Throughout the customer journey, and comprehensively, across every important page, trustworthiness, expertise, experience, and authority are more important in an AI search world, not less.
AI systems are actively selecting sources they can confidently cite and genuine E-E-A-T signals are a primary filter.
E-E-A-T… everywhere.
The issue we see most often is brands nodding to E-E-A-T on their homepage or blog while leaving product pages, category pages, and service pages thin and generic.
E-E-A-T needs to be present wherever a customer – or an AI agent shortlisting options – might evaluate you.
Focus on “why”, not just “what”
Not just making a product recommendation, but explaining who made it, what expertise underpins it, and why this recommendation serves its specific audience.
An AI system looking to cite a credible source is looking for exactly this… but so is a human who has been handed an AI shortlist and is deciding whether to trust it.
Digital PR plays a direct role here.
E-E-A-T signals built through earned media coverage, expert commentary in licensed publications, and authoritative third-party endorsements directly influence AI citation likelihood. These signals feed both the knowledge banks that LLMs draw on and the web search results they retrieve in real time.
Demonstrate expertise and trustworthiness everywhere you might be evaluated, not just on your homepage.
Recommended Reading
Google's E-E-A-T documentation
The primary source for what Google means by Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Google's Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines
The primary source document for what Google actually means by E-E-A-T, and the basis on which quality raters assess pages.
Semrush: "How We Built a Content Optimization Tool for AI Search"
Research across thousands of citations identifying which content qualities drive AI citation behaviour. The key finding was that content that reads like marketing copy actively works against you.