If you’re a content writer, digital marketer, or business owner who frequently writes and publishes content on your website, then you may have come across the SEO term ‘EEAT’ over the last few years.
But like most SEO acronyms, it’s not immediately clear what ‘EEAT’ is, why you should care about it, and why it matters for your SEO and content quality.
Well, we’re here to tell you that EEAT is a big deal for your content and SEO performance.
In 2026, Google will continue to rely less on surface-level signals and focus more on whether content genuinely helps the reader.
EEAT sits at the centre of that shift in focus.
So, in this article, we’ve explained exactly what EEAT is, when it was introduced, why it matters for SEO, and how you can apply it to your website content.
What does EEAT mean?
EEAT, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, is a quality framework Google uses to judge whether content is relevant and deserves to rank in search results.
It influences how Google’s systems assess the overall quality and credibility of your website and content, particularly in industries like finance and health, where credibility and information accuracy can have a big impact on users.
If your content has strong EEAT signals, you’re much more likely to rank in top spots and AI Overviews placements in Google Search Results. If your signals are weak, it’s a lot harder to gain visibility.
Experience
Experience focuses on whether the content creator has first-hand experience or knowledge with the topic they’re writing about.
For example, product review articles written by someone who has actually reviewed the product and draws on first-hand experience are more valuable than one with a generic summary pulled from the specs list.
Experience isn’t just about sharing personal opinions for the sake of it. It’s about demonstrating real-world understanding that can’t be faked or replicated easily.
Expertise
Expertise looks at whether the content demonstrates a strong level of knowledge.
This is particularly important for topics that can affect a person’s finances, health, or wellbeing. In these cases, Google expects content to be created or reviewed by qualified people who can accurately speak on the subject.
But Expertise doesn’t always mean you need formal qualifications. In most industries, as long as you demonstrate proven professional experience and depth of understanding across your website and in the content itself, that’s enough.
Authoritativeness
Authoritativeness relates to the reputation of your business and website.
Google looks for authority signals that your website or brand is recognised as a reliable source within its field. These signals can come from PR mentions, quality backlinks, citations, customer reviews, and frequent brand searches.
Websites that other respected websites link to or reference frequently are more likely to be viewed as authoritative than websites that exist in isolation with no backlinks or mentions.
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness underpins every other part of EEAT.
Google wants to know whether users can trust your content, your claims, and your website as a whole. This includes accurate information, clear source references, honest messaging, and a safe and secure site experience.
Even if you nail your Experience, Expertise, and Authoritativeness signals, if Trust is weak, then those signals will lose their impact.
If trust is weak, the other EEAT signals lose their impact.
When was EEAT first introduced?
EEAT has developed over time rather than appearing suddenly in a single Google update.
Google first introduced the concept in 2014 through its Search Quality Rater Guidelines. At that point, it was known simply as EAT, focusing on Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.
These guidelines are used by human quality raters to assess search results. While raters do not directly affect rankings, their feedback helps Google refine its algorithms and deliver more accurate, helpful results to users.
In December 2022, as part of an update to the Search Quality Rater Guidelines, Google added an extra E for Experience. This update reflected a growing emphasis on first-hand knowledge. Google recognised that content written from real experiences often offers more value than content rewritten based purely on opinion.
Since then, EEAT has become more visible in Google’s public guidance, especially alongside Core updates, like the recent December 2025 Core Update, and the Helpful Content system, which came in back in 2022.
If you’ve experienced some ranking volatility (sudden changes to your ranking positions) after Google updates in the last few years, EEAT could be a big reason why.
Why is EEAT important for SEO?
EEAT matters because it aligns closely with Google’s core goals.
Google wants to show results that reliably solve problems and answer questions. Content that lacks experience, depth, or credibility puts that goal at risk.
Over the past few years, Google’s Core updates have increasingly rewarded sites that demonstrate strong EEAT signals. And the sites with thin, generic, or untrustworthy content have been getting less organic visibility.
EEAT is especially important if your website operates in areas where decisions carry real consequences. These are often referred to as YMYL topics, which stands for Your Money or Your Life.
YMYL topics include legal services, healthcare, finance, and any other major purchasing decisions that carry big risks or potential consequences.
For these topics, Google holds content to a higher standard. It has to be accurate, written by credible sources, and clearly trustworthy.
But even outside YMYL industries, EEAT still matters.
If your business is competing in crowded search results, you need more than just keyword optimisation to stand out. You need accurate, trustworthy content that provides value and demonstrates clear expertise and authority.
How EEAT fits into Google’s guidelines
EEAT is closely linked to Google’s guidance on helpful content and overall search quality.
Google has been clear that its systems aim to reward content created for users, not content created primarily to rank. EEAT helps define what real high-quality, helpful content looks like.
In their documentation on creating helpful, people-first content, Google highlights the importance of original insights, clear source references, and content written by people with real knowledge of the subject.
These principles relate directly to Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.
EEAT also feeds into how Google evaluates content during Core updates. When Google updates their algorithms and machine learning systems, they’re trained using quality signals informed by the Search Quality Rater Guidelines, and EEAT is a core part of those guidelines.
So, EEAT doesn’t work in isolation. It interacts with other Google systems, like the Helpful Content system, Core algorithm updates, and spam-detection systems.
Together, they aim to deliver content that is reliable, accurate, and genuinely useful when users search.
If your content consistently aligns with EEAT principles, it is more likely to perform steadily, even during Google update rollouts, rather than experiencing big positive or negative fluctuations in your rankings.
How to follow EEAT on your website
The good news is, applying EEAT to your website content doesn’t mean you need a big rebuild or a new site.
Instead, it’s about focusing on clear trust signals and strong, helpful content that better aligns with user intent.
Here are six simple ways you can start improving your EEAT signals.
Show who is behind your content
Content without a displayed author makes it difficult for both users and search engines to judge its credibility.
In your content, aim to include at least the author’s name, but ideally an author bio, and some trustworthy credentials.
You should explain why you, or the author or business, are qualified to write about the topic. For service-based businesses, this can include years of experience, industries worked in, or recognised certifications.
Write from real experience
Content that repeats what others have already said adds little to no value.
To demonstrate your experience, use examples from your own work, client scenarios, internal data, or real outcomes.
This is especially important for blog posts, guides, and comparison content, where first-hand experience is vital for showing you understand the topic and can be trusted to deliver accurate, helpful information.
Keep content accurate and up to date
Content accuracy directly affects trust.
To ensure your content is as accurate as possible, review important pages regularly, remove anything that is no longer relevant, verify the accuracy of your sources, and update outdated statistics, references, and guidance when industry standards or best practices change.
Outdated or inaccurate content can weaken trust signals, even if it performed well in the past, so don’t let your content go stagnant.
Build authority beyond your own site
To build authoritativeness, you need to grow your mentions and recognition.
Focus on earning relevant backlinks, brand mentions, reviews, and PR mentions or citations from trusted sources in your industry.
Being referenced by different sources and websites helps Google understand that your business is recognised beyond your own site.
Improve trust signals across your site
Trust is reinforced through consistent signals.
Making sure your contact details and methods are clear, policies are transparent, your website is secure, and that any claims you make are honest and accurate.
Plus, your testimonials and reviews should be genuine and representative of the quality and experience you deliver to your customers.
Testimonials and reviews should be genuine and representative.
If a user hesitates to trust your site and leaves without interacting, Google is likely to notice that hesitation in your user bounce rates.
Simple EEAT audit checklist
To quickly assess whether a page or a piece of content supports strong EEAT signals, run through a simple audit checklist like this one:
- Does the content clearly show who the author is and why they are qualified?
- Is the information based on first-hand experience or original insight?
- Are claims supported by reliable sources or clear evidence?
- Is the content up to date and factually accurate?
- Can users easily find contact information and trust signals?
If you can answer ‘Yes’ to most of these questions, then great.
If most of your answers are ‘No’, then the content probably needs some improvement.
Our SEO specialists can conduct a more detailed review and audit of your content’s strength and EEAT signals. So if you’re looking to improve your content strength and EEAT, get in touch.
Common EEAT pitfalls to avoid
Many sites struggle with EEAT not because of intent, but because of execution.
Here are a few common EEAT pitfalls to avoid.
Mass-posting generic content
A bad habit people often get into is publishing huge volumes of generic content with little to no value or original insight to ‘boost their signals’.
But the issue is that if you’re just summarising what’s already out there or writing content for the sake of it, it’s not going to help your readers or your SEO performance.
Instead, focus on fresh, original content that your audience will genuinely find helpful, and make sure your EEAT signals are on point.
Not highlighting the author
As I mentioned earlier, showing who the author is helps build trust and credibility.
So if there’s no indication of who wrote a piece of content, your readers don’t have a reason to trust it and may go elsewhere, which weakens your trust signals.
If your content clearly shows the author, and your website shows why that author is credible, either through an author bio or on your ‘meet the team’ page, that’s enough.
Overpromising and underdelivering
Overpromising and underdelivering is also very risky.
If your headlines, metadata, or promotional content are making promises that aren’t delivered in your content, your users will become frustrated and leave quickly … and Google will notice that.
This also applies to claims that can’t be backed up by evidence, experience, or data, which can easily damage trust.
Make sure your content delivers on its promises and that every claim is backed by clear, reliable evidence.
Letting good content go stale
If you have great content on your website, don’t let it go stale.
Even information that was accurate when written will lose its value when it no longer reflects best practices.
Make sure your key content is kept up-to-date with regular checks and updates. When best practices or important information change, make sure your content reflects that.
This will help build long-term credibility and help keep your content rankings more stable in search results, even during Core updates.
How EEAT should fit into your content strategy
EEAT should influence how you plan content, not just how you optimise it.
When creating your content calendars, you should consider when the content will genuinely add value. Does it answer the question better or more clearly than the existing results? Does it reflect real experience? Would your audience trust it enough to act on it?
When focusing on EEAT, your content strategy should prioritise depth over volume.
Websites that have fewer, but higher-quality pages or posts will often outperform those with masses of thin, basic content.
Optimising your content for a relevant keyword cluster will also help.
For example, in this article, we’re not just focusing on the term ‘What is EEAT, we’re also focusing on related terms like ‘EEAT and SEO’, ‘how to improve EEAT’, ‘EEAT and content strategy’ and ‘EEAT pitfalls’.
This approach will help you build topical relevance and help Google understand your expertise more clearly, and it will naturally make your content more detailed and valuable for your readers.
FAQs on EEAT best practices
Does AI-generated content negatively impact EEAT signals?
While some people have reservations about AI-generated content, Google ultimately doesn’t care whether your content was written partially or entirely by AI tools.
What Google cares about is whether that content is accurate, helpful and unique, and whether it meets their EEAT guidance.
So, no, your content won’t negatively impact EEAT signals just because it’s AI-generated, but it will if it is weak, thin content that doesn’t follow Google’s guidance.
If you’re using AI to generate website content, we recommend conducting thorough manual checks and optimisations.
That human input is essential for making sure your content is accurate and genuinely helpful.
How can I improve EEAT on service pages?
Your service pages should do more than describe your service.
They should explain and demonstrate how you actively deliver that service, focusing on how you work, who is involved, the outcomes clients can expect, and the real tools and processes that you follow.
Include trust signals like client reviews, case studies, and other mentions of your experience, results, and expertise.
Even without naming clients, explaining real client challenges, the approach you took, and the results you’ve delivered can build credibility and demonstrate first-hand experience.
Can outsourcing my content creation weaken EEAT?
It depends on who you outsource your content to and whether they understand your industry.
If you’re outsourcing to a content writer who doesn’t understand your business, isn’t familiar with SEO or EEAT signals, and is writing content without a clear strategy, then yes, it may weaken your trust signals.
The right freelancer or agency will have detailed processes for researching and understanding your topics, and demonstrable experience creating high-quality content that meets EEAT best practices and ranks well in search results.
For example, our SEO specialists at Damteq follow a clear process to create content strategies that demonstrate your knowledge and expertise and are built on SEO and EEAT best practices.
So the key factor isn’t who writes your content, but whether that content reflects the genuine knowledge, experience, and expertise that your readers (and Google) will expect.
Does EEAT apply to eCommerce stores and product pages?
Yes, EEAT applies to eCommerce websites, especially those that sell products with significant risks or costs, such as refurbished electronics, vehicle parts, or safety equipment.
Make sure your product pages have original descriptions, accurate specifications, and content written by real people who understand your products.
Including first-hand testing, usage insights, and clear comparisons will also help support your Experience signals.
Trust signals also matter a lot. Clearly displaying customer reviews, transparent return policies, clear contact details, and making sure your checkout process is secure will all help support your Trustworthiness.
For eCommerce brands, optimising for EEAT doesn’t just improve your rankings, but can also influence your conversion rates.
Final thoughts on EEAT
Understanding EEAT signals and best practices is key to creating helpful content that your users love and that Google rewards.
If your content is written for real users, backed by real expertise, and supported by clear trust signals, you’re on the right track with your EEAT.
If you want help reviewing your content, improving EEAT signals, or building a content strategy that supports long-term organic growth, our SEO team can help.
We focus on content planning, optimisation, and quality improvements that align with Google’s guidance and SEO best practices, helping you grow your organic visibility and drive more qualified traffic to your website.
To learn more, visit our SEO page or get in touch with our team today.
