SourceCited / E-E-A-T
Strategy · Trust
AI engines cite sources they can attribute to a real, qualified entity. Build E-E-A-T with a named author, Person schema, first-hand experience, and a consistent entity across the web.
E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is how Google — and AI answer engines — judge who stands behind a page. It is built from concrete signals: a named author with a real bio and Person schema + sameAs, first-hand experience on the page, cited sources, and a consistent entity across the web. The single biggest fix for most sites is replacing a faceless byline with a real, corroborated author.
E-E-A-T — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — is Google's framework for judging who is behind a page, and AI answer engines lean on the same signals when deciding whose claims to trust. It is not a single score or a tag you add; it is the accumulated evidence that a real, qualified person or organization stands behind the content. For AI citation it matters twice over: the consensus engine wants a nameable, corroborated entity to attribute a claim to, and a faceless site gives it nothing to hold onto.
The first E — Experience — is the newest and most under-used: evidence you have actually done the thing (used the product, run the test, visited the place), not just researched it. First-hand experience is exactly the information gain AI rewards and competitors cannot copy.
E-E-A-T is built from specific, checkable things — not vibes:
| Signal | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Named author with a real bio | A byline that links to an author page listing background and qualifications — not “Admin” or “The Team” |
Person schema + sameAs | Structured data tying the author to their profiles (LinkedIn, professional pages) so engines resolve them to a real entity |
| First-hand experience | “We tested…”, original screenshots, specific results — evidence you did it, not just read about it |
| Cited sources | Outbound links to primary research and data, which raise trust even as they send a link out |
| Consistent entity | The same name, description, and facts about you across your site and third-party surfaces (see off-page consensus) |
| Trust basics | HTTPS, a real About and contact, accurate dates, and for commerce, clear policies |
Publishing under “Admin” or a faceless team name. It is the most common E-E-A-T miss and the easiest to fix. An anonymous page gives the consensus engine no entity to attribute or corroborate — name a real author and give them a real page.
The durable moat is the first E. Anyone can summarize; only you can show what you actually did. Put the evidence on the page: original screenshots from a tool you really used, specific numbers from a test you ran, before/after results, a photo of the thing in your hands. This doubles as original data and as information gain — one piece of genuine first-hand evidence can lift a page above ten that merely rephrase the consensus.
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — Google's framework for judging who is behind a page, and the signals AI answer engines lean on when deciding whose claims to trust. It's built from concrete evidence (named authors, credentials, first-hand experience, citations, a consistent entity), not a single tag or score.
Indirectly but strongly. AI search is a consensus engine that wants to attribute a claim to a real, corroborated entity; a faceless page gives it nothing to hold onto. Named authors with Person schema, first-hand experience, and a consistent cross-web entity all make you a safer source to cite.
Replace a faceless byline ("Admin", "The Team") with a real named author: a truthful bio page, Person schema with a sameAs array pointing at real profiles, and a visible byline linking to it on every content page. It's a one-time, central fix that lifts every page.
Expertise is knowing the subject; Experience is having actually done the thing — used the product, run the test, been to the place. First-hand experience is the newest and most under-used signal, and it doubles as information gain because competitors can't copy what you actually did.