Google has clarified some of the confusion around E-A-T and whether or not it is an explicit ranking factor. E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authority and Trust and is the shorthand used by Google in its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.
Speaking at a Pubcon 19 Q&A in Las Vegas last week, Google’s Gary Illyes said there was no internal E-A-T or YMYL (Your Money, Your LIfe) score, rather these were concepts that allowed humans to “dumb down alogorithms”.
Source: https://twitter.com/Marie_Haynes/status/1182314744788578304?s=20
Illyes said Google has a collection of millions of 'baby algorithms' that work together to produce a ranking score.
Source: https://twitter.com/Marie_Haynes/status/1182314745640058880?s=20
So E-A-T is not an explicit, directly measurable ranking factor, such as for example, page speed. However, many tiny algorithms and signals measure the component parts of E-A-T or YMYL and contribute to ranking scores.
In a follow up discussion on Twitter, Google's Danny Sullivan reiterated:
Source: https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/1182674027166326785?s=20
So, while it’s clear that Google doesn’t allocate a single score for E-A-T, it does affect rankings and Google’s advice to work on these areas for your site remains unchanged.
For further information about E-A-T, what Google says about it, and how you should approach it for your site, see our blog post What is Google E-A-T and how does it work?
For an outline of the full Q&A with Gary Illyes, see Marie Haynes blog.
