Free E-E-A-T Checker

E-E-A-T is one of the most important concepts in modern SEO. Understanding Google's E-E-A-T guidelines — what quality raters look for and how to build those signals into your content — is essential for sustained ranking success. This guide doubles as an E-E-A-T checklist you can follow to systematically improve your content's perceived quality, especially for YMYL topics.

What Google's E-E-A-T guidelines say quality raters look for

Google employs thousands of quality raters who evaluate search results using detailed E-E-A-T guidelines. They assess: Does the author have first-hand experience? Are they an expert in this field? Is the website authoritative on this topic? Can the information be trusted? Rater evaluations don't directly affect rankings but inform how Google's algorithms are developed and tuned.

YMYL content and heightened standards

YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) topics face higher E-E-A-T scrutiny. These include health and medical advice, financial planning, legal information, news and current events, safety information, and shopping/e-commerce. For YMYL content, Google expects clear author credentials, citations to authoritative sources, regular content updates, clear editorial policies, and transparent contact information.

• Health and medical: Requires credentials, peer-reviewed citations, and medical review
• Financial planning: Demands professional qualifications and regulatory compliance
• Legal information: Needs verifiable legal expertise and jurisdiction clarity
• News and current events: Requires editorial standards, fact-checking, and source attribution
• Safety information: Demands expertise and accuracy where mistakes could cause harm

E-E-A-T examples: building experience signals

The “Experience” component, added in December 2022, rewards content that demonstrates first-hand involvement with the topic. Below are concrete E-E-A-T examples of experience signals that improve your E-E-A-T score:

• Personal anecdotes and stories: Real accounts that only someone with experience would share
• Original photos and screenshots: Visual proof of first-hand involvement
• First-hand testing results: Specific data from your own trials and experiments
• Unique details: Information only someone who was there would know
• Original research and data: Proprietary findings that can't be replicated by AI

Example: A product review with original photos, detailed testing methodology, and comparison to products the author has actually used signals strong experience. This is far more valuable than a generic summary pulled from manufacturer specs.

E-E-A-T checklist: expertise and authority signals

Expertise and authoritativeness are closely related but distinct. Expertise is about the author's knowledge and credentials; authoritativeness is about recognition from the broader community. Use this as an E-E-A-T checklist for expertise signals:

• Detailed author bios: Include credentials, qualifications, and relevant experience
• Publication history: Link to the author's other published work in the field
• Topical authority: Consistent, deep coverage of related subjects across your site
• Authoritative citations: Both citing and being cited by respected sources
• Original research: Proprietary data and studies that others reference

Trust signals that boost your E-E-A-T score

Trust is the foundation of E-E-A-T — Google has stated that trustworthiness is the most important dimension and the one that most directly influences your E-E-A-T score. Without trust, experience, expertise, and authority lose their value. Key trust signals include:

• HTTPS: Secure connection is a baseline requirement
• Clear contact information: Physical address, phone number, email prominently displayed
• Privacy policy: Transparent data handling and user privacy practices
• Editorial standards: Published content policies, correction procedures, and review processes
• Accurate, up-to-date content: Regular updates with last-modified dates visible
• Proper source citations: Links to original sources for claims and statistics
• Transparent authorship: Clear attribution with verifiable author identities
• Customer reviews and testimonials: Social proof from real users

For e-commerce sites, additional trust signals include clear return policies, secure checkout processes, customer service information, and transparent pricing without hidden fees.

E-E-A-T in the age of AI content

With AI-generated content proliferating across the web, following E-E-A-T guidelines becomes even more important as a differentiator. AI content typically lacks personal experience, unique insights, original data, and the nuanced expertise that comes from real-world practice — all of which are key E-E-A-T examples that quality raters reward.

The three biggest SEO disruptions in 2025-2026 are Generative AI, E-E-A-T standards, and zero-click searches. Content that clearly demonstrates human experience and expertise has a significant competitive advantage — both in traditional search rankings and in AI-powered search results where engagement signals contribute 20-23% of ranking influence.