What Is EEAT and How Does a Small Business Show It on Its Website?
By Bill Stilwell · Last reviewed October 16, 2026
The short answer
Section titled “The short answer”EEAT stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT). It’s how Google describes the qualities of reliable content. Google says EEAT itself isn’t a specific ranking factor, and that trust is the most important part. For a small business, you show it with real work, real people, clear contact and policy information, and fixing mistakes when you find them.
Why it matters
Section titled “Why it matters”Google’s systems try to reward content that helps people and seems reliable. Google says it gives extra weight to content with strong EEAT on topics that can affect health, money, safety, or well-being. Many service businesses touch those topics. A roofer, an electrician, or a tax preparer is asking customers to trust them with a home or their money.
Customers check the same things Google looks for. Who is this? Have they done this before? Can I reach them? What happens if something goes wrong? A page that answers those questions wins more calls.
Google also uses human quality raters to test its results. Google’s rater guidelines say no single rating can directly change how a page shows in Search. They’re a useful picture of what “trustworthy” looks like, not a checklist that controls rankings.
19.8.1 Experience
Section titled “19.8.1 Experience”What it means: Showing that you’ve actually done the work.
How to do it: Use your own job photos, short project stories, and before and after pictures. Name the town, the problem, and what you did. A landscaper might show a drainage fix with a photo of the yard after a heavy rain. Customer outcomes count too, shared with permission (see 11.1.13 Testimonial Permission and 13.4.8 Proof Page).
Common mistake: Stock photos of work you didn’t do. They look generic, and customers can tell.
19.8.2 Expertise
Section titled “19.8.2 Expertise”What it means: Showing the skills, training, and knowledge behind the work.
How to do it: List licenses, certifications, and years in the trade where they’re true and current. Explain how you do the work and why. Put license numbers where your state requires them (see 14.1.10 Credentials and 9.5.7 License Display Rules).
Common mistake: Listing an expired license or a certification that belongs to a former employee.
19.8.3 Authority
Section titled “19.8.3 Authority”What it means: Real recognition from others, like mentions, memberships, and references.
How to do it: Earn it the honest way. Join trade associations you qualify for. Get covered by local news for real work (see 19.10 Digital Public Relations). Ask partners and suppliers to list you. Google’s local ranking tips say prominence includes how many websites link to your business.
Common mistake: Buying links or badges. Google’s spam policies treat buying links for ranking as link spam.
19.8.4 Trust
Section titled “19.8.4 Trust”What it means: Making contact, policies, ownership, pricing, and process easy to find.
How to do it: Show a working phone number and email on every page. Publish your policies, like cancellation, refunds, and warranty (see 13.4.7 Policy Pages). Say who owns the business. Give price ranges or explain how you price. Explain what happens after someone calls.
Common mistake: Hiding the phone number behind a form, or burying policies so customers only learn them after they pay.
19.8.5 Author information
Section titled “19.8.5 Author information”What it means: Naming who wrote or reviewed each piece of content.
How to do it: Add a byline with the author’s name and a link to a short bio. If a licensed pro reviewed the page, say who and their credential. Google’s helpful content guidance strongly encourages accurate authorship information where readers expect it. It also suggests telling readers how content was made, including any use of AI, where they’d want to know.
Common mistake: “Admin” as the author. Or a made-up writer with a fake headshot, which Google calls deceptive.
19.8.6 Corrections
Section titled “19.8.6 Corrections”What it means: Fixing wrong information quickly and openly.
How to do it: When you find a mistake, fix the page and update the “Last updated” date. For a big correction, add a short note saying what changed. Give readers a way to report errors, like a contact link. Only change the date when the content actually changed. Google lists changing dates to look fresh as a warning sign.
Common mistake: Quietly changing a price or rule with no date change, or changing the date with no real update.
19.4.9 Trust
Section titled “19.4.9 Trust”What it means: On each individual page, show evidence, credentials, process, and contact information.
How to do it: Every service page should include a few pieces of proof (photos, a review, a credential), a short “how it works” section, and a clear way to reach you. This is the page level version of 19.8.4. See 13.3.6 Trust Content for what to gather.
Common mistake: Putting all the trust content on the About page and leaving service pages bare. Many visitors land on a service page and never see the About page.
When to get help from a pro
Section titled “When to get help from a pro”A licensed professional in your field: to review pages that give safety, legal, or money information, so you can name them as a reviewer.
A search engine optimization (SEO) specialist: if your site has lots of thin or anonymous content. Questions to ask:
- Which pages need real author and reviewer information first?
- What proof from my business is missing from my top service pages?
Bill’s note
Section titled “Bill’s note”[Bill: add a short story or lesson here. For example, what changed when a client swapped stock photos for real job photos, or why you put your own name and review date on every page of this guide.]
If you’d rather have this done for you, SiteSmarty builds websites for local businesses with trust content built in.
How I did this for SiteSmarty
Section titled “How I did this for SiteSmarty”- [Date I did this:]
- [What I actually did, step by step: how I added bylines, bios, review dates, and a corrections process to SiteSmarty and BillStilwell.com]
- [What it cost and how long it took:]
- [What surprised me or what I’d do differently:]
- [Screenshot or photo to add, with private info blurred: a page showing the byline, review date, and contact link]
- [Result so far:]
Questions people ask
Section titled “Questions people ask”Is EEAT a Google ranking factor? Google says EEAT itself isn’t a specific ranking factor. Its systems use many signals that line up with it, and trust matters most.
Do I need author bios on my website? For articles and advice pages, yes. Google encourages bylines where readers expect them.
How do I show trust on a service business website? Show a real phone number, your policies, who owns the business, how you price, and how the job works.
What should I do when I find a mistake on my website? Fix it, update the date, and add a short note if the change was big.
Can I use AI to write my pages? Google allows it, but check every fact and say how the content was made where readers would want to know.
Audit check
Section titled “Audit check”| Line | Question | Pass looks like | Fail looks like | Evidence to collect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.8.1 Experience | Does the site show real work? | Own photos and project stories | Stock photos only | Project pages, photo files |
| 19.8.2 Expertise | Are skills and credentials shown and current? | Current licenses and training listed | Expired or borrowed credentials | License lookups, certificates |
| 19.8.3 Authority | Is recognition earned and real? | Memberships, real mentions | Bought links or badges | Membership records, link list |
| 19.8.4 Trust | Are contact, policies, ownership, and pricing clear? | Easy to find on every page | Hidden phone, buried policies | Screenshots of header, footer, policy pages |
| 19.8.5 Author information | Is each article’s author or reviewer named? | Byline and bio on each article | “Admin” or fake author | Article pages, bio pages |
| 19.8.6 Corrections | Are mistakes fixed with honest dates? | Fixes logged, dates match changes | Dates changed with no update | Change log, page history |
| 19.4.9 Trust (page level) | Does each service page show proof, process, and contact? | All three on each page | Bare service pages | Service page screenshots |
Where this fits
Do this first: 13.3.6 Trust Content, 19.2 Content Strategy, 19.7 Entity Consistency
Do this next: 19.9 Writing Answer-First Content
Related pages: 13.4.3 About Page, 13.4.7 Policy Pages, 13.4.8 Proof Page, 14.1.10 Credentials, 11.1.13 Testimonial Permission, 11.3.1 Truthful Advertising Claims, 19.10 Digital Public Relations, 19.12 Content Maintenance
Sources
- Google Search Central, "Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content" (checked October 16, 2026)
- Google, "Search Quality Rater Guidelines" (September 11, 2025 version) (checked October 16, 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help, "Tips to improve your local ranking on Google" (checked October 16, 2026)
- Google Search Central, "Spam policies for Google web search" (checked October 16, 2026)
- Google Search Central, "Influence your byline dates in Google Search" (checked October 16, 2026)
This page explains general rules and Bill's own experience. It is not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Talk to a qualified professional about your situation.