If you’re thinking about having a bash at improving your business’s SEO, well, you’ve probably read it a million times that good-quality links and content marketing matter.
That’s true- they are the backbone of search engine optimisation.
However, quality is important. How does Google assess content quality through Google E-E-A-T?
So, if you’ve decided you want to get your business to the top of Google in 2026, then this is a really good place to start. Within this article, we will discuss what Google EEAT is, how to implement it, plus why its now such a crucial aspect of SEO.
Author: Ryan Christopher Walsh
Date: 30.01.2026
Subject: Google E-E-A-T | Content Marketing
Google EEAT stands for “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness”.
EEAT nothing new, it’s been around for over 10 years now. The Search Quality Rater Guidelines were first brought into existence back in 2014 . However its not something many agencies write long winded articles about. The reason is, people and agencies like quick fixes, building links, adding schema and making sure NAP is all accurate.
However, as we will come onto EEAT is more, well intangible, and it basically works out how well written the content marketing. It also gets to heart of the work, and deciphers, well does the author know what their talking about? Or is this just another 1,000 words of absolute marketing waffle?
Google added an E in 2022
In 2022 Google lobbed on another E to its EAT acronym. The E should for experience, where Googlebot and the algorithm basically wanted to workout, well does the author have experience of what they are talking about? If there talking about how to fix a leaking tap, well are they a plumber? Do they really know what they are talking about.
2022 and Google’s Helpful Content Update
It was back in 2022 that Google introduced the Google Helpful Content Update. This was a really significant update, basically, in a nutshell it wanted to work out whether the work your business is publishing is useful and helpful to the reader.
Now, you might be scratching your head thinking, well why wouldn’t the written work added by a business be anything other than useful?
Well, because a lot of businesses spam Google, they “game the system”- so many SEO consultants would “keyword stuff”. This basically means if you sell a brand of say Nike Trainer instead of explaining the benefits of that product, the retailer may try and write the product name a lot.
If you write keywords a lot, or excessively, then this can be deemed as keyword stuffing. That keyword stuffing, well its going tell Google and Google EEAT that the page has been keyword stuffed.
Google EEAT- lets break it down and explain each element
Experience
Has the person who’s written the content got a good idea and grasp of the topic they are writing about?
Or are they, well to word it politely, winging it?
Experience therefore means your writing an in-depth article, a lot of areas are covered, good on-page SEO tactics split the sections of the page up.
Then you can add the authors name at the top, a bottom bio and then push the boat out and link to the authors LinkedIn profile. For example, if the LinkedIn show’s you’ve been to Cambridge University to study architecture, and your article is about architecture, well this is pretty big sign to Google that you have experience on what your talking about.
Expertise
Okay, so sometimes you might have experience with something, but it doesn’t mean you’re an expert on the subject. For example, you might have driven an M3 BMW around Silverstone once, but that doesn’t make you a touring car champion.
Therefore showing that you’re an expert on what you are talking about, that’s important. Therefore when your writing, or “crafting” your content marketing, as some SEO agencies refer to the process as, well show you’re an expert on the subject.
Just don’t get so technical that a shopper to your website hasn’t a clue what your talking about! Otherwise the bounce rate, well that’s going to soar. You need to show you’re an expert on what your writing about, without alienating the reader- trust us, that’s a hard line to follow.
Authoritativeness
So, authority is really hard to prove, however, if you were to ask our agency how we would demonstrate this, we would say the following:
– Gain backlinks from high-authority websites (websites with high DA score)
– Gain mentions on industry leading publications, so if you’re a solicitor, get cited on say Solicitors Journal
– Keep your LinkedIn up to date
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness, to satisfy this means doing a lot of work. For example, the website needs to be secure, so think about implementing HTTPS.
Then add business contact information, such as address, phone numbers etc. Also keep a Google Business profile up to date.
Do you have privacy policies, refund policies, do you make it clear who owns the business? Who is writing say the blog posts? All this is read by Googlebot to work out your businesses trustworthiness.
We forgot to mention, business reviews, what better way to improve your businesses Google EEAT score, than a whole bunch of super positive business reviews from your many happy customers.
Is it worth having a read of the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines?
Reading this whooping 176 page document can provide you with all you need to know about Google EEAT.
It simply sets out the advice of the Search Quality Raters, and what they look for when working out whether a page offers helpful advice or not.
So, if your in need of some light reading, on a wet and cold winters night, why not have a flip through Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.
Why businesses need to take notice of EEAT
For donkeys years, businesses of all sizes did try to game Google’s algorithm.
From spun content, through to buying a ton of backlinks for something silly like £20.00.
All a waste of time, that’s because Google introduced one after the other of Google updates which well, removed spammy pages from its index.
We had the Google Panda update, then Penguin, and countless other spam-fighting Google algorithm updates.
Now things have all been combined into Google EEAT which basically lays out as clear as day what Google wants. It doesn’t want spam, it doesn’t want pages which don’t offer much information, Google wants helpful pages written by authors who know what they are talking about.
Sock it to me, is EEAT a ranking factor?
Here’s how we look at it, when you take your car in for its MOT inspection, the inspector will go though the various parts of the car one by one.
However, before the car gets placed on the ramp, well the MOT inspector knows in a split second whether its been well maintained, or if its an absolute rust bucket.
Well this is the same with a businesses SEO, if the ranking factors are good, then this is obviously good for the businesses organic search engine optimisation. However, if the content overall is really good, superb, really well written, then overall the Google EEAT score across the pages will be high. Therefore, Google’s algorithm does go very granular, and checks the quality of links etc. However, its also looking at the content marketing on a page by page level and the entire site, to make a judgement to say, well is this website any good? Is it well written quality advice being offered here?
Go back and fix pages
In order to improve your businesses search engine optimisation, well, sometimes we need to go into reverse gear.
By reverse gear we mean reviewing old pages and blog posts, therefore an experienced SEO consultant needs to ask questions such as:
– Is this page content thin?
– Is the information outdated?
– Is the work duplicated?
– Is it written by AI?
– Could the page be improved to improve the Google EEAT score?
Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines
Its worth taking the time to appreciate that all of the SEO work you implement should be white hat. If its not, then don’t do it, because, you will be slapped by a Google Algorithmic update if the work is not white hat. To ensure your white hat, well do have a good read of Google’s
Express your own opinion
We would say this is key, too often content marketing published by various businesses is well, much of the same.
A bit boring.
Then step into Google’s shoes, how does Google’s algorithm know where to rank a page if its just another 2,000 words of similar text to what all the other businesses are writing about?
So don’t be afraid to be different, if you have experts in your company, whether they know their stuff about classic cars, designer shoes, or the latest smart watch, get their input so that you can write content marketing that expresses their opinions and expertise. This can help to improve your Google EEAT score, if you show that your content marketing is written by experts and that your company has a lot of them.
What are the key takeaways to improving a business’s Google EEAT?
Author bio
Have an about us page, add your key staff. Then if they write a blog post, add their name, link back to their about us page.
Add to the staff members about us page, a link to their Linkedin. This helps Google’s algorithm to understand who the author is, what their qualification are and their employment experience.
Well written pages
Okay, so this is the main part of Google EEAT, that is, make sure the written work is really good.
Put in your very best effort when your writing your written work for your blog posts, then if you show you have more experience and expertise on what your writing about, more than most businesses who have also published pages on the same topic, well you will rank higher if your work is deemed as more detailed.
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