What is E-E-A-T?

Published 14 November 2026. Updated 14 November 2026.

E-E-A-T: Short for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness: the qualities Google's search quality raters look for in content, with trust counted as the most important.

Google says E-E-A-T is not a specific ranking factor. Its raters use it to judge whether results are good, and their ratings do not change rankings directly.

The same qualities help with AI answers in a plainer way: a page with first-hand material, a named source and a clear answer gives an assistant something to cite. Why ChatGPT reads a page but does not cite it works through the reasons.

Read next

• Why did ChatGPT read your page but not cite it?
• How do AI citations work in ChatGPT, Claude and Grok?
• What is generative engine optimisation (GEO)?

Sources

• Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, Google Search Central