E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T isn't a ranking factor you can toggle or measure directly. Google has never said "E-E-A-T is 8% of your score." What it is: a framework Google uses to train its human raters (who evaluate algorithm performance), to write guidance for content creators, and to describe what its machine learning models are optimized to surface.

When Google's algorithm ranks a business page, a review, or a local services article, it's not running an E-E-A-T meter. But the signals that feed into ranking — author credentials, review sentiment, business history, link patterns, content depth — are all correlated with E-E-A-T. The framework is descriptive, not prescriptive. Understanding it helps you see why certain signals matter.

Experience (the 2022 addition): Real-world practice or lived knowledge. A plumber who's installed 500 water heaters has experience. A homeowner who fixed one leak has experience. For local businesses, this is built through transaction history, customer volume, and demonstrated market presence.

Expertise: Demonstrated knowledge and skill. Certifications, training, publications, and depth of practice. For agencies and service providers, this is credentials and portfolio work.

Authoritativeness: Recognized authority within a field. Citation from other experts, industry associations, media mentions, and topical dominance. A business with 300 positive reviews and 4.8 stars is more authoritative than one with 2 reviews.

Trustworthiness: Reliability and honesty. Clear business information, reviewed locations, owner responses to criticism, transparent pricing, and clean regulatory history. A business with no hidden flags, good reply rate, and honest policies ranks higher.

For a local business or service professional, E-E-A-T manifests as measurable signals:

• Experience: Business age, transaction count, long customer history
• Expertise: Professional certifications, published content, case studies, awards
• Authoritativeness: Review volume and rating, press mentions, directory prominence, topical authority (deep content on your specialty)
• Trustworthiness: Owner reply rate to reviews, business hours consistency, no spam flags, legitimate address

AI Overviews and ChatGPT pull from the same business knowledge graph. A business with strong E-E-A-T signals (high rating, long operation, owner engagement, clean record) gets mentioned in AI summaries. A business with low E-E-A-T signals (few reviews, recent founding, no replies, complaints) doesn't.

E-E-A-T compounds over time. The workflow depends on business type:

For service professionals: Publish certifications prominently on GBP. Write case studies. Get Google reviews — lots of them, consistently. Reply thoughtfully to every review. Build a small content library on your specialty. This stack creates expertise + authoritativeness + trustworthiness.

For agencies: Document client results. Publish research or guides. Build topic authority through content. Generate reviews from past clients. Create a responsive agent (AI or human) that replies to customer Q&A within hours.

For all: Use the reputation audit API monthly to track review growth, sentiment, and response rate. Declining reply rate is an E-E-A-T red flag. Rising review velocity signals growing authority.