Right now, there is a strange sort of energy surrounding digital marketing.
While AI continues to make creating content easier than making a PB&J sandwich, Google reminds us that it’s authority that matters, not keyword count or whatever automation trick was trending last month.
This is exactly where the team at SEO Perth Experts steps in. As an established expert in the field, they understand that while anyone can generate text, not everyone can generate trust.
This is where E-E-A-T gets important again.
Or more accurately, E-E-A-T never left the conversation; it has just been rediscovered because of the number of AI-based tool options available, which are turning the Internet into an overcrowded room full of people all yelling the “Top 10 SEO Tips” list.
If you’re running a digital marketing agency, trying to gain the trust of your clients, or just tired of seeing bland content forcing its way to the top of search engine results, then E-E-A-T is no longer optional.
It’s becoming the new currency, the difference between being overlooked and being trusted.
Let’s go over how E-E-A-T works in a way that is actually useful, applicable, and doesn’t sound like it came from the first page of a generic search result.
Why E-E-A-T Matters Even More Now than It Did before AI Became Mainstream
A couple of years ago, determining the quality of content was much simpler. Real experts wrote better than robots.
Real companies, which had higher budgets, typically produced higher-quality content than hobbyist bloggers. And most people did not have the tools to produce pages of content in a matter of minutes.
Now, anyone with Wi-Fi and a spare day off can flood the Internet with “content”.
So how does a potential customer decide who to trust?
The answer is not who wrote the most words.
They choose based on who sounds like they actually know something, or better yet, someone who has put in the work, tested concepts, and has experiences that AI cannot fabricate.
Google is not sentimental, but it is practical. It wants to present searchers with accurate and non-deceptive information.
And with AI-generated pages continuing to multiply like weeds, Google needs more definitive indicators that a piece of content is written by an individual or company with relevant experience behind it.
That is why E-E-A-T is becoming a bigger issue than ever before.
It’s Google’s quality standards, which stand for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness
Experience: An E-E-A-T Criteria That AI Is Unable to Mimic (And Probably Will Never Be Able To)
If there’s one characteristic that makes AI-generated content fail, it’s experience.
Experience is messy. It has texture. Sometimes it conflicts with itself.
For example, an experienced digital marketing agency considering running a campaign during a long weekend will be aware of the actual change in consumer behaviour patterns during this period.
The agency will have noticed the decrease in click-through rates (CTR) on Saturday mornings and then seen the increase in CTR in the middle of the afternoon when everyone starts scrolling through their phones again.
This is true experience, the type that can’t be obtained from a database.
To write with experience, you need to actually discuss things you have lived through, whether they seem small or weirdly specific.
For businesses, examples of writing with experience may include:
- Presenting your team’s findings after testing various ideas that didn’t ultimately succeed
- Discussing the actual results of client campaigns (without revealing sensitive client data)
- Talking about the unplanned results — the “we did not anticipate this, but this is what actually happened” type of thing
- Describing the changes in the industry through the lens of what your team has observed
AI doesn’t do “I tried that, and I failed”.
However, humans do. And therefore, it is these small admissions that create trust with readers faster than perfectly written sentences.
Expertise: How to Demonstrate It without Sounding like a Textbook
Expertise was previously demonstrated through lengthy posts filled with jargon. Honestly, who has time for that? People want clear answers quickly, not another lecture.
For businesses, demonstrating expertise includes:
- Teaching something practical.
- Writing about insights gained from your work, not from guessing.
- Not writing in a manner that’s like it’s coming from a 1980s manual.
Google looks for material that seems as though the author truly worked within the field, not someone who just rewrote what is currently ranking.
That means you can lean into:
- Opinions that you have earned the right to have
- Situation-specific advice
- Plain but informative explanations
- A little bit of commentary on what you have observed change in consumer behaviour
- What tools you’ve tested and the quirks you’ve encountered
This is what people actually want: someone to talk with them, not at them.
You can even throw in the occasional less-than-perfect sentence. Because real people do that too. They write while drinking coffee and with an occasional grammatical stumble.
Authority: The Component That’s Earned over Time
Authority isn’t about boasting. It is about developing a long-term track record where people can see that you consistently provide valid insights, campaigns, or results.
For brands, here’s what will help you develop authority at a faster pace than producing 50 articles:
- Publishing case-study style insights where your team reflects on what worked
- Taking strong stances on trends rather than providing a polite summary of each trend
- Being quoted, referenced, or asked to speak because you provide useful thoughts
- Featuring your people, your strategists, creative individuals, developers, analysts
People trust people, not some random logos. And it’s the same for Google.
If your writers, strategists, or specialists are displayed throughout your site with bios, commentary, or continued activity, it will reinforce that your content is provided by actual professionals, not a nameless content machine.
Consistency develops authority.
Not repeating topics, but repeatedly showing that your brand actually knows what it is talking about and is not afraid to say it.
Trust: The Key Factor in the AI Content Flood
Most organisations claim to be trustworthy. However, trust isn’t declared. It’s proven.
Trust in your website or blog is built through:
- Transparency regarding how you develop or analyse things
- Clearly explaining what your clients or consumers can expect
- Using authentic language, not overly polished or overly corporate phrases
- Showing willingness to acknowledge the limitations of your services (“No SEO can guarantee #1 rankings… but here’s what we can actually do.”)
- Authentic discussions, not scripted responses
Yes, trust is increased when your content feels like it’s been written by a person with a little bit of personality, tone variation, and even the occasional harmless error.
This is the area in which AI is consistently struggling: authenticity.
When something sounds too good to be true, readers will immediately recognise it as such.
How to Create E-E-A-T Content in 2026 While Still Being Authentic
You can stand out from the crowd when it comes to creating E-E-A-T content since a lot of companies still copy and paste auto-generated listicles.
Below are several ways to create more authentic and helpful E-E-A-T content that your company can begin implementing immediately.
1. Write From Your Own Experiences
You don’t have to write like Shakespeare or make it like an acceptance speech to be able to write effectively about your experiences. You just need real examples like
“Last year, we launched a TikTok ad campaign that looked amazing on paper. Unfortunately, the audience preferred static images.”
These small anecdotes are gold.
2. Let Your Employees Be Heard, Not Just Your Company’s
Include your employees in the writing process. Let their personalities and quirks shine in their writing. Remove as little of their personality as possible when editing.
Writing like a real human talking in a conference room will carry more credibility than writing a series of “industry-aligned” statements.
3. Avoid Going Overboard When Optimising Your Writing
Google doesn’t reward writers for structuring their writing perfectly. But it does reward them for being clear, providing insight, and being useful.
Use short and long sentences. Include rhetorical questions if they help colour your writing. Occasionally, leave a preposition at the end of a sentence. (It’s okay. Trust us.)
You’ll sound human because you are.
4. Use Data, but Not in a Cold Way
Anyone can spit out statistics. But explaining the significance of those statistics to actual businesses? That’s how authority is created.
Example:
“You may experience a decrease in click-through rate after 9 PM. However, this doesn’t mean your ads are failing. More likely than not, your target audience changes browsing habits after the children go to sleep.”
Only analysts who have been watching dashboards for years have this kind of intuition.
5. Share What You Have Learned, Whether Good Or Bad
People don’t trust perfection. Humans trust honesty.
If your agency experimented with a new format and it didn’t meet expectations, you can still share the lessons you learned. In fact, sharing these insights creates more credibility than sharing polished success stories.
6. Put Real People in Your Articles, Including Their Photos, Names, and Thoughts
Google rewards content with visible authorship. The same goes for readers.
Write articles using bylines. Show commentary from members of your team. Express your own views from your own perspective, even though they may seem a bit rough around the edges.
7. Maintain Consistent Posting, but Don’t Force It
E-E-A-T isn’t about publishing volume. E-E-A-T is about depth.
Posting one well-written and thought-provoking article every two weeks creates more trust than publishing five poorly written, AI-produced articles every week. Quality signals pile up over time and are detected by Google.
Why This Is Important Today
In the digital space, trust is everything. People don’t just buy based on their ability to understand all of the technical details. They purchase because they trust the individual explaining the products and services to them.
Your content has to feel lived-in. Experienced. Human.
E-E-A-T is Google’s way of rewarding brands that don’t just talk about marketing but actually practice it with personality, depth, and authenticity.
Honestly, this is the ideal time to leverage this. As countless companies continue to publish an excessive amount of identical content that sounds suspiciously “the same”, your brand will be able to differentiate itself from the others simply by sounding like a human being.
That’s who customers prefer.
Not the loudest voice. The most credible.