Trustworthiness (Trust)

Trustworthiness, sometimes also simply Trust, which can be translated to Trust or Reliability in Italian, is one of the components of Google’s EEAT paradigm, which is a compass for evaluating the quality of content on the Web.

These concepts are made explicit in Google’s Guidelines for Quality Raters, where it specifically states that trust refers to how accurate, honest, safe and trustworthy the page “is.” Moreover, this very element is considered the most important in the paradigm, at the core of the E-E-A-T family.

Trustworthiness refers to the credibility and trustworthiness of a website, its authors, and its content. In general, a site is considered trustworthy if it presents accurate, transparent, and verifiable information, and if it demonstrates that it is a legitimate and authoritative source in its field.

Factors that can influence the assessment of trustworthiness include the presence of verifiable contact information, clarity of privacy policies, site security (e.g., use of HTTPS), user reviews and testimonials, and citations from authoritative sources.

Reliability is particularly critical for sites that deal with YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics, which can significantly affect people’s health, financial stability, or safety.

Google uses reliability ratings as one of the factors to determine the overall quality of a site and, potentially and indirectly, its ranking in search results.