Google E-A-T Gets an Extra E for Experience

Many creators are familiar with the concept of E-A-T, which is used in how Google evaluates if its search ranking systems provide helpful, relevant information. Would ordinary people feel the results they get demonstrate E-A-T, that is: expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness?

To better assess our results, E-A-T is gaining an E: experience. Does content also demonstrate that it was produced with some degree of experience, such as using a product, having actually visited a place, or communicating what a person experienced? There are some situations where really what you value most is content produced by someone who has first-hand, life experience on the topic at hand.

For example, if you're looking for information on how to fill out your tax returns correctly, that's probably a situation where you want to see content produced by an expert in the field of accounting. But if you're looking for tax preparation software reviews, you might be looking for a different kind of information—maybe it's a forum discussion from people with experience with different services.

If you prefer, E-E-A-T — or "Double-E-A-T" is now part of the updated search rater guidelines we've just released. You'll also see clearer guidance throughout the guidelines underscoring the importance of content created to be original and helpful for people and explaining that helpful information can come in a variety of different formats and from a range of sources.

These are not fundamentally new ideas. And we're not abandoning the fundamental principle that Search seeks to surface reliable information, especially on topics where information quality is critically important. Rather, Google hopes these updates better capture the nuances of how people look for information and the diversity of quality information worldwide.

As a reminder, these guidelines are used by our search raters to help evaluate the performance of our various search ranking systems, and they don't directly influence ranking. They can also be useful to creators seeking to understand how to self-assess their content to be successful in Google Search. Our page on how to create helpful, people-first content has a section that explains this more.