E-E-A-T: Make Authors Visible and Strengthen Trust Signals

Many websites publish content that is professionally solid. But they do not clearly show who is behind it and who is responsible for the content.

That is a problem for users. It is also a problem for search engines and AI systems.

Two RankScan measures in the Website Health category address this:

• “Authorship not visible”: articles do not state who wrote or is responsible for the content. Or the statement is incomplete.
• “Missing trust signalsTrust signals are visible elements of a website that build credibility, such as an imprint, contact details, privacy information, sources, reviews, update dates and transparent company information.Open glossary entry →”: RankScan finds no about page, or no contact or imprint page.

Both belong to the topic of Experience, ExpertiseExpertise is the subject-matter competence behind a piece of content. It is the second E in E-E-A-T and should be visible through author details and supporting evidence.Open glossary entry →, Authoritativeness and Trust (E-E-A-TE-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. It is a quality framework from Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines, not a single technical ranking factor.Open glossary entry →).

E-E-A-T is not a single technical ranking factor. It is a quality framework that helps assess whether content appears helpful, credible and trustworthy.

This article explains exactly what the two measures check and how you implement them. General E-E-A-T knowledge follows after that. That part goes beyond what RankScan measures.

What Does E-E-A-T Mean? #

E-E-A-T stands for:

• Experience: first-hand experience or practical involvement with the topic,
• Expertise: professional knowledge and competence,
• Authoritativeness: recognized authority or reputation,
• Trustworthiness: credibility and trust.

Google explains in the Search Quality Rater Guidelines that experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust are important considerations when assessing page quality. Trust sits at the center of the E-E-A-T family.
Source: Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines

Google uses quality raters to evaluate search results and measure the quality of its search systems. Rater evaluations do not directly influence the ranking of individual pages. They help Google assess the quality of its systems.
Source: Google, Search Quality Rater Guidelines: Overview

Is E-E-A-T a Ranking Factor? #

E-E-A-T is not a single technical ranking factor like a title tagThe title tag is an HTML element in the page <head> that defines the page title. It appears in the browser tab and can be used as the clickable title in search results.Open glossary entry →, canonical tagThe canonical tag is an HTML link element that tells search engines the preferred (canonical) URL of a page. It helps consolidate duplicate or similar URLs onto a main version.Open glossary entry → or status code.

A better classification is this:

E-E-A-T describes the characteristics that high-quality, helpful and trustworthy content should have.

In its documentation on helpful, reliable, people-first contentHelpful content refers to content created primarily for people that delivers a clear answer and shows substance, originality and trust, rather than being optimized mainly for search engines.Open glossary entry →, Google writes that its automated ranking systems are designed to reward content created for people that is helpful and reliable. The documentation recommends that site owners assess content using questions around experience, expertise, authority and trust.
Source: Google Search Central: Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content

For RankScan, this means:

• E-E-A-T is not a single score.
• Each of the two measures checks one clearly defined finding, not E-E-A-T as a whole.
• Neither measure automatically means a ranking loss.

Why E-E-A-T Matters for Website Health #

E-E-A-T is not only a content topic. It also affects website structure, templates, Schema Markup, author pages and mandatory pages.

General guiding questions, not all of them measured by RankScan:

• Is it clear who wrote or reviewed the content?
• Is it clear who is responsible for the website?
• Are there contact options?
• Do visible information and structured dataSchema markup is code that describes a page's content in a structured way, so search engines understand it not just as text but as clearly classified information.Open glossary entry → match?

When this information is missing, a page feels more anonymous. That holds even when the text is professionally good.

“Authorship not visible”: What RankScan Checks #

RankScan checks only pages it classifies as articles, for example blog posts, news and guides. It does not check service, product or legal pages.

When Does the Measure Appear? #

RankScan reads the source code of every article. It reports two findings:

1. Originator missing: the article has no author meta tag, no link with rel="author" and no author in the JSON-LDJSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is a data format for embedding structured data in a page, separate from the visible HTML. Google recommends it where technically possible.Open glossary entry →.
2. Originator incomplete: an originator is present. But no originator in the JSON-LDJavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a lightweight, text-based data format for storing and exchanging data. It is human-readable and easy for machines to process.Open glossary entry → carries url, jobTitle or affiliation, and a link with rel="author" is missing.

A person, an organization or a plain name all count as an originator in the JSON-LD.

Rating in RankScan: low severity · medium effort · work type Editorial.

The effort is medium because you first have to decide who counts as author or reviewer for each article. After that, it is mostly template work.

What RankScan Does Not Check #

RankScan checks the code, not the display. You check yourself whether the name is visible on the page. RankScan also does not check whether an author page exists, whether it has substance or whether it carries ProfilePage markup.

Steps #

The steps follow the measure in RankScan:

1. Decide the originator per page type: the company for news, a person as author or reviewer for expert articles and guides.
2. Create a short profile page or author box for each of these people.
3. Show the originator visibly on every affected page.
4. Have your developers or agency mark it up as author: Organization or Person, each with a url to the website or profile.
5. Publish the pages and mark the measure as done.

How RankScan checks it: The next full crawl checks the affected articles. RankScan then reports “Fixed” or “Not fixed yet”.

“Missing trust signals”: What RankScan Checks #

This measure applies to the whole website, not to individual pages. It reports exactly two findings:

• An about page is missing.
• A contact or imprint page is missing. One of the two is enough.

If only one page is missing, the measure names exactly that one. Its title then reads “Make the about page recognisable” or “Make contact and imprint recognisable”. If both are missing, it reads “Strengthen the trust signals of the website”.

Rating in RankScan: medium severity · low effort · work type Editorial.

How RankScan Recognizes the Pages #

RankScan searches the crawled pages and the links on the home page.

• Address: the path starts with a known word. For the about page, examples are /about, /about-us, /ueber-uns, /unternehmen, /agentur, /portrait or /wer-wir-sind. For contact and imprint, examples are /contact, /kontakt, /impressum, /imprint or /legal. Longer addresses such as /about-us-and-team count as well.
• Title: if a crawled page has “About us”, “Über uns”, “Contact”, “Kontakt” or “Impressum” in its title, it counts with any address.
• Link on the home page: a home page link to such an address counts, even if the crawl never visits the target page. A link in the footer of the home page is therefore enough as proof.

RankScan does not check the footer of the other pages. The measure still recommends the footer link on every page, because users should find these pages from anywhere.

RankScan does not recognize an about page at /we/ titled “This is us”. In that case, title it “About us”.

Steps #

The steps follow the measure in RankScan. If only one page is missing, they apply only to that page.

1. Check whether about, contact and imprint pages already exist and are linked in the footer of every page, even under another name.
2. Create missing pages at clear addresses such as /about, /contact and /imprint. Or give an existing page this title.
3. State company name with legal form, address, phone, email and responsible people there as text, not as an image. The about page also covers history and locations.
4. Link these pages as text in the footer of every page, without nofollow.
5. Collect the company data: name with legal form, address, phone, email, logo and a short description.
6. Add the links to LinkedIn, the commercial register entry and the Google Business Profile.
7. Hand the data to your developers or agency for JSON-LD: LocalBusiness if customers visit a location, otherwise Organization.
8. After the change, check the markup with Google's Rich ResultsRich results are enhanced displays in Google, for example with ratings, prices or breadcrumbs, which can be enabled by suitable structured data.Open glossary entry → Test and mark the measure as done.

RankScan checks the Organization markupOrganization schema describes a company or organisation as an entity, with details such as name, URL, logo, address, contact and official profiles.Open glossary entry → of the home page in a separate measure, “Home page without Organization markup”. It is covered in the article on Schema Markup and Organization markup. Wikidata also has its own measure, “No Wikidata entry for your company”. See the article on Entity SEO and Wikidata.

How RankScan checks it: The next full crawl checks whether RankScan finds the pages. For this measure, a crawl that stops at the page limit before reaching all pages is also enough. If it finds the page or the link on the home page, the absence is disproved.

YMYL: When E-E-A-T Is Especially Important #

This section is general E-E-A-T knowledge. RankScan does not distinguish by topic.

Google uses the term “Your Money or Your LifeYMYL (Your Money or Your Life) refers to topics affecting money, health, safety, law or important life decisions. E-E-A-T matters especially for these topics.Open glossary entry →” (YMYL) for topics that affect health, finances, safety, law or important life decisions.

With these topics, incorrect information can cause real harm. That is why visible expertise, sources, freshnessFreshness describes how current a piece of content is relative to the search intent. It is not equally important for every query.Open glossary entry → and responsibility are especially important.

Examples of YMYL topics:

• medical advice,
• finance and pension topics,
• insurance,
• legal information,
• safety.

The higher the risk of a topic, the more important a person with proven expertise as author or reviewer becomes.

Making Authors Visible: The Editorial Layer #

The first step is not JSON-LD. The first step is visible authorship.

A good author box includes:

• name,
• photo or professional profile image,
• role or function,
• short professional bio,
• link to the author page,
• optionally LinkedIn or other official profiles.

Example:

Author: Max Muster
Senior SEOSearch Engine Optimization (SEO) covers all measures that help a website become more visible in unpaid (organic) search results.Open glossary entry → Consultant with 12 years of experience in technical SEO, website audits and content strategy. Max supports B2B and e-commerce websites across the DACH region and writes about website health, crawling and search visibilitySearch visibility describes how present and findable a website is in the organic search results. It is not the same as traffic, but reflects theoretical findability.Open glossary entry →.

A good author box answers not only “who?”, but also “why should I trust this person?”.

For company news, the company is enough as the originator. No author box is needed there.

Author Pages: Bundling Expertise #

An author page is the profile page from step 2. It bundles what sets a person apart professionally:

• name, photo and role,
• short biography and areas of expertise,
• publications on the website,
• external profiles,
• certificates or qualifications.

Example URL:

https://example.ch/authors/max-muster/

The address of the author page is a good value for author.url in the markup.

Author Markup: The Technical Layer #

Visible authorship should be supported by structured data.

For articles, the author field in Article or BlogPosting markup is relevant. In Article structured data, Google recommends using author.url to link to a page that uniquely identifies the author.
Source: Google Search Central: Article structured data

Example of an expert article with a person as author:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "E-E-A-T: Make Authors Visible and Strengthen Trust Signals",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Max Muster",
    "url": "https://example.ch/authors/max-muster/"
  },
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Example AG",
    "url": "https://example.ch/"
  },
  "datePublished": "2026-06-07",
  "dateModified": "2026-06-07"
}
</script>

For news, the company is the originator:

"author": {
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Example AG",
  "url": "https://example.ch/"
}

Both examples pass the RankScan check because the originator carries a url.

Google states in its general structured data guidelines that structured data should represent the visible page content.
Source: Google Search Central: General Structured Data Guidelines

Optional: ProfilePage Markup for Author Pages #

This section is general knowledge. RankScan does not check ProfilePage markup, and the measure does not require it.

Google describes ProfilePage structured data as markup for pages where creators, whether people or organizations, share their own perspectives. It can help Google better understand creators.
Source: Google Search Central: ProfilePage structured data

Example:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "ProfilePage",
  "mainEntity": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "@id": "https://example.ch/authors/max-muster/#person",
    "name": "Max Muster",
    "jobTitle": "Senior SEO Consultant",
    "worksFor": {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Example AG",
      "url": "https://example.ch/"
    },
    "sameAs": [
      "https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-muster/"
    ]
  }
}
</script>

Important:

• Markup must match the visible content.
• Do not invent qualifications and do not use fake authors.
• Use sameAs only for official profiles.

Further Trust Signals: General E-E-A-T Knowledge #

The following signals belong to E-E-A-T. The “Missing trust signals” measure does not check them. RankScan checks some of them in separate measures:

• Date on articles: “Articles without a date”, see Updating Content.
• Sources in articles: “No links to external sources”, see Thin Content and High-Quality Content.
• Company data in markup: “Home page without Organization markup”, see Schema Markup.

RankScan does not measure other signals. They depend on industry and website type:

• privacy policy,
• references, case studies and genuine reviews,
• certifications and partnerships,
• clear separation of opinion, advertising and information,
• for shops: shipping, returns, payment methods and delivery times,
• for local providers: opening hours, directions and Google Business Profile.

The legal requirements for imprint and privacy policy depend on country, website type and business model. Have them checked legally where necessary.

Content Error or Template Error? #

For “Authorship not visible”, it is worth asking whether individual articles or the template are affected.

Content Error #

• an article has no author,
• an author profile is empty,
• an article names no responsible person or organization.

Solution: complete the article.

Template or CMS Error #

• the author is maintained in the CMSA content management system (CMS) is software for creating, managing and publishing web content, usually without programming knowledge. Well-known examples are WordPress or Shopify.Open glossary entry →, but not displayed on the frontend,
• Article schema contains no author,
• the author in the schema has no url,
• all articles show “Admin”.

Solution: fix the template, data model or schema component. A template error affects many articles at once. Fix it first.

Common E-E-A-T Mistakes #

Mistake 1: Fake Authors #

Invented experts are risky and destroy trust if discovered.

Better: real people, real roles, real experience.

Mistake 2: Authors Only in Markup, Not Visible #

Author markupAuthor markup is structured data that identifies authors or responsible organisations in a machine-readable way, typically via the author field in Article or BlogPosting schema.Open glossary entry → does not replace visible authorship. Users must be able to see who is responsible. RankScan checks only the code. You check visibility yourself.

Mistake 3: “Admin” as Author #

“Admin” says nothing about experience, expertise or responsibility.

Mistake 4: Author Pages Without Substance #

An author page with only a name and image is weak. It should show experience, areas of expertise and published content.

Mistake 5: Contact Details as an Image #

Address, phone and email belong on the page as text. Search engines and AI systems read an image poorly.

Mistake 6: Trust Page Without a Recognisable Name #

RankScan does not recognize an about page at a creative address without a matching title. Users often fail to find it as well. Give it a clear title such as “About us”.

Mistake 7: Exaggerated Trust Claims #

Certificates, reviews and awards must be real and verifiable. Fake trust signals do more harm than good.

Example: Expert Blog Without Originator and Without a Recognisable About Page #

Starting Point #

A B2B website publishes many expert articles. All posts appear under:

Author: Admin

The template's Article schema contains no author. The about page is at /we/ and is titled “This is us”. An imprint at /imprint is linked in the footer.

RankScan reports:

“Authorship not visible”
“Missing trust signals”

The second measure carries the title “Make the about page recognisable”. This is the variant in which only the about page is missing. RankScan found the imprint.

Analysis #

The missing authorship does not affect individual articles. It affects the blog template. The about page exists, but RankScan recognizes it neither by its address nor by its title.

Solution #

1. Decide the originator per page type: the company for news, a person for expert articles.
2. Create an author page for each person.
3. Output the author box in the template.
4. Add author to the Article schema, each with a url.
5. Title the about page “About us” and link it in the footer of every page.
6. Mark both measures as done.

Result #

The next full crawl finds the originator on the articles and the about page. RankScan reports “Fixed” for both measures. This does not guarantee better rankings. But the website shows more clearly who creates the content and who is responsible.

Checklist: Strengthen Authors and Trust Signals #

The first four items are what RankScan measures. The rest are a general checklist.

• Does every article have an author in the markup, an author meta tag or a link with rel="author"?
• Does the originator in the JSON-LD carry a url, a jobTitle or an affiliation?
• Is there an about page with a recognisable address or title?
• Is there a contact or imprint page with a recognisable address or title?
• Is the originator visible on every article?
• Are about, contact and imprint linked as text in the footer of every page?
• Is company data shown as text, not as an image?
• Do visible information and JSON-LD match?
• Have you marked the measure as done?

In addition, Entity SEO, Thin Content and High-Quality Content, AI Mentions and Citations and Generative Engine Optimization help narrow down the cause and prioritize the next SEO actions.

Conclusion: Make E-E-A-T Visible Instead of Merely Claiming It #

E-E-A-T is not a technical shortcut to better rankings. It is a quality framework for credible, helpful and trustworthy content.

The two RankScan measures check two clear basics: Can you see on articles who is responsible for them? And can you find who is behind the website?

The process:

1. decide the originator per page type,
2. create an author box or profile page and show the originator visibly,
3. have the originator marked up as author with a url,
4. create about, contact and imprint pages with clear addresses or titles,
5. link these pages in the footer of every page,
6. mark the measure as done.

The next full crawl then checks whether the findings are fixed.

Sources and Further Reading #

• Google Search Central: Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
• Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines
• Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines: Overview
• Google Search Central: Article structured data
• Google Search Central: ProfilePage structured data
• Google Search Central: General Structured Data Guidelines
• Schema.org: Person
• Schema.org: Organization
• Schema.org: ProfilePage