E-E-A-T is an acronym from Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. It's not an algorithmic factor in the strict sense, but a set of signals Google's raters score by hand while training ranking models. In 2022 Google added the first "E" (Experience — personal experience), which changed the content approach: raters now look for signs that "the author actually tried what they write about". This matters especially for YMYL topics — Your Money Your Life: finance, medicine, law. This article walks through what gets evaluated and how to strengthen each signal.
What YMYL is and why it matters
YMYL means content categories that can affect users' health, safety, finances or wellbeing. Google holds them to stricter requirements. YMYL covers: financial advice and tools ("how to invest", "online loan"); medical topics ("COVID symptoms", "migraine treatment"); legal consultations ("how to file for divorce", "tax return"); news and current affairs; safety-related topics (vaccination, immunisations). For YMYL, E-E-A-T is stricter: a page without clear author expertise and source authority doesn't reach the top. If your site is YMYL, you must name the author, their qualifications, cite research and official sources.
Experience: personal experience
The newest letter in E-E-A-T. Raters look for signs of real experience: photos of "your own" products and processes (not stock); unboxing or testing videos; specific numbers and observations that can't be invented; named places, products, time periods. Example: an "iPhone 15 review" with six of your own photos of the phone in hand, with real experience — better than a 5,000-word article with a single Apple press-kit image. If you run a content site, invest in your own photos, screenshots, videos — the cheapest way to strengthen Experience.
Expertise: professional competence
The author must be visibly qualified for the topic they write about. For most topics it's enough to have a byline ("Author: Ivan Petrov"), a bio linking to LinkedIn or their personal site, and listed experience and education. For YMYL — stricter: for medical topics the author must be a doctor with verifiable credentials; for finance — a certified financial advisor. If you're not a doctor and you write about medicine, you must add a "medical editor: Dr. X" line with the editor's credentials. Without it even a factually correct medical article won't reach the top.
Authoritativeness: author and site authority
Authority is "others see you as an expert". Signals: mentions of your site on other authoritative sites (even unlinked text mentions count); links from authoritative domains; publications in Wikipedia, industry outlets, podcasts; brand recognition. For an individual author: a Wikipedia or Goodreads profile (for writers), articles in Forbes or Bloomberg, conference talks. For a business site — mentions in major business press, industry media. Authority doesn't come cheap; it's built over years.
Trustworthiness: technical trust
Trust is the most "technical" part of E-E-A-T. Signals: mandatory HTTPS; contact info (address, phone, email, business registration for legal entities) prominently visible; Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Refund Policy pages; for e-commerce — customer reviews and a clear return policy; for content sites — publication and last-updated dates; in-article links to sources; no misleading content or ads. Site Metrics Tool's homepage lists legal-entity details with the official registration number and address — not for show, it's a strong trust signal. Sites without such details on YMYL topics get downranked by Google.
E-E-A-T strengthening checklist
- Add an author byline with photo and bio on every article.
- Create dedicated author pages listing publications and profile links.
- Use Author + Person JSON-LD on every article.
- Show a visible publish and last-updated date.
- Cite research, official sources, quote experts with credentials.
- On the site — prominent Privacy/Terms/Refund links + contacts + business details.
- For YMYL — a medical/legal/financial editor with stated credentials.
Frequently asked
Is E-E-A-T an algorithm or manual evaluation?
Manual rater evaluation that trains the models. There's no direct "E-E-A-T factor" in the algorithm, but the signals (brand mentions, authoritative links, author markup) enter the algorithm via training.
My site isn't YMYL — does this matter?
Less critical but still relevant. For non-YMYL, E-E-A-T works as a tiebreaker: between two pages with identical content, Google picks the one with clearer trust signals.
How long to strengthen E-E-A-T?
Technical signals (author markup, dates, policies, business details) — 1–2 weeks. Authority (mentions, links, recognition) — years. Ranking effect starts to appear 3–6 months after systematic reinforcement.