As it was initially known, EAT stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness and functions as a range of signals that Google uses to evaluate content. It is referred to several times in Google’s Search Quality Ratings Guidelines as a set of core signals to assess a piece of content, decide its trust and reliability, and determine how well a site performs.
In December 2022, Google updated its Search Quality Guidelines with an extra E in EAT, which stands for Experience. It now becomes EEAT.
Experience
Experience refers to the practical knowledge or skills gained over time through direct involvement or exposure to something. Showcasing experience is all about demonstrating your first-hand involvement and how you’re now using your unique insights based on that lived experience to inform others.
Expertise
Expertise matters, especially for YMYL sites. Google wants to determine if the author has genuine expertise and could be deemed experts in their field or if they have actual life experience that would make them a trusted voice.
Authoritativeness
With authority, Google looks at the author, the site, and the content. It’s all about who you are, who you represent, and your prominence. We can assess authority by looking to see if Wikipedia has any links to the site or if there is a Wikipedia page on the author. We can evaluate whether experts or trusted publications also link to the site and if the content has been included in any research.
Trustworthiness
Trust can be as simple as whether the site has an SSL certificate and how the site is included in online discussions. We can also look at what the reviews say about the company and the author and whether they respond to any reviews. If the business and the publication/company are trustworthy, they are more likely to be rewarded in search results.
Consider each of these for EEAT when creating content to help you better answer your user’s questions.
