unmoderated comments
When you’re publishing content on a regular basis, it’s inevitable that you’ll rack up a spammy comment or two. However, leaving these unchecked can damage both your E-A-T and your rankings — particularly for YMYL topics.
Let’s say you’re running offering wealth management services. You’ve created a series of posts around investing, and these posts have a bunch of comments from random people talking about get rich quick schemes. Google actually takes this content into account when evaluating your content quality, which means that having questionable advice in your comments section can actually significantly hurt your expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.
How important is E-E-A-T for non-YMYL topics or websites?
If you run a non-YMYL website, following Google EEAT guidelines may not be as necessary, but it’s still not a bad idea to optimize your content to appease Google. However, it’s important to remember that if you host a YMYL website with some non-YMYL pages, you must prioritize E-E-A-T as part of your SEO strategy to ensure your rankings are not impacted.
Integrating Experience and Australian Product Reviews with E-E-A-T
Building on our understanding of Google’s EEAT framework, it’s particularly relevant for Australian websites to highlight genuine experience, especially when it comes to product reviews. For example, if your site features reviews of popular camping gear favoured by Aussies, going beyond simple specifications to share firsthand experiences – perhaps detailing how a tent performed in a typical Australian downpour or how a particular hiking boot held up on a challenging local trail – significantly strengthens your E-E-A-T. This demonstrates real-world engagement, adding a layer of authenticity that resonates with Australian readers seeking practical advice.
When you generate content for your Australian audience, remember that showcasing clear expertise within the local context is also key. Whether you’re discussing Australian financial regulations or the nuances of native Australian flora, demonstrating a deep understanding relevant to the Australian landscape builds trust.
Furthermore, establishing authoritativeness within the Australian digital sphere often involves engaging with other reputable local sources and contributing meaningfully to online discussions relevant to your niche within Australia.
Ultimately, for Online Marketing Gurus’ Australian readership, remember that weaving experience, expertise, and authoritativeness into your content is fundamental to building the trustworthiness that Google and your Australian audience value. When providing product reviews or any other information, strive to generate content that reflects a genuine connection to the Australian context and a deep understanding of the subject matter.
How Online Marketing Gurus can help you tick all of Google’s E-E-A-T boxes
Since the introduction of ‘experience’ to the E-A-T content formula, businesses must be willing to go the extra mile to ensure their content remains relevant and in Google’s top-ranking positions.
That’s where the help of a specialized online digital marketing agency comes in. Online Marketing Gurus has extensive experience assisting businesses across various industries, from finance to fashion, nutrition, electronics, and much more.
Our gurus are highly experienced and passionate about what they do and only use the latest SEO tools and resources to craft bulletproof SEO campaigns. Every on-page or off-page SEO plan is tailored to the needs and goals of our clients. Whether you’re looking to become a content leader in your industry or supercharge sales, OMG can help.
To learn more about our Australia based SEO agency services, contact us today.
