What are Google’s E-E-A-T requirements? In what situations is it worth adhering to them?
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness – four characteristics of websites that are meant to be particularly appreciated not only by algorithms, but also by Google’s “raters” (evaluators). Complex evaluation systems operate on the basis of thorough analysis of published content and assigning appropriate rankings (Page Quality rating) – all in order to promote high-quality materials backed by reliable knowledge.
The goal of E-E-A-T is clear – in an era of content being produced in enormous quantities, users are having increasing difficulty finding reliable and trustworthy information. At the same time, the knowledge they are looking for should be easily and quickly accessible. The E-E-A-T criteria are therefore intended to serve as a set of guidelines for content creators.
Preparing texts (and not only) based on experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness is meant to bring benefits both to creators (their content will be significantly more visible in search results) and to users (they will gain easier access to reliable knowledge).
The E-E-A-T principles in SEO strategy – guidelines for creating high-quality content, not just technically
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) principles in 2026 are not heading to the dustbin of history. On the contrary – their importance is equally significant, or perhaps even greater, than before. SEO – as always – is changing dynamically, and the current transformations are merely a continuation of trends and another adaptation of optimization techniques to the online landscape.
SEO itself has never functioned in a vacuum – it has always been necessary to skillfully combine it with other aspects of content creation. Today, however, the key is to create combinations consisting of optimization and the preparation of the best possible content in terms of substance for websites – including in e-commerce.
It therefore seems that this “skillful combining” of E-E-A-T with SEO should consist first of creating high-quality content, and then passing it through the SEO optimization filter. Particular attention must be paid, however, to ensuring that in the pursuit of saturating texts with keywords and key phrases, the substance and quality are not lost.
Google E-E-A-T: letter by letter
The benefits of E-E-A-T can be summed up in one sentence: gain trust and authority through knowledge and experience. Let us now explain how to understand the individual elements of the discussed acronym.
Experience
Within the new system, an assessment is made of whether the author of an article has relevant experience in the topic they are addressing. However, it is not enough to add a doctor as the author of a medical article. Google does not evaluate content based on declarations – instead, it analyzes the entire text, and then algorithms assess whether the knowledge contained in the article constitutes part of personal experience or is merely a “reprint” of other people’s conclusions.
The task of Google’s algorithms is to verify whether the published content is connected to real experience. It is difficult to assess the effectiveness of such a solution, but content that is clearly copied from others will certainly be evaluated more harshly by Google and will consequently land in the lower positions of search results.
It is also not the case that external sources should not be used – on the contrary, an article based on sources can be evaluated unambiguously positively within E-E-A-T analysis – especially when it is theoretical. However, where enriching the text with one’s own experiences is possible, it is worth doing so.
You can demonstrate experience in practice by:
- clearly indicating who the author of the content is,
- telling engaging stories – sharing your own case studies, showing how your brand implemented important changes,
- publishing data, analysis results, reports, and informing about your brand’s successes.
Expertise
The assessment of the substantive quality of published content is the second of the four pillars of Google E-E-A-T. Particularly significant is the YMYL category (Your Money or Your Life – more on this in the next chapter), covering topics such as law, finance, health, and safety. Content addressing these topics is evaluated particularly thoroughly by Google. As part of the analysis, Google’s algorithms and employees check whether content creators – colloquially speaking – know what they are talking about.
In this step, the statistical data cited by authors, the sources quoted, the currency of the contexts referenced, the competence of creators (including linguistic competence), and many other factors are examined.
You can demonstrate expertise in practice by:
- citing sources that enjoy recognition and authority,
- inviting experts from given fields to participate in content creation,
- creating content that users are looking for and that not only is saturated with key phrases, but above all responds to the real needs of readers.
Authoritativeness
The third step is the analysis of brand recognition. Brands with an established market position have a greater chance of obtaining the most important credit – that is, the credit of trust. Google measures this recognition in a specific way – through the number of citations, the presence of valuable backlinks, and mentions in the media.
Including the authoritativeness factor in E-E-A-T is an encouragement to prepare and implement long-term strategies aimed at increasing brand visibility. When creating content, a company should strive to expose it – so that discussion takes place around it and it is appreciated by the industry in which it operates.
You can demonstrate authority in practice by:
- referring to important sources: research centers, government institutions, public benefit organizations, important industry sources,
- being present and visible in the industry – participating in events, publishing under your name in other sources, contributing to industry media, in short: building a personal brand,
- including in content the statements of experts, people recognized in the industry, and respected influencers.
Trustworthiness
This is the most “technical” of the criteria included in the E-E-A-T requirements. The assessment of a website’s trustworthiness is influenced by, among other things:
- its transparency and compliance with UX standards,
- the presence of a valid SSL certificate,
- the availability of diverse and secure payment methods (e.g. in e-commerce),
- compliance with legal regulations (adhering to provisions, e.g. by placing an appropriate cookies plugin on the website),
- linking to the sources from which you draw statistical data or analysis results,
- the presence of real contact details enabling identification of the company,
- the presence of reliable, authentic customer reviews.
Your money or your life – what are YMYL pages?
The document Search Quality Rater Guidelines: An Overview, which is an abridged version of the full guidelines, states that the standards for evaluating pages in the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) category are particularly restrictive. What does this mean?
What is YMYL?
The Your Money or Your Life category (which we can translate as the phrase associated with crime – “your money or your life”) refers to content that addresses issues related to health, finances, security, and public life. Low-quality content addressing such issues can negatively affect the health, financial stability, or safety of users – which is precisely why it is so important to correctly evaluate websites publishing this type of information.
According to Google’s guidelines, websites on which harmful information is found (e.g. misleading or containing dangerous content) receive the lowest possible ratings.
Meeting user expectations as an important criterion
In the process of analyzing content on websites, an assessment is also made of the extent to which the website’s content meets user expectations. This task has been named the “Needs Met Rating Task.” In this category of assessment, it is checked, for example, whether a user after visiting one page visited further ones responding to the same search query. If not, it is assumed that the first page visited answered the key questions and met the user’s expectations – after all, they did not need any other source to confirm the information obtained.
Important!
The authors of the discussed document emphasize that the Search Quality Ratings themselves do not directly affect the position of a subpage in Google Search – the results are, however, meant to facilitate the assessment of the effectiveness of search algorithms and improve their functioning.
E-E-A-T in practice – who, how, and why?
Now that the theoretical part is behind us, it is time to answer the question: how to apply E-E-A-T in practice? In the Google Search Central Documentation we will find three questions that can prove very useful in this regard: who, how, and why?
Who is the author of the content?
For users, it often matters who created the content they are reading. According to Google’s guidelines, information about who the author of the content is should be placed on the website. But that is not all – in an ideal situation, the user should be able to infer from reading alone who the creator is (this should be indicated by mentions in the text, such as the previously mentioned references to one’s own experiences or other content).
As part of informing about authorship, a good practice is to include links directing to additional information about the creators. All of this so that the reader can learn the broader context and find out who the author is, what topics they specialize in, and what else they write about.
Simply clearly identifying who the author is already constitutes a major step towards meeting the E-E-A-T requirements. The remaining elements are recommendations that can help in obtaining a high rating.
How was the content created?
As part of creating content in the spirit of E-E-A-T compliance, one should answer the question: how was it created, and make it easy for users to find that answer.
Today, this question will primarily concern the issue of AI use – the answer may therefore be:
- independently, without the use of AI,
- mostly independently, AI was used only for proofreading or editing,
- partially independently, with AI support,
- the content was generated entirely by AI.
If at any stage of content creation you use language models, include appropriate information on the website – this way you will remain transparent and will not undermine readers’ trust.
Google’s guidelines state clearly: creating content using automated solutions (such as AI) to generate content whose main purpose is to manipulate rankings in search results constitutes a violation of Google’s spam policies.
Let us note, however, the highlighted fragment – Google does not choose to penalize the mere use of AI in content. On the contrary, it focuses on assessing content quality. Recommendations on this matter can be found in the publication “Google Search’s guidance about AI-generated content”:
“Those who want to succeed in Google Search should focus on original, high-quality content created with users in mind that demonstrates the characteristics of the E-E-A-T standard – regardless of the way in which that content is generated.”
Why did the author create the content?
This is a fundamental question that should be asked every time we set about creating content (of any kind). What was the most important reason for which we decided to do so?
Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines state clearly: if the overriding motivation for your content is to create useful content or share knowledge with users, you meet the standards, and the evaluation systems will read your page as high-quality content.
If, however, the main reason for which you create content is an attempt to acquire traffic from search engines, the algorithms will not recommend such content, as they will treat it as a violation of spam policies.
How will E-E-A-T change?
This question seems purely theoretical. Given the dynamics of change, especially in the area of AI, it is hard to predict how content creation will look in the future and – even more so – how Google will react to it (if it is still the dominant force dictating the terms). We are, however, observing certain trends that can help us draw conclusions and prepare for future changes.
E-E-A-T consists of four pillars on which Google’s evaluation system is based, and as such appears resistant to the passage of time. Regardless of how technology changes, experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness should hold their ground (to a greater or lesser extent).
The algorithms will change, however – on one hand, they should be increasingly better at evaluating content, while on the other, AI will grow in strength, making it more difficult (for both users and bots) to distinguish generated content from written content. Google continues to declare a commitment to quality, however, which – combined with the growing “competence” of evaluation algorithms – means that the status quo will be maintained, at least in the coming years.
Summary
The E-E-A-T guidelines are a set of principles that will help you create high-quality content not only for Google, but above all for users. They are the company’s response to the content flooding the internet that is created solely to try to draw some traffic from search engines to a website. Google, through the E-E-A-T criteria, has declared war on creators of mass, low-quality content.
Wanting to occupy the highest positions in search results, try to adhere to the presented principles, so that both your audience and your brand benefit from it.
