Skip to content
50% OFF $299 $599
Lock in
§ 6.0.8 ARTICLE
Published VerifiedEvery 6 weeks Sources2 named Authored bySquareRank Team

Glossary · § 6.0.8 · Defined term

E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is the framework Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines1 use to assess whether a page deserves to rank — and whether AI engines deserve to cite it — for queries that affect a user's health, money, safety, or wellbeing. The second "E" (Experience) was added in December 2022; before then it was E-A-T.

E-E-A-T is not a direct ranking signal in the sense that no Google algorithm gives a page an "E-E-A-T score." It's the framework human quality raters apply when evaluating search-result quality, and Google's ranking systems are tuned over time to align with rater judgments. AI engines (Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT with web search, Perplexity, Claude) apply similar heuristics when deciding which sources to cite.

Definition

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is the framework Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines use to assess whether a page deserves to rank — and whether AI engines deserve to cite it — for queries that affect a user's health, money, safety, or wellbeing.

The framework lives in Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines — a 170+ page document Google publishes to instruct the human raters it pays to evaluate search-result quality. Raters do not directly affect rankings; their ratings train Google's evaluation systems, which in turn inform the algorithm. E-E-A-T is therefore an indirect but durable signal: shaping content to satisfy the framework shapes content that ranking systems are gradually tuned to favour.

The four letters explained

Experience: did the author do or live the thing they're writing about? Expertise: does the author have skill or knowledge in the topic? Authoritativeness: is the author or the site recognised as a go-to source on this topic? Trustworthiness: is the content accurate, the site secure (HTTPS), the contact information real, the corrections transparent?

  1. Experience — first-hand. A review of a restaurant by someone who ate there. A coaching guide written by a coach who has run sessions. The 2022 addition recognised that lived experience matters even where formal credentials don't.
  2. Expertise — skill or knowledge. A medical article by a physician. A tax guide by a CPA. A coding tutorial by a senior engineer. Credentials, training, or demonstrated proficiency.
  3. Authoritativeness — recognised reputation. Citations by peers, awards, official body status, press coverage, Wikipedia or Wikidata presence. The off-site signals that confirm the on-site claims.
  4. Trustworthiness — the load-bearing letter. Without trust, the other three don't compensate. Includes content accuracy, site security, transparent ownership, honest pricing, real testimonials, factual corrections.

E-E-A-T and YMYL

E-E-A-T expectations scale with stakes. The Search Quality Rater Guidelines define a category called YMYL — Your Money or Your Life — for topics where misinformation could harm health, finances, safety, or wellbeing. YMYL queries (medical, financial, legal, civic, child safety) require the strongest E-E-A-T signals. Non-YMYL queries (a recipe, a movie review, a craft tutorial) require less.

For a Squarespace owner whose site is non-YMYL (most coaches, photographers, designers, interior designers), E-E-A-T is still useful but not gating. For a YMYL Squarespace owner (therapists, lawyers, financial advisors, nutritionists), E-E-A-T is gating. A therapist page without an author bio, credentials, licence number, and clear contact information is unlikely to rank well or get cited even with otherwise excellent content.

E-E-A-T on Squarespace specifically

Six install patterns. (1) A dedicated /founder/ or /about/ page with full name, photo, credentials, location. (2) Person schema with sameAs links to LinkedIn, professional licensure databases, podcast appearances. (3) Every article's author byline matches the Person schema. (4) An /about/ page that names the people behind the site, not just the brand. (5) Contact page with real email and (where applicable) real address. (6) Article publish/modified dates that genuinely reflect the content's recency.

The mechanical work fits inside a Code-Injection-and-page-design afternoon for most Squarespace sites. The earned work — press mentions, podcast appearances, third-party publisher bylines, Wikidata presence — takes 6-12 months and compounds. The full install for AI Overviews specifically lives at Cluster 1.3.5.

E-E-A-T sits at the intersection of schema, content, and reputation.

Keep reading · § 6.0.8