# E-E-A-T

> E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Google uses it to describe the qualities of helpful, reliable content.

- URL: https://techtafel.com/en/glossary/e-e-a-t/
- Published: 13 November 2026
- Other languages: DE https://techtafel.com/glossar/e-e-a-t/

Google uses the concept in its search quality rater guidelines and in its documentation [“Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content”](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content). It states that trust is the most important of the four aspects.

According to Google, E-E-A-T itself is not a specific ranking factor. Instead, Google's systems combine various signals meant to identify content with strong E-E-A-T. Quality raters assess search results but do not directly influence rankings.

In practice, this means naming authors and their expertise, citing sources, showing first-hand experience and presenting the company transparently. In our assessment these signals also help in AI search, because content with evidence is more likely to be used there. The [GEO study](https://techtafel.com/en/glossary/geo/) supports this for citations and statistics.

An example: a tax guide written by a named tax adviser who cites the relevant legislation shows expertise and trustworthiness far more clearly than an anonymous text without sources.

## Sources

1. [Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content), Google Search Central, 2026-11
2. [GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (Aggarwal, Murahari, Rajpurohit, Kalyan, Narasimhan, Deshpande), KDD 2024](https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735), arXiv / ACM SIGKDD, 2024-06-28