The Role of E-E-A-T in Google’s Algorithm: A 2024 Perspective

The search landscape is always evolving. This change in dynamics applies to search engine optimization and the essential aspects of SEO in 2025. The recent significant development was the introduction of E-E-A-T (which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness). E-E-A-T is important to the quality of a page, but E-E-A-T, as Google announced that year, has become part of all core algorithms now.

This guide discusses E-A-T, its importance, how your SEO for 2025 influences it, and strategies to enhance your website’s E-A-T.

Understanding E-E-A-T and What It Means

 E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) is a loose set of criteria. Google uses it to determine the quality and trustworthiness of content on the web as well as their hosting websites.

First surfaced as a means of lifting search quality and addressing misinformation, E-E-A-T is now one of the many ranking factors within Google’s algorithm. In upcoming posts, we will take a closer look at each of these categories.

E-E-A-T and YMYL Websites

Every site could face unique conditions.  However, do you know which sites Google keeps an eye on more than the rest, specifically YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) sites? According to Google, YMYL websites are those that provide advice on health, finances, or general well-being. There is more at stake when it comes to misinformation on YMYL sites, so Google gives much higher weight to E-E-A-T for these types of websites.

How Different Kinds of YMYL Sites Are Affected by E-E-A-T:

Google has stringent content requirements for YMYL websites. These sites focus on delivering products or services that people would pay for even if they didn’t find them online. Health writers, for example, are required to have medical qualifications, and reviews must be written based on real-world experience.

Financial websites should offer well-analyzed, impartial information contributed by specialists who ensure that every detail is accurate. Law-related websites are very law-focused, so it’s crucial to demonstrate technical and professional knowledge. For the news sector, E-E-A-T should be particularly high, more so than for other non-listed news sources, according to Google.

How Google’s Quality Raters Evaluate E-E-A-T?

Many Manual Guidelines evaluate various E-E-A-T models, ranging from one extreme of “Highest Quality Page” to the other, which emphasizes lower quality.

Lowest E-E-A-T

Google says that anything beneath a certain level of quality is unusable. This is especially true for YMYL topics because inexperienced content falls under a low-quality rating. 

Lack of E-E-A-T

This includes examples of low grades, content created by inexperienced users, and pages that lack trust. 

High E-E-A-T

You can get trustworthy content, e.g., based on first-hand experience, such as the case of highly rated content like social media posts and discussions recounting real-life experiences.

Top of the Ladder

This level is for those pages or content creators with powerful expertise that makes them uniquely authoritative on a particular topic; therefore, they are highly trusted sources.

E-E-A-T and AI-Generated Content

The question is, when more creators are bringing out things like ChatGPT or DeepSeek for their daily use, how does AI-generated content play a role in E-E-A-T guidelines? 

This is why the “Experience” part of E-E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) poses a real hurdle for AI-generated content since it lacks actual human experience.

Google recommends that generated content be reviewed by a human being before publication; although there is no specific policy against AI-generated content, the result must be precise and helpful based on other Google quality standards.

It is how Google seeks to avoid running into the situation it experienced with its March 2024 Core Update. In that update, Google severely penalized many hundreds of websites due to their high levels of AI-generated content.

How to Build and Demonstrate Trustworthiness

An honest approach will be enough to inspire trust in others. Make sure your site contains privacy, cookie, and terms & conditions policies that can be easily found. Add a returns policy for e-commerce sites. Always update the content and ensure it shows the last modified date; this builds trust. 

Good reviews show that your audience trusts you; negative feedback shows accountability. Make sure you use HTTPS and a proper SSL Certificate so that customer data is safe, and include trusted payment gateways. 

Associations with certifications, security seals, and media mentions entice you to see that transparency, safety, and quality are worth a second look.

Understanding the Components of E-E-A-T

Every component of E-E-A-T impacts overall quality and credibility:

Experience (Added in 2022): This refers to the firsthand experience that a content creator has with the topic, which complements trustworthiness.

Expertise: Sites offering information about specialized subject areas need an obligation to accuracy and trustworthiness in their content, typically because it is written by experts.

Authority: This is a ranking factor that links to your site with great backlinks and demonstrates expertise.

Trust: Before you can rank for E-E-A-T, trust must be present. This is based on the Experience and Authority of the website, but also on security (a high priority), transparency, privacy policies, user reviews, and contact information.

The Impact of E-E-A-T on SEO and Ranking

This work will directly impact the perception of E-E-A-T and, hence, how your website ranks in search results. When considering search engine rankings, a certain level of domain and page-level depth in liberalization within your organization shows Google that you meet these criteria. 

Along with that, improving Experience, Expertise, Authority & Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), allowing the website to rank better on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), driving more organic traffic, and increasing content exposure. More importantly, high E-E-A-T signals deliver a better user experience, which has significant positive impacts on the performance of an SEO campaign. 

According to Google, when you create high-quality content that meets these characteristics, it is more likely to be included in “featured snippets” effects as well as the “People Also Asked influence section,”. Especially how much people click this in imitation of uncovering supplemental facts. Remarkably, if you work on bettering your website E-E-A-T, then SEO stability can be yours, and in doing so, you can create a sense of reliability with everyone online.

Conclusion

E-E-A-T is not a single, measurable score, instead, it is a set of standards content creators must meet. E-E-A-T is based on trust, which refers to Experience, Expertise, and Authority that correlate with different levels of trust for various contents.