Everything You Need to Know About Google E-E-A-T Guidelines in 2025

The days of sifting through the blue links Google offered us when we searched for something are gone—or almost gone. Google’s AI overviews and search tools like Perplexity now give us the answers we were looking for in neat, tidy paragraphs, obviating the need, in many cases, for clicking through search results to find the answers ourselves.

On its face, this seems like a great development: More efficient searches lead to higher productivity. But this new paradigm in search has ramifications both for how users interact with information and how they find products, services, and information.

How AI Is Changing Search—and What It Means for Your Rankings

Traditional search engines take your query, search the web for reliable information, and serve that information up to you in the form of links. Google’s Gemini-powered AI overviews and tools like Perplexity—call them knowledge engines—take your query, search the web for reliable information, and synthesize what they’ve found into a concise answer for you.

Both Google and Perplexity cite sources in their answers to search queries. (ChatGPT, AskGPT, and Anthropic’s Claude do not.) The challenge for businesses and content creators today, after years of using SEO to have their pages rank higher in search results, is how to get these knowledge engines to use and highlight their information in their AI-generated summaries. “[W]e see that the links included in AI Overviews get more clicks than if the page had appeared as a traditional web listing for that query,” Liz Reid, VP and Head of Google Search, wrote in a post on the use of generative AI in search. “As we expand this experience, we’ll continue to focus on sending valuable traffic to publishers and creators.”

Google uses what it calls quality-rater guidelines to provide salient information in searches. “After identifying relevant content, our systems aim to prioritize those that seem most helpful,” Google says in a developers' document outlining quality-rater guidelines. “To do this, they identify a mix of factors that can help determine which content demonstrates aspects of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, or what we call E-E-A-T,” which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust.

E-E-A-T is not the new SEO, but it is more important than ever to have Google recognize the quality of your information using these guidelines. If you are producing high-quality content that demonstrates your experience in a given subject area, along with expertise and authority, and you demonstrate trustworthiness, Google will reward you by surfacing your content.

The Ins and Outs of Google E-E-A-T Guidelines

Google is very clear about how its quality raters evaluate content using the E-E-A-T framework. One small irony of this shift is that much of the content Google rewards is content produced by knowledgeable human beings, not AI. Here’s how it works:

1. Google evaluates the first-hand experience and the expertise of the creator

Google’s quality raters will rank content higher in which the author has first-hand experience and/or expertise in what he or she is writing about. As an example, let’s use a search query that one might find in my home state of Colorado: “What are some tips for climbing your first 14,000-foot mountain?” There are more than 50 so-called 14ers in Colorado, and climbing one requires a good amount of preparation; people need authoritative, trustworthy, and expert information when planning to tackle this challenge.

Here’s Google’s AI overview in response to my query:

"When climbing your first 14,000-foot mountain, key tips include: thorough research and route selection, proper acclimatization, adequate physical training, checking weather conditions regularly, starting early, packing appropriate gear, staying hydrated, knowing your limits, and considering hiring a guide for your first attempt; prioritize choosing a less technical 'easier' peak for your first 14er and always prioritize safety by being aware of potential risks like altitude sickness."

This short summary is accompanied, first, by a link to a blog post by Intermountain Health, which says it’s “the largest nonprofit health system in the Intermountain West,” called “10 Tips for Climbing Your First Colorado 14er.” The second link is to a popular site, 14ers.com, which provides free, first-hand accounts of how to climb each 14,000-foot mountain in the state, with photos, by an expert climber. The third link is to a page on REI’s website under the rubric “Expert Advice" titled, “How to Train to Climb a 14er.” Experience and expertise for all three sources? Check.

2. Google evaluates “The authoritativeness of the creator, the main content itself and the website”

Using the same example above, it’s easy to see the authoritativeness of each source Google has linked to in its AI overview: The first link is to a large healthcare system’s blog, the second is to the quintessential online source on hiking and climbing Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains, and the third is to REI, an icon in the outdoor/adventure retail space.

3. Finally, Google evaluates “trust: the extent to which the page is accurate, honest, safe, and reliable”

Google says trust is the most important factor when quality raters are evaluating content, especially when that content fits into a category Google calls Your Money Your Life, or YMYL. This refers to areas such as health, finance, legal issues, and other subjects that can significantly impact a person’s well-being. Businesses can demonstrate the trustworthiness of their content by ensuring its accuracy, reliability, and transparency. In the example above, the three top links pass the trust test in the YMYL query: One mistake while climbing a 14,000 mountain could lead to injury or even death. Each source provides trustworthy and invaluable information for someone looking to tackle this challenge.

How to Ensure Your Content Meets Google’s E-E-A-T Standards

SEO, although constantly evolving, is quite simple: Content creators work to improve a website’s visibility by using keywords, technical optimization, link building, and content tailored to search algorithms. On the other hand, Google’s quality raters use E-E-A-T as a framework to evaluate the quality and credibility of web content. Simply put, it’s much more qualitative than SEO. The more a brand can demonstrate experience, expertise, authority, and trust through the content on its website, the more knowledge engines, such as Google (with AI overviews) and Perplexity will prioritize its content.

So, how can you make sure that your content shows experience, expertise, authority, and trust?

• All content produced by your business should provide unique insights relevant to specific subject areas (E-E-A).
• The content should be written by skilled, human writers (A-T) and have author bios that showcase qualifications, experience, and expertise in the relevant field.
• The content should be thoroughly researched, accurate, up-to-date, and original; i.e., content should offer unique perspectives or insights (E-A-T).
• The content should appear on a trustworthy platform (T), whether that’s a relevant outlet that uses editors to curate content, or on your own secure site (use HTTPS, secure servers, and regularly update security protocols).
• And finally, regularly audit your content to update outdated information and remove or revise content that doesn’t meet E-E-A-T standards. Related, be sure to stay informed about changes in Google’s quality-rater guidelines and algorithm updates.

Knowledge engines have changed how people find and consume information, which presents both opportunities and challenges for businesses and content creators.

Having content that passes the E-E-A-T test is a critical part of a virtuous cycle that will allow people to find your content, establish your authority in given subject areas, separate you from your competitors, and help continue to grow your business.

About the Author

Post by: Derek Jones

Derek Jones is the COO and founder of Feed Media, a strategic PR and marketing agency established in 2002. With a background in software and aerospace engineering, Derek brings technical expertise and business development acumen to client engagements.

Company: Feed Media
Website: www.feedmedia.com
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