E-E-A-T for Contractor Websites: What Google's Guidance Actually Says
E-E-A-T refers to experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Google discusses these concepts in its helpful-content guidance, but says E-E-A-T itself is not a specific ranking factor. Human quality ratings do not directly control where an individual page ranks.
Understand what the framework is for
Google's rater-program overview explains how people assess sampled search results to help evaluate its systems. Your website does not pass through a human E-E-A-T approval process before every ranking decision.
The December 2022 addition of experience recognizes the value of firsthand knowledge. The kind of experience or expertise that matters depends on the purpose of the content. A homeowner's account of a service visit and a technical explanation written by a qualified professional serve different purposes.
Make claims inspectable
For a contractor, a useful approach is to show the evidence behind important claims. Identify who holds a credential and what it covers. Explain the scope of a completed job instead of presenting a stock image as your own work.
Distinguish records from examples. A made-up energy saving, technician biography or customer quote does not become credible because it contains a precise number. Label hypothetical examples clearly and avoid implying that they describe a customer result.
Apply care to the topic
Google gives greater emphasis to reliability for topics that could substantially affect people's health, finances or safety. Assess the actual page and its potential consequences rather than assuming every page on a contractor website has the same requirements.
Have an appropriately qualified person review technical explanations. Identify the actual author or reviewer where relevant, and describe their contribution accurately. Adding a credentialed name to work that person never reviewed is not evidence of expertise.
Use the framework without inventing a score
A review can identify misleading copy, missing evidence and an unclear contact process. It cannot produce a Google-issued E-E-A-T score. There is no substantiated basis here for declaring that ten photos, a directory link or six checked boxes make a page eligible to rank.
Keep the website usable as well as accurate. Google's page-experience guidance covers multiple aspects of the visitor experience. Fix security and usability problems for the people using your site, without promising a particular search position.