What Is E-E-A-T and Why Does It Matter for Your Google Rankings?

Experience: have you actually done this?

"Experience" was added to the framework in 2022, making it E-E-A-T rather than the earlier E-A-T. The addition signals a specific concern: content written by people who haven't personally experienced the subject they're writing about.

Experience signals include:

• •First-person accounts and real examples from practice: "In our Google Ads audits, we consistently see..." is stronger than "Experts recommend..."
• •Original case studies with real outcomes: Client results, projects you've personally worked on, specific examples from your own business.
• •Proprietary data: Benchmarks from your own client accounts, survey results, original research. This is the highest-value experience signal and the hardest to replicate.
• •Specific, non-generic details: The kind of specificity that only comes from doing the thing — not from reading about it.

Expertise: are you qualified to write about this?

Expertise is about demonstrated depth of knowledge. For most professional services, this is signalled through:

• •Author credentials and bio: A named author with relevant qualifications, experience, and a link to their professional profile. Generic "admin" or "staff writer" bylines signal low expertise.
• •Depth of content: Shallow 300-word pages signal low expertise. Comprehensive, nuanced coverage of a topic signals depth.
• •Accurate, current information: Outdated or factually incorrect content signals poor expertise. Google's quality raters are instructed to check facts.
• •Citations and references: Linking to primary sources (government data, academic research, official documentation) signals that your expertise is grounded in verified information.

Authoritativeness: do others recognise your expertise?

Authoritativeness is an external signal — it's not what you say about yourself, but what others say about you. The key sources of authority:

• •Backlinks from credible, relevant websites: A backlink from an industry publication, professional association, or university is worth more than 100 links from low-quality directories.
• •Brand mentions: References to your business in media, industry publications, or professional contexts — even without a link.
• •Reviews and ratings: Third-party verification of your quality on platforms that are themselves trustworthy.
• •Industry recognition: Awards, certifications, professional memberships. These should be referenced on your site and in your schema markup.
• •Social proof at scale: The volume of people engaging with, sharing, and referencing your content.

Trustworthiness: can Google verify you're legitimate?

Trust is the foundational component — Google has explicitly stated it's the most important of the four. The core trust signals:

• •HTTPS: Your site must be served over HTTPS. HTTP sites are not trusted in 2026.
• •Accurate, consistent business information: Name, address, phone number consistent across your website, GBP, and other platforms.
• •Clear contact information: Phone, email, physical address accessible. Sites that hide their identity are low trust.
• •Privacy policy and terms: Especially important if you collect personal data.
• •No deceptive patterns: Fake reviews, false claims, misleading pricing. These are trust destroyers that Google's systems are increasingly able to detect.
• •Transparent authorship: Knowing who wrote the content and being able to verify their credentials.

How to improve E-E-A-T for an Australian business website

Practical improvements, roughly in priority order:

• •Add author bios to all content: Real name, credentials, experience, link to LinkedIn or professional profile.
• •Replace generic claims with specific examples: "We've managed over $100M in ad spend" is more credible than "We're experienced Google Ads specialists".
• •Publish original data: Even modest original research — a survey of 50 clients, benchmarks from your own accounts — is a significant differentiator.
• •Build backlinks from relevant industry sources: One link from Mumbrella or a relevant trade association is worth more than fifty generic directory links.
• •Maintain factual accuracy: Set a schedule to review and update existing content. Outdated stats are an expertise signal in the wrong direction.
• •Add structured data: Person schema for authors, Organization schema for the business, FAQPage and Article schema for content.