6 Steps to Boost Your E-E-A-T Factor This Year

 

Being relevant to your audience isn’t something that just happens. You have to work at it. Nowhere is this truer than in the Google Search results. 

And, one of the best ways to stay relevant in the search results is to create a trusted brand with a good-performing website and credible, helpful content.

Google’s E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust) is a set of quality principles that Google uses to ensure its search results are top-notch.

A lot goes into achieving E-E-A-T, and that’s why I created this condensed guide so that you can take the most impactful steps to boost your E-E-A-T this year.

 

Quick Refresher on E-E-A-T

Why E-E-A-T Matters More Than Ever

1. Content Quality
2. Author Credentials
3. Quality Backlinks
4. Organized Content
5. Content Length
6. Brand and Reputation Signals

Final Thoughts

Quick Solutions

FAQ: How do I optimize my website for E-E-A-T to improve credibility and boost search rankings?

 

Quick Refresher on E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T, which stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust, is one of Google’s most discussed quality concepts.

The concept comes from Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines (SQRG), a document designed to help human evaluators who are hired by Google to judge the quality of the search results.

SQRG serves as a feedback mechanism for Google to test whether its algorithm updates are producing higher quality results.

While E-E-A-T is not a direct ranking factor, it indirectly influences the algorithm. 

The raters’ collective feedback helps Google engineers refine and benchmark the performance of its algorithms.

John Mueller reiterated at Search Central Live NYC in 2025 that while E-E-A-T underpins how Google assesses quality overall, its algorithmic impact isn’t the same across all topics. 

For example, for YMYL (“your money or your life”) queries, where accuracy and trust can affect someone’s health, safety or finances, E-E-A-T plays a much greater role. 

For more everyday subjects, such as recipes or hobbies, Google doesn’t scrutinize as intensely.

Why E-E-A-T Matters More Than Ever

As AI plays a larger role in determining which content earns visibility, E-E-A-T’s relevance is growing. 

According to Ahrefs, 74% of new webpages include AI content. 

Google saw this coming and was sure to create specific spam rules around AI content, and reiterated the need for content that’s rooted in E-E-A-T. 

 

Evidence from the U.S. v. Google LLC antitrust case supports the need for E-E-A-T. 

The court document suggests that the same type of quality factors in E-E-A-T likely influence how AI systems assess which pages are trustworthy enough to ground their answers.

From the court documents: 

RankEmbed and its later iteration RankEmbedBERT are ranking models that rely on two main sources of data: [redacted]% of 70 days of search logs plus scores generated by human raters and used by Google to measure the quality of organic search results.

 

All of this together signals why E-E-A-T is more important than ever to a website’s and brand’s visibility in the search results. 

1. Content Quality

Arguably, one of the most important things to get right if you want to achieve E-E-A-T is great content. It can also be one of the most challenging. 

Quality is often in the eye of the beholder. And in this case, that eye belongs to Googlebot.

There are ways to meet Google’s quality guidelines, and here are some tips:

• Know user intent: Knowing user intent matters for creating relevant content. Map keywords to user search intent (informational, transactional, etc.) and prioritize addressing their actual needs.
• Create an authentic experience: Demonstrating firsthand experience in your content has become crucial. Share personal insights, stories, examples and practical knowledge to build trust with audiences.
• Incorporate data-backed insights: Use stats, research and expert opinions to substantiate claims.
• Update older content: Regularly refresh articles with new insights to maintain relevance and authority. I advise spending 50% of the time creating new content and 50% of the time refreshing older content. For more, check out my article on Search Engine Land, “Creating New Content vs. Optimizing Old Webpages: Which Is Better for SEO?”
• Use AI for efficiency, not a replacement: You can use AI tools to streamline content creation, but you shouldn’t replace your high-level talent. Get the AI piece wrong and risk violating Google’s spam policies. For more, see my article on Search Engine Land on how to balance speed and credibility in AI-assisted content creation.

At the end of the day, what we should really be doing is investing in quality talent. Long before Google told us what quality was, we had to figure it out — and many marketers did and still do.

If you have:

• A professional writer or editor on your team who understands marketing and does good work
• A good SEO who is helping to set the SEO strategy
• The right tools to bring it all together efficiently

… you have a winning recipe for quality. 

Related: How do I create content that delivers value and meets Google’s expectations for quality and relevance?

2. Author Credentials

Who wrote your content? Inquiring minds (like Google) want to know:

Something that helps people intuitively understand the E-E-A-T of content is when it’s clear who created it. That’s the “Who” to consider. When creating content, here are some who-related questions to ask yourself:

Is it self-evident to your visitors who authored your content?
Do pages carry a byline, where one might be expected?
Do bylines lead to further information about the author or authors involved, giving background about them and the areas they write about?

If you’re clearly indicating who created the content, you’re likely aligned with the concepts of E-E-A-T and on a path to success. We strongly encourage adding accurate authorship information, such as bylines to content where readers might expect it.

When you have authoritative sources behind the content you create, you’re signaling to Google that you have a quality resource. 

That’s why spending extra time on your author credentials can pay off when wanting to boost the E-E-A-T factor. 

Here are some tips to consider:

• Create detailed author bios: Attach these bios to content like blog articles. Include relevant qualifications, certifications, awards and experience.
• Link to author profiles: Additionally, provide links to other places people can learn about and connect with the author, such as LinkedIn profiles, academic papers or other authoritative works.
• Add schema markup: Article schema marks up any written content, and Author schema provides Google with more context and information about the author. This can help boost the authority of the content and also provides information for Google to create richer search results about the author (for example, in the Knowledge Panel). You can check out an article by Jason Barnard about Google recognizing content creators at Search Engine Land. 

3. Quality Backlinks

Even though Google says backlinks don’t carry as much weight in the ranking algorithm anymore, a quality backlink is still a vote of confidence for your website.

We still believe in the power of the right kind of links, and we have seen sites with fewer quality links beat their competition with many more, less relevant links.

Research suggests that links still do matter, as outlined by this study published at Internet Marketing Ninjas, which shows that 96.3% of the sites that ranked in the top 10 have over 1,000 unique domain backlinks.

 

Just some of the ways you can earn quality links are by publishing original research, collaborating with thought leaders on content and good old-fashioned PR, like being featured in a news story.

For more on this, check out our ebook, “The New Link Building Manifesto: How to Earn Links That Count.”

4. Organized Content

Say you walked into a library, and there was no catalog system. 

Books were stacked on shelves and overflowing on floors. Horror novels were mixed with biographies, and children’s books with romance novels. 

This illustrates the importance of grouping the content on your site in a user-friendly way. And the users are both website visitors and search engine bots.

SEO siloing is a technique I invented more than 20 years ago as a way to organize content that supports the way people search for information. 

It creates an excellent user experience and boosts your site’s relevancy for search. 

Here is a simplified explanation of how SEO siloing looks in practice:

• Conduct thorough keyword research. Choose groups of related keywords that represent a person’s search sequence when researching a topic, product or service. For example, the generic keyword you might want to rank for could be “cordless power tools” and the supporting keywords might be “cordless drills,“ cordless planers” and “cordless hammers,” and even more long-tail queries like “what is a good torque for a cordless drill?” This mirrors the natural way of searching, where people start with a broader search and refine it as they learn more.
• Create pillar pages: Develop an in-depth article or guide for the broad topic / keyword (like cordless power tools) and then create supporting webpages for each of the supporting keywords. 
• Link it together: Organize related pages in the website directory using proper URL structures (physical siloing) and connect the relevant content using contextual links embedded in your content (virtual siloing) to create a themed silo structure around your main topic. This is like the catalog system in the library; it helps people and search engines know that the content is related and where to find more information about the topic. 

 

After executing this strategy, you have built an authoritative website that’s rich with information for every stage of a person’s search journey. 

Effectively, this makes your site relevant to rank higher in the results. When people click through to your site, you can keep them longer because they don’t have to go elsewhere for the information they need.

For more, see “SEO Siloing: What, Why, How.”

Related: How do I structure my website to make it more user- and SEO-friendly?

5. Content Length

Does Google care about word count to rank your content? Yes and no. 

While Google says word count isn’t a ranking factor, conventional wisdom suggests that if you are writing about a topic that requires depth, then 250 words will not help you compete in an environment where the top-ranked pages are 2,000 words.

Plus, what Google is saying when they say word count isn’t a factor is really that there’s no minimum word count requirement to rank, and not to write a bunch of words just to get to a target number. 

Instead, create sufficient content to answer the query in a way that is helpful and of high quality — something that adds value to what is already out there. 

This is the reason I created the target word count feature in our WordPress SEO plugin. This feature looks at the top-ranked content in real time and gives you a target word count based on who is winning.

 

This demystifies the process of target word count so that you don’t write 3,000 words when 1,000 will likely do.

Of course, always use your intuition as a guide. You likely know how much needs to be said on a topic to be helpful. Write that, and not a word more.  

I address this topic further in my article on SEO myths. 

Related: How do I determine the appropriate length for my content to maximize its effectiveness?

6. Brand and Reputation Signals

Your brand’s reputation is a key component of the E-E-A-T framework. 

Search engines look beyond individual articles to see how your brand is perceived across the web, through things like customer reviews, mentions in trusted media and more. 

These signals strengthen not only your “authoritativeness” and “trust” but also how AI-driven platforms recognize and represent your brand.

Reviews, Case Studies, Testimonials

Almost 100% of people read reviews before they make a purchase online.

Reviews, case studies and testimonials are indicators of a business’s reputation. And reputation is intrinsically linked to trust.

Google talks more about this in its Search Quality Rater Guidelines, and I highlight this in my guide on the basics of E-E-A-T where Google says:

• “Reputation research is especially important for detecting untrustworthy websites and content creators.”
• “A website’s reputation is based on the experience of real users and the opinions of people who are experts.”
• “… look for independent reviews, references, recommendations by experts, news articles, and other sources of credible information about the website.” 

You can do a lot of things to help build trust on your website, including:

• Developing case studies that show how you have positively impacted customers.
• Featuring customer testimonials, verified reviews and ratings (consider video testimonials to make them more authentic).
• Integrating trust signals like badges, industry affiliations, awards, certifications or client logos. 
• Using schema for ratings and reviews. 
• Create a “Contact Us” page and an “About Us” page to allow visitors to learn about you and connect with you quickly and easily.

Other Brand-Building Factors

Your reputation outside of your website is just as important. Consider these factors:

• Social listening and online reputation management. Establish a process for monitoring, managing and responding to online reviews across platforms. Apply the same approach to social listening, as you track brand mentions, sentiment and conversations within your industry. Importantly, engage with your community. For more, read “Is Sentiment an SEO Trust Signal?”
• Public relations. Create newsworthy stories around your brand to earn coverage from trusted publications and journalists. These mentions (and backlinks) can strengthen your brand. Align your PR outreach with SEO goals to secure placements that build both awareness and visibility in search.
• Guest contributions: When you intentionally craft a strategy to contribute to your industry, you can further build your brand. This can be in the form of podcast interviews or guest articles on reputable sites. Focus on adding value and not just collecting links (make sure you don’t fall into the trap of paid guest posting).

Related: How do I improve my brand’s reputation to strengthen trust with users and search engines?

Final Thoughts

Remember, Google isn’t just ranking webpages; it’s assessing the credibility of your brand as a whole. 

By investing in quality content and a strong reputation, you’re building a brand that users and search engines alike can trust.

This year and beyond, E-E-A-T is the differentiator that will set you apart. 

 

Let us help you create authoritative, high-quality content that aligns with Google’s E-E-A-T standards:

Contact Us for a Consultation Today!

 

Quick Solutions

• How do I create content that delivers value and meets Google’s expectations for quality and relevance?
• How do I structure my website to make it more user- and SEO-friendly?
• How do I determine the appropriate length for my content to maximize its effectiveness?
• How do I improve my brand’s reputation to strengthen trust with users and search engines?

FAQ: How do I optimize my website for E-E-A-T to improve credibility and boost search rankings?

E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust, and these factors are used by Google to evaluate the quality of your content and trustworthiness as a source of information.  

E-E-A-T is a critical component of improving your website’s quality and user experience. In turn, this builds trust and can enhance search engine rankings. 

To build E-E-A-T into your website and its content, you need to focus on creating high-quality, accurate and well-researched content that is authored by credible experts in your field. 

Ensure that all content is written or reviewed by qualified professionals with verifiable credentials. 

Include detailed author bios that highlight their expertise and link to their professional profiles or previous works. 

Keeping your content up-to-date is also essential for maintaining relevance and authority.

When looking at the authority of your site, you’ll want to think about building your brand’s reputation within your niche. 

Earning backlinks from reputable websites, engaging or partnering with industry influencers or peers, focusing on public relations and publishing original research are effective ways to enhance your site’s authority.

Trust can be achieved by instilling confidence in your audience. 

This includes things like displaying clear contact information, showing terms of service and posting privacy policies. Secure connections and transactions are non-negotiable. 

Action Plan

1. Conduct a comprehensive content audit to identify gaps in expertise, outdated information or areas lacking credibility.
2. Collaborate with qualified experts or hire professional content writers to create or review content.
3. Implement detailed author bylines and bios to showcase the credentials and expertise of your content creators.
4. Develop an editorial calendar to ensure consistent updates to your content.
5. Create a centralized resource library or knowledge base with authoritative content on your website.
6. Optimize your website’s design and user experience to enhance accessibility and engagement.
7. Use schema markup to provide search engines with structured data about your content and website.
8. Earn quality backlinks by networking with reputable websites and industry influencers to get your content in front of the right people.
9. Showcase testimonials, case studies and success stories to highlight your brand’s credibility.
10. Ensure your website’s technical SEO is optimized for crawlability and fast loading speeds.
11. Focus on creating long-form, in-depth content that addresses user queries comprehensively.
12. Engage with your audience on social media platforms to build a community and demonstrate industry presence.
13. Partner with other trusted brands or experts to co-create content or share resources.
14. Implement robust privacy and security measures to protect user data and earn trust.
15. Respond promptly and professionally to customer inquiries or feedback on all platforms.
16. Publish original research or studies to position your brand as a leader in its domain.
17. Regularly audit online reviews and ratings to ensure they reflect positively on your brand.
18. Update your “About Us” page with current achievements and team credentials to strengthen trust.
19. Conduct competitive analysis to benchmark your efforts against industry leaders.
20. Develop a long-term strategy for scaling E-E-A-T initiatives as your brand grows.

About Us

Bruce Clay Inc. has been a pioneer in the SEO industry since its inception in the 1990s. We provide high-quality SEO strategies to businesses worldwide. With decades of experience, we are committed to innovation and excellence in every project we undertake. Learn more about us.

Bruce Clay is founder and president of Bruce Clay Inc., a global digital marketing firm providing search engine optimization, pay-per-click, social media marketing, SEO-friendly web architecture, and SEO tools and education. Connect with him on LinkedIn or through the BruceClay.com website.

See Bruce's author page for links to connect on social media.