“E-A-T” means Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
E-A-T is a central concept when it comes to getting a website to rank on Google.
Every website (and every page on it) needs to demonstrate E-A-T to have chances to rank high and get visitors.
In other words, every website should be operated by someone knowledgeable about their topic. The site should cover a niche entirely and be a safe and usable entity.
Let’s do a little closer inspection.
“E”—Expertise
Anyone can write on the internet about anything.
Without any trust-based logic on Google, there would only be search results that are written by people who have no clue of what they’re talking about.
That could be frustrating, and in some cases even dangerous.
The first letter “E” in “E-A-T” stands for expertise. It refers to the depth of knowledge (or skill) that the content creator has in a specific field.
Every informational piece of content (such as a blog post) should be written by someone who’s well-informed about their topic. The content should demonstrate a level of expertise that is appropriate for the topic.
For instance, financial advice should be written by (or reviewed by) someone with a relevant financial background.
“A”—Authoritativeness
Authoritativeness refers to the credibility of the content creator and the content. It’s about being recognized as a reliable source of information on the topic.
This is exactly like it works in the real world. The more expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness a person has, the better.
Google ranks web pages in a very similar way!
But because Google doesn’t have resources to vet the authors’ backgrounds, work histories, and such, they must rely on signals that communicate E-A-T.
Nonetheless, building authority takes time.
One can demonstrate it through credentials, quality of content, acknowledgments from other authoritative sources, and user engagement.
“T”—Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is all about the reliability and honesty of the content, the creator, and the website.
This includes ensuring accuracy, transparency about authorship, and providing contact information.
Think of it like trustworthiness in the real world. It’s the exact same reason why a website needs to look trustworthy!
If there are claims, offers, or even just basic information on a website, you need to confidently stand behind that.
If someone is in doubt, they should be able to check who you are and how to reach out to you.
After all, running a website or a blog is a business. No business should look shady and untrustable. This applies to blogs, affiliate websites, and websites in general.
Why Does It Matter on Google?
Google emphasizes E-A-T when evaluating websites and pages to rank in the search results.
Of course, the problem with E-A-T is that it’s hard to measure. Thus, E-A-T is not a direct ranking factor. However, high E-A-T content is generally seen as more valuable to users, and therefore more likely to achieve better rankings.
How to Build E-A-T?
At this point, I feel like I must mention one thing: E-A-T is something anyone can build from scratch. But it takes work!
Say you want to start a pickleball website but have never played pickleball.
To build expertise and authority, the best bet is to start playing pickleball. Even after one hour of practice, you have more experience than 99% of the population.
If you play, understand the rules, join communities, watch tournaments, and immerse yourself in the niche, you’ll quickly be one of the top resources in that space.
However, building authority and expertise also depends on the topic. In some fields, such as finance or medicine, it takes much longer to be a true authority.
How to Build E-A-T?
What I love about E-A-T is that you don’t need to think about it when creating a website—as long as you’re genuine, honest, and helpful.
Thus, there’s no E-A-T score you could follow or implement. Definitely don’t make it too complicated.
Just remember to be trustworthy and authoritative and show expertise in your content.
Add a contact and about page. Write truly useful and unique content. Write about topics you know about. Make the content better than what already exists.
This is all common sense—yet super important and many seem to miss these.