What Is E-E-A-T? A Simple Guide for Coaches and Small Business Owners

– What E-E-A-T actually means
– Why it matters for coaches, consultants and service-based businesses
– How to apply EEAT without sounding generic
– What to focus on before worrying about AI or SEO

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust.
These are the human signals Google and AI search tools use to understand whether your content is reliable, helpful and worth showing to people.

E-E-A-T isn’t technical, it’s simply how search tools decide

• if your content comes from someone who genuinely understands the topic.
• whether the information is trustworthy
• whether it should be summarised or shown in Google search results or within AI responses

You strengthen E-E-A-T by adding small pieces of lived experience – real examples, client insights and interactions, lessons learned, and simple, clear explanations written in everyday language.

You don’t need to overthink this.
Even one or two sentences make a meaningful difference.

If SEO terms usually make things feel more complicated than they needs to be, you can relax here.

This is not a technical framework, it’s a simple way to ensure your real-world insight shines through, so the right people find you.

AI search tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity don’t just list website links.
They look for clues that content comes from a real, reliable source.

So the key question becomes:

What helps search tools recognise trustworthy content?

They look for four human signals:

• Experience – Have you personally worked on this topic?
• Expertise – Do you have knowledge, training or skill in it?
• Authority – Are you recognised or consistent in your field?
• Trust – Is your content clear, honest and reliable?

These signals come directly from Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, and AI tools now use the same approach.

Here’s the most important point:

AI can generate text – but it cannot generate your lived experience.

Your stories, insights and personal perspectives are the signals that set your content apart.

In SEO, E-E-A-T is how Google understands whether content is trustworthy and worth showing.
It isn’t a formula or a score, it’s simply Google asking:

• “Is this written by someone who understands the topic?”
• “Is this genuinely helpful?”
• “Does this reflect real experience?”

When AI search engines scan your content, they look for the same signals.
This is why adding clear examples and insight helps your content show up more often, both in Google and in AI-generated answers.

1. Experience (Your Lived Experience)

This is the most important part.
Experience answers the question: “Have you actually done this?”

Examples include:

• insights from client work
• lessons learned by doing
• mistakes people commonly make
• something you discovered early on

Just one sentence can demonstrate experience.

2. Expertise (Your Knowledge or Skill)

Expertise includes:

• training
• qualifications
• your approach or method
• your ability to explain concepts clearly

You don’t need to be the biggest expert, just someone who demonstrates real understanding.

3. Authority (Credibility Built Over Time)

Authority grows through:

• consistent content
• speaking, training or teaching
• clear client results
• well-structured explanations

Authority is built slowly and naturally.

4. Trust (Honesty, Clarity and Transparency)

Trust is created by:

• writing clearly
• keeping your language simple
• using real examples
• being transparent about your experience
• focusing on being helpful, not impressive

Trust is the final layer that makes your content easier to engage with.

It isn’t!

Google doesn’t score you or assign a rating.
Instead, search tools look for signs that a real person, with real experience wrote the content:

• examples
• insights
• lessons
• client stories
• a clear author bio
• accurate, straightforward explanations

If these signals are present, your E-E-A-T is strong.

E-E-A-T becomes much easier when you’re clear about:

• who you’re speaking to
• what they care about
• the problem you solve
• the message you want to share
• the transformation you offer

When you have clarity, your lived experience connects naturally to your content.
Your writing becomes more confident, aligned and easier to create.

This is why my work always begins with clarity.
Clarity → Confidence → Consistency → Visibility.