AEO glossary
E-E-A-T
Also called Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness: the qualities Google's systems and search quality raters look for in reliable, helpful content.
E-E-A-T is a framework for judging content quality, not a single score. Google describes it as "experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness" and says "Of these aspects, trust is most important."
Two points to keep straight:
- It is not a ranking factor on its own. Google says "E-E-A-T itself isn't a specific ranking factor", but its systems use a mix of factors that identify content with good E-E-A-T.
- Raters do not rank pages. Google's search quality raters are trained to assess E-E-A-T and give feedback on whether results are good. Google says "Search raters have no control over how pages rank."
The first E was added in December 2022: "Now to better assess our results, E-A-T is gaining an E: experience." Google's example of experience is content produced "with actual use of a product, having actually visited a place".
Google gives more weight to strong E-E-A-T for "Your Money or Your Life" topics, those that could significantly affect health, financial stability, safety or well-being. For a marketer, that means showing who wrote a page, what first-hand experience is behind it, and why a reader should trust it.
Related terms
Sources
- Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content (opens in a new tab) · Google Search Central · Updated 5 Oct 2026
- Our latest update to the quality rater guidelines: E-A-T gets an extra E for Experience (opens in a new tab) · Google Search Central Blog · Published 15 Dec 2022