What Is E-E-A-T?
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It’s the framework Google’s Search Quality Raters use to evaluate content quality—and it directly influences how your site ranks.
For law firms, E-E-A-T matters more than most industries. Google classifies legal content as YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) because legal information can significantly impact someone’s finances, safety, or wellbeing. YMYL content faces stricter quality standards, which means weak E-E-A-T signals hurt legal websites more than they would hurt, say, a recipe blog.
The Four Signals
| Signal | What It Means for Law Firms |
|---|---|
| Experience | Does your content reflect actual case work? First-hand experience with the matters you write about—shown through case examples, specific outcomes, and practice-specific insights. |
| Expertise | Are credentials visible and verifiable? Bar admissions, education, years in practice, and content depth that goes beyond what a layperson could produce. |
| Authoritativeness | Is your firm recognized as a source? External citations, backlinks from legal directories, media mentions, peer recognition, and industry contributions. |
| Trustworthiness | Can visitors verify your claims? Accurate contact information, physical address, clear disclaimers, SSL security, consistent information across pages, and visible reviews. |
Why E-E-A-T Matters for AI Search
E-E-A-T isn’t just about Google anymore. AI search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews use similar signals to decide which sources to cite. When someone asks an AI “What should I do after a car accident?” or “How does child custody work in Colorado?”, the AI pulls from websites that demonstrate clear expertise and authority.
If your site lacks E-E-A-T signals, you’re invisible to both traditional search and the AI tools that are rapidly gaining market share. Building E-E-A-T today is an investment in visibility across both channels.
What This Assessment Measures
This quiz evaluates 15 E-E-A-T signals across four categories:
- Experience: Attorney bios, case examples, location-specific content
- Expertise: Schema markup, content depth, topical organization, internal linking, publishing frequency
- Authoritativeness: Bylines with credentials, statutory citations, backlinks from authoritative sources
- Trustworthiness: Content freshness, aggregated reviews, information consistency
Your score reflects how well your site currently demonstrates these signals. It’s not a complete audit—but it’s a fast way to identify where you’re strong and where the gaps are.
Want a Deeper Analysis?
This self-assessment gives you a snapshot. Our full E-E-A-T audit—conducted by our JD-credentialed content team—provides a comprehensive evaluation with competitive benchmarking, prioritized recommendations, and a content roadmap tailored to your practice areas.
We’ve been creating legal content since 2012. We understand what E-E-A-T looks like in practice because we build it for law firms every day.
Email your quiz results or contact us directly to discuss a full assessment.
