When I’m giving presentations or running SEO training, particularly to individuals who lack a strong grasp of SEO, I always reference E-E-A-T.
Why? Because it is easy to grasp. We do a lot of work in the built environment, E-E-A-T is something building services are very familiar with.
It stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, and Google wants people to create content based on these pillars.
This is a simple idea that can lay the perfect foundation for a better website and content strategy.
E-E-A-T explained
E-E-A-T comes from Google’s Search Evaluator Guidelines.
Firstly, it is very important to understand that it is not a ranking factor, which means Google doesn’t directly score you for it in the same way it does for things like site speed or mobile friendliness.
Instead, think of it as a framework. It’s how Google—and people—decide if your content is worth trusting.
Experience: Have you actually done what you’re talking about?
Expertise: Do you know your stuff? Are you qualified?
Authoritativeness: Do others recognise you as a reliable source? Do you get mentioned, cited, or linked to?
Trustworthiness: Can people feel confident they’re not being misled?”
Does E-E-A-T still matter in 2025?
While Google hasn’t explicitly talked about it this year, they haven’t updated their guidelines to remove it.
There are always debates happening in the SEO community about what still works and what doesn’t, alongside a lot of second-guessing what Google wants from websites.
What we see from our work is that sites with strong E-E-A-T signals, backed up by things like unique expertise on a topic (eg. sharing data and insight not found elsewhere) is a winning strategy.
It is also essential to provide a human element to content.
When Google’s AI models are trying to decide which page to show in search results, they’re constantly asking: ‘Which page would a human trust more?’
And in competitive spaces, health, finance, training, or technical industries, it’s often the difference between showing up higher on the SERP, and not showing up at all.
That’s because user behaviour is important to Google, and is most definitely a ranking factor.
When analysing browsing behaviour, we consistently see users navigating to reviews and case studies before they hit the contact button.
How to implement E-E-A-T with your content strategy
When you are building a content strategy, E-E-A-T is a great foundation to use. It is relatively easy to create a checklist that you can work through.
When you write a blog, a landing page, or product/service description, ask yourself:
Am I showing real experience? (Maybe by adding case studies or personal stories)
Am I demonstrating expertise? (Clear, accurate explanations)
Am I building authority? (Citing sources, getting testimonials, or earning backlinks)
Am I showing I can be trusted? (Transparent contact details, reviews, policies)
The more you do this, the more useful your content will be, not just for Google, but for your target audience.
We use Google Gemini to review pages for E-E-A-T friendliness. This is also a great way to understand what to focus on if you want to improve pages. You can use a simple prompt:
“I have written an article about [x] for my website. Tell me what it is about. In addition, rate it in terms of Google's EEAT guidelines and tell me how I can improve it.”
Summary
E-E-A-T isn’t a ranking factor in itself, but it’s one of the best lenses you can use when planning and creating your content. It helps you focus on the right elements, and can give you a clear route to improving your content.
If you make your site genuinely helpful, trustworthy, and backed by expertise, Google notices, and so do your customers.
That’s why I always say: don’t just write for algorithms, write for people first, and use E-E-A-T as your guide.
If you want help creating an E-E-A-T-friendly content strategy, get in touch with us!
