If your website is central to your business, you need to E-E-A-T it. No, not literally. But if you want both search engines and real people to trust your content, you must focus on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). These principles are at the heart of Google’s assessment of content quality – and they’re even more critical for businesses operating across multiple markets and languages.
E-E-A-T is Google’s way of assessing whether content is credible and useful. First introduced in 2014 in the Search Quality Rater Guidelines, it has evolved over time – notably in December 2022, when Google added an extra ‘E’ for Experience and reinforced that Trust is the key factor.
It’s especially important for ‘Your Money or Your Life’ (YMYL) pages – content covering finance, health, or legal topics – but really, any business that wants to be seen as trustworthy should take E-E-A-T seriously.
A good example? If someone is searching for tax advice, they’ll want reliable information from a tax professional, not just anyone with a blog. Google knows this and prioritises content accordingly.
AI has made content creation easier, but quality matters more than ever. Generic, low-value material won’t engage your audience or perform well in search. If your site falls short on E-E-A-T, Google will prioritise those that get it right. In 2025, Google has further refined its ability to assess AI-generated content, ensuring it meets E-E-A-T standards. While AI can support content creation, human input – ensuring accuracy, relevance, and trust – is more essential than ever.
Google’s goal is to serve relevant, reliable, and high-quality content. Here’s what each element of E-E-A-T means in practice:
If you’re marketing across multiple regions, building trust in one market isn’t enough. Each country has its own cultural expectations, regulatory landscape, and search behaviours. An E-E-A-T-first approach helps ensure your content meets local credibility standards, no matter where in the world you operate.
While E-E-A-T itself isn’t a direct ranking factor, Google uses a variety of signals that align with the concept of E-E-A-T to determine the quality of a website, which can have an impact on ranking performance, so if your content is relevant and ticks all of the E-E-A-T boxes, it has a good chance of performing well in search.
Here are practical tips for demonstrating experience, expertise, authority, and trust:
1) Experience: Show you’ve been there
Content from people with real, hands-on experience tends to perform better – whether that’s using a product, visiting a location, or working in a specific industry. This is especially crucial when expanding into new markets, where local insights make all the difference. At Oban, our Local In-Market Experts (LIMEs) help to ensure that your content resonates with the right audience.
How to demonstrate experience:
2) Expertise: Prove you’re the authority
Expertise isn’t just about good writing – it’s about depth of knowledge. For international brands, this means content that:
How to demonstrate expertise:
3) Authoritativeness: Earn recognition from others
Authority comes from industry recognition, and Google picks up on this through backlinks, mentions, and citations from reputable sources. For global brands, this means:
A smart international SEO strategy tailors digital PR to each region rather than relying on broad, global campaigns.
How to strengthen authority:
4) Trustworthiness: Make users (and Google) feel safe
Trust is the backbone of a successful website. Google won’t rank unreliable content, and customers won’t buy from brands they don’t trust. For international websites, trust signals vary by market, so it’s essential to:
How to strengthen trust:
Trust isn’t universal, and what reassures customers in one market may not work in another. Tailoring your approach to local expectations is key to long-term credibility. Again, working with Local In-Market Experts will help.
Achieving international credibility isn’t just about following Google’s playbook, since different markets have different search engines, expectations, and trust signals. A strategy that works in the UK won’t necessarily succeed in China, Germany, or Brazil. Here’s how to build trust and authority across borders:
Go beyond translation – localise properly
Search engines like Baidu and Naver prioritise different factors than Google, and poorly localised content can backfire. A direct translation might preserve meaning but miss cultural nuance, making content feel off or even untrustworthy. Our LIMEs help brands create messages that connect well with each audience. (Read our tips on content localisation here.)
Invest in substance, not just keywords
Generic, keyword-stuffed content won’t rank well anywhere. Well-researched, insightful content, written by real experts and backed by credible sources, is essential to building trust across all platforms.
Establish authority in every market
A strong domain in one country doesn’t automatically translate to another. Local trust signals matter – which means earning coverage in regional media, partnering with in-market influencers, and securing backlinks from respected local sites. A website without local engagement is just a digital island.
Stay relevant with regular updates
Trust isn’t static – outdated content signals neglect. Some industries (such as finance, health, and tech) require frequent updates to maintain credibility, and different markets have different expectations for freshness. In Japan, for example, older, well-established content may be valued more than in the US, where recency often wins. Regular content audits help ensure your site stays relevant – keep content updated and clearly mark when it was last reviewed.
Over-optimisation can become a concern in SEO marketing, where excessive on-page tweaks aimed at improving rankings can harm the user experience. This principle also applies to E-E-A-T.
In SEO, prioritising user needs is crucial. If attempts to boost E-E-A-T signals overwhelm the page with unnecessary information, it can undermine its purpose and frustrate users trying to find relevant content. This approach risks diminishing rather than enhancing trust, which Google can detect.
Content should enhance credibility with appropriate signals, not overshadow its usefulness. For example, in a blog about car insurance, constant reminders of the author’s credentials would probably distract rather than reassure readers.
To gauge the right balance of E-E-A-T for your site, refer to the Quality Rater Guidelines. These guidelines outline how Google assesses signals of expertise, authority, and trustworthiness specific to different types of content.
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E-E-A-T isn’t just about rankings – it’s about earning trust worldwide. Expanding into new markets means getting the balance right between local know-how and global consistency. That’s where our LIMEs come in. If your website isn’t truly E-E-A-T-ready, now’s the time to fix it. Get in touch with Oban to see how we can help.
