Why Your SEO is Failing: 6 E-E-A-T SEO Secrets
Aug 1, 2025
Struggling with your E-E-A-T SEO strategy even after following every "best practice" is common. Many businesses watch their rankings drop despite having solid technical SEO, quality backlinks, and well-optimized content.
Since Google's E-E-A-T principles are a deciding factor between ranking success and search invisibility. Unlike the vague advice floating around most SEO blogs, this blog covers the exact factors affecting your rankings and gives you a clear roadmap to build the kind of E-E-A-T SEO and authority Google rewards.
Why E-E-A-T SEO Is The Make-or-Break Factor for Your Rankings
Google's quality assessment has shifted dramatically, making E-E-A-T SEO the deciding factor between SEO success and failure. Understanding why this happened explains everything about today's ranking challenges.
The YMYL wake-up call that changed everything
YMYL (Your Money Your Life) content covers topics that directly impact people's wellbeing, finances, safety, or happiness. Google realized that misinformation in these areas can lead to serious consequences of physical harm, financial loss, or legal troubles.
Their response was swift and decisive. The 2018 "Medic Update" specifically targeted health, finance, and legal websites. Sites that couldn't prove their credibility disappeared from search results overnight. So it's necessary to demonstrate your authority or lose your visibility.
Hence, Google gives extraordinary weight to content with strong E-E-A-T SEO for YMYL topics. This is a necessity for users who need reliable information on critical topics.
How trust became the ranking factor
Google made their position clear: "Trust is the most important member of the E-E-A-T family because untrustworthy pages have low E-E-A-T, no matter how Experienced, Expert, or Authoritative they may seem".
While E-E-A-T isn't technically a direct ranking factor, Google uses multiple signals to identify content that demonstrates these qualities. The search engine evaluates your site at three levels: individual pages, your entire domain, and the people behind your content. Websites with strong E-E-A-T signals consistently see:
Higher search visibility
Increased organic traffic
Better user engagement and trust
Why Your Old SEO Playbook Isn't Working Anymore
Traditional SEO tactics focused on the technical foundation: site speed, keyword optimization, and link building. These elements remain important, but they're no longer sufficient.
As search results are overflowing with AI-generated information, Google needs authentic authority and expertise that automated systems can't replicate. According to nDash, nearly 70% of people start their online journey with search engines, which makes E-E-A-T optimization essential for visibility.
What Google's E-E-A-T SEO Means for Your Website
Understanding each piece of Google's E-E-A-T puzzle explains why so many SEO strategies fall flat. Let's break down what Google looks for when evaluating your content quality.
Experience: Genuine knowledge that matters
Experience means first-hand involvement with whatever you're writing about. Google added this component in December 2022 because it realized personal experience creates more reliable content than generic advice.
For example, a hiking trail review from someone who walked the path carries more weight than a description written from Google Images. You can showcase experience through:
Personal stories and real examples from your work
Detailed insights that only come from hands-on involvement
Specific challenges you've faced and how you solved them
Expertise: Demonstrating your knowledge depth
Expertise is about proving you know your stuff. Google evaluates this through relevant qualifications, accurate use of industry terminology, and how well you cover complex topics.
The bar changes depending on your subject. YMYL topics (health, finance, legal) require formal credentials, while other areas might rely more on demonstrated practical skills and results.
Authoritativeness: What others say about you
Authority requires consistent effort. You need to publish valuable content regularly and establish yourself as someone others turn to for reliable information. Google looks for this through:
Backlinks from respected websites in your industry
Mentions by other experts and thought leaders
Citations in reputable publications and research
Trustworthiness: The foundation that holds everything together
Without trust, your expertise and authority mean nothing. Google has stated clearly that "Trust is the most important member of the E-E-A-T SEO family because untrustworthy pages have low E-E-A-T, no matter how Experienced, Expert, or Authoritative they may seem." Google evaluates trust through several signals:
Clear source attribution and citations
Transparent author information and credentials
Secure website setup (HTTPS)
Easy-to-find contact information
Regular content updates showing ongoing accuracy commitment
How Google Evaluates E-E-A-T
The process of knowing how Google evaluates E-E-A-T SEO is more complex than most people realize and it happens completely behind the scenes.
The role of Quality Raters and the QRG
Google employs over 16,000 Search Quality Raters worldwide who follow a massive 176-page document called the Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG). These are Google's content quality detectives, who spend their days analysing websites and looking for specific markers of experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
However, these Quality Raters don't directly change your rankings. Instead, they provide feedback to Google's engineers about how well the search algorithms are working. Their assessments help Google adjust the system for identifying high-quality content.
Signals Google uses to infer E-E-A-T
The search engine uses dozens of signals as proxies for E-E-A-T SEO qualities. These include backlinks from authoritative sites, content quality patterns, reputation indicators, and many others. Google evaluates your content at three different levels:
Document level: Individual pieces of content
Domain level: Your entire website
Source entity level: You, as an author or your organization
Why there's no such thing as an E-A-T score
Here's something that surprises most SEO professionals: Google has confirmed there is no internal E-A-T score or YMYL score. E-E-A-T isn't a direct ranking factor like page speed that you can measure with a tool.
Instead, Google uses various signals as proxies to identify content that aligns with what humans would consider high-quality. It's more like a collection of indicators rather than a single score you can optimize for.
How to Spot Weak E-E-A-T SEO Signals Killing Your Rankings
Identifying weak E-E-A-T signals on your site requires knowing exactly what Google's quality raters look for. Catch these issues early, and you can fix them before they tank your rankings.
1. Missing or vague author information
Generic bylines like "Admin" or "Staff Writer" are ranking killers. Google's quality raters immediately flag anonymous content, especially for topics that could impact someone's health, finances, or safety. Professional author pages need:
Full names and professional titles
High-quality headshots
Relevant credentials and qualifications
Active social media profiles
Clear explanations of why this person is qualified to write on the topic
2. Outdated or unverified content
Nothing looks more outdated than content that hasn’t been updated in years. Broken links, outdated statistics, and inaccurate information destroy your site's trustworthiness faster than almost anything else. Google specifically looks for "Last Updated" dates to evaluate content freshness. Sites with stale content get pushed down in favor of regularly maintained resources.
3. Lack of external references or citations
Making claims without backing them up with authoritative sources is a fast track to search invisibility. This is especially critical for YMYL topics where misinformation can cause real harm. Quality content requires:
Links to authoritative sources
Research citations from reputable publications
Expert quotes and references
Data from recognized institutions
4. No clear contact or business information
Sites that hide basic business information look sketchy to both users and Google. Transparency builds trust, and trust is the foundation of E-E-A-T SEO. Essential elements include:
Physical business address (not a P.O. box)
Multiple contact methods (phone, email, contact form)
Clear business policies and terms
Detailed "About Us" page
Professional affiliations and certifications
6 Ways to Fix Your E-E-A-T Problems Right Now
Here's how to E-E-A-T SEO with strategies that work:
1. Create detailed author profiles that showcase real expertise
Generic bylines like ruin your rankings. You need detailed author profiles that include professional headshots, relevant credentials, education details, and work history directly related to your content topics.
Link to professional social profiles and personal websites to build credibility. For YMYL content, author credentials become even more critical, as they should demonstrate why this person is qualified to provide advice on the subject.
2. Get featured on authoritative sites in your industry
Building your brand's reputation through guest posting on respected industry websites strengthens your authority signals. Focus on quality over quantity when earning backlinks.
Consider digital PR campaigns that generate positive coverage about your brand. Actively participate in expert roundups and industry forums to build your presence in your community.
3. Use structured data to highlight your expertise
Implement schema markup, so search engines can understand your content and its creators. Use the Person schema with properties like affiliation, awards, credentials, and occupation.
For articles, employ the Article schema that identifies authors and their qualifications. This structured data essentially spoon-feeds Google crucial information about your expertise.
4. Keep your content updated and fact-checked
Regularly review and refresh existing content for accuracy. Display both publication and update dates on your content. Verify all statistics and claims from credible sources.
For YMYL content, linking to authoritative sources like academic journals strengthens trustworthiness.
5. Collect and display real user reviews
For a better E-E-A-T SEO, showcase authentic customer testimonials that include full names and businesses. Actively manage reviews on platforms like Google My Business and Trustpilot. Respond professionally to both positive and negative feedback to demonstrate accountability.
6. Build comprehensive About and Contact pages
Create detailed pages that include your company's history, mission, and team. Display clear contact information prominently. Include multiple contact options: phone, email, and contact forms. Consider adding relevant FAQs that address common customer questions.
Conclusion
Google's E-E-A-T SEO framework isn't a trend that you can ignore. Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are the deciding factors between websites that dominate search results and those that get buried on page 10.
Google wants to see genuine value and credibility. This hits YMYL sites especially hard, but it affects every business trying to build organic visibility. Similarly, your expertise means nothing without trustworthiness. That's why transparent author profiles, updated content, reputable citations, and clear business information are essential.
The secret is, you don't need to wait months to see results. Websites that strengthen their E-E-A-T signals often see ranking improvements within weeks. While your competitors struggle to understand why their perfectly optimized pages keep losing rankings, you'll be building the kind of credibility that Google's algorithms consistently reward.
FAQ
What is E-E-A-T in SEO?
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness: key factors Google uses to assess content quality.
What is the E-E-A-T formula?
There’s no fixed “formula,” but high E-E-A-T content shows the creator’s experience, subject knowledge, industry reputation, and trust signals (like secure sites, transparency, and credible sources).
What is E-E-A-T semrush?
In Semrush, E-E-A-T refers to auditing and optimizing your content to align with E-E-A-T principles using tools to improve author bios, backlink quality, site authority, and trust signals.