Google Answers if Links or Content Determine E-A-T Scores

Search Engine Journal features Google’s John Mueller speaking frankly on the topic of using E-A-T as an SEO or technical factor.

Google’s John Mueller answered a question about what determines website E-A-T scores. They asked whether links played a role or if it was a content-based score. John Mueller answered in a way that debunked the idea of E-A-T scores or that it is a technical or SEO factor. E-A-T is an abbreviation for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. They are qualities that Google’s third-party Quality Raters are tasked to look for when evaluating websites ranked with new algorithms that are being tested.

The person asking the question was trying to find out what SEO or technical factors might be involved with obtaining a high E-A-T score. The person wanted to know what determines E-A-T for a website:

“What’s up with E-A-T? Is that determined by quality backlinks or more on the subject and thoroughness of the pages?”

John Mueller begins his answer with background information about what E-A-T is and how Google uses it:

“So E-A-T is an abbreviation for Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness. It’s something that comes from our quality rater guidelines. The quality rater guidelines are not kind of like a handbook to Google’s algorithms, but rather it’s something that we give folks who are reviewing changes that we make in our algorithm. And especially, E-A-T is specific to certain kinds of sites and certain kinds of content.

So… from that point of view it’s not something where I would say Google has an E-A-T score and it’s based on five links plus this plus that. It’s more something that, our algorithms over time …we try to improve them, our quality raters try to review our algorithms and they do look at these things. So there might be some overlap here but it’s not that there’s a technical factor that’s involved which would kind of take specific elements and use them as an SEO factor. But it is definitely something I would look into, especially if you’re running sites that map into the broad area where Google has mentioned E-A-T in the quality rater guidelines.”