Digital marketing glossary
What is E-E-A-T in SEO?
Written and reviewed by L.K. Monu Borkala · Updated
Definition
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. It comes from Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines, the handbook human reviewers use to judge whether search results are helpful and reliable. Trust is the most important part: a page can't be high quality if people can't trust it.
How it works
E-E-A-T is not a single score or a direct ranking factor. Google uses many signals that line up with it, and its raters use E-E-A-T to check whether Google's systems are showing good results. In practice, pages tend to do well when they show real first-hand experience (photos, results, specifics), are written or reviewed by people who know the subject, come from a business or author others recognise and link to, and are honest about who is behind them. Clear author names, an About page, contact details, sources and accurate claims all help people, and search systems, decide to trust you. E-E-A-T matters most for topics that affect money, health or safety.
Example
Picture two articles on choosing a home loan. One is anonymous, uses stock photos and copies generic tips. The other is written by a named chartered accountant in Pune, explains a real client's EMI comparison with actual numbers, cites the RBI website and shows the author's credentials and the firm's address. The second article shows experience, expertise and trust, so readers, and Google, have far more reason to rely on it.
An illustration: the business and the rupee figures are made up to show how the idea works.
Common mistake
Treating E-E-A-T as a checklist of badges, such as adding a fake 'expert reviewed' label or an invented author bio. That damages trust if anyone checks. Another mistake is publishing on serious topics, like health or finance, with no qualified person involved at all.
Where you learn it
- Module 1: Digital Marketing Foundations
- Class: Channels Overview: SEO, Social, Ads, Email, Content & Influencers · read it free
- Module 2: Website & Landing Pages
- Class: Website Basics: Domains, Hosting & How Websites Work
- Module 4: Content & Copywriting
- Class: Blog Writing
Related terms
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