Google’s recent clarification, as discussed by John Mueller at the Search Central Live NYC event, confirms that EEAT in SEO (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is not something SEOs can directly “add” to their web pages. This is something near and dear to our heart at Primary Position where we’ve been waging an information war against the disinformation from many who have been trying to tell writers, SEOs and SME’s that EEAT is somehow built into an algorithm or a checklist.
EEAT – the Myth
For about a decade, SEO bloggers have been building a fantasty about Google EEAT that its a style of writing, a bunch of claims you can make without any evidence other than “confident writing” that a person has experitence, expertise or authority. And this iss nonsense – claims are not evidence. But it sounds like a noble idea and so hundreds jumped on the bandwagon and then started to lie: telling people that this is how Google works.
Google Clarifies what EEAT is really about
Google Confirms You Can’t Add EEAT To Your Web Pages
Google’s John Mueller explained at Search Central Live NYC that EEAT isn’t something that can be added to websites
John Mueller started this part of his discussion by explicitly tying the concept to its use as a way for the third party quality raters to provide a more objective judgment about the quality of the search results. He did not say that EEAT was created for SEOs to use as a ranking factor guide, in fact he expressly said that’s not how it works.
Source: Google Clarifies EEEAT
What E-E-A-T Actually Is
EEAT is a way of confirming that machine-spam detection systems didn’t pick up the wrong content. you can’t conversely convert this into thinking that this is somehow how content ranks….
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Not a Direct Ranking Factor: E-E-A-T is not an algorithmic ranking factor or a checklist for SEOs. It serves as a framework for assessing content quality in areas where trust and reliability are critical.
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Tied to Quality Raters: It is primarily a guideline for third-party quality raters who evaluate search results, helping Google improve its algorithms indirectly.
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Critical for YMYL Topics: E-E-A-T plays a role algorithmically in YMYL content, where user safety and confidence are paramount. For example, health advice or financial guidance must demonstrate clear reliability.
Misconceptions About E-E-A-T
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Cannot Be “Added”: Mueller explicitly stated that SEOs cannot simply “add” E-E-A-T to a website. Adding superficial elements like author bios or credentials without genuine trust signals does not enhance rankings.
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Not Relevant for Non-YMYL Sites: For non-critical content, such as recipe blogs, E-E-A-T is not algorithmically emphasized. While expertise and trust are always helpful for user experience, they are not ranking priorities for these types of sites.
EEAT Google Update 2025
Basically EEAT doesnt apply and as we said before, EEAT in the context of SEO is meaningless. There are EEAT Guidelines but there are not EEAT Scorecards!
Practical Implications
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Focus on Real Trust Signals: Instead of trying to “add” E-E-A-T, websites should focus on genuinely earning trust through authoritative content, user reviews, and backlinks from reputable sources.
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Avoid Overcomplication: Efforts to artificially “optimize” for E-E-A-T are misguided. Trustworthiness and authority are earned over time through consistent quality and reputation-building.
Final Thoughts
EEAT was billed by Copywriters as a way to protect a non-existent industry that created content Google “loved” – something we think is deeply disingenuous and extremely dangerous to say the least. This Fake SEO EEAT Expertise is a waste of marketing spend: You cannot write EEAT into your content.
The clarification debunks many conjectural blog posts that treated E-E-A-T as a direct ranking factor or an optimization checklist. Instead, SEOs should view it as a guiding principle for creating reliable content in critical areas rather than something you can manipulate directly. This reinforces the importance of focusing on long-term strategies that build genuine authority and trustworthiness.
