What is E-E-A-T?

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — Google's framework for evaluating content quality, codified in its Search Quality Rater Guidelines. The first 'E' (Experience) was added in December 2022, joining the original E-A-T from 2014. E-E-A-T is not a direct ranking signal but a meta-framework that the rater workforce uses to score search results, which then trains Google's ranking models. For YMYL ('Your Money or Your Life') topics — finance, health, legal, e-commerce — E-E-A-T weighs heaviest. In practice, E-E-A-T rewards: visible author bylines with credentials, citations of primary sources and named experts, last-updated dates, original photography and data (not licensed stock), structured About-us and contact information, and demonstrable real-world experience with the topic (the new 'Experience' E). E-E-A-T applies equally to AI search optimization — the same signals that earn human-rater trust earn LLM citation.