EEAT (Google)

EEAT is an acronym Google uses in its guidelines for search quality evaluators, or quality raters, to make sure that high-quality content is rewarded with higher visibility, while low-quality content is less visible.

Its initials stand for Experience, an element added in December 2022, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, which represent the factors Google considers when assessing the quality of a web page-to be precise, it is the paradigm Google refers to when assessing the quality of a website’s content, and which quality raters need for their work.

To simplify, a high EEAT score equals a high-quality page, which can positively affect visibility in search results. These values are especially important with regard to pages that deal with YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics, i.e., those pages that can significantly affect people’s health, financial stability, or security.The four EEAT factors help determine whether a website provides value to users, whether it is a trusted source, and whether it deserves a good ranking in search results.

The first official reference to this framework appears in the 2014 edition of the Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines, when the acronym E-A-T, which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, was first introduced. Since then, these principles have become central to the evaluation of content by quality raters and to the refinement of Google’s algorithms, as criteria Google requires its raters to adopt to determine the reliability and credibility of content offered by a content creator and a site. Then, in December 2022, the E for Experience was added, reflecting the increasing importance Google places not only on theoretical knowledge and formal authority, but also on authors’ personal and practical experience in providing quality content.