E-E-A-T covers Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — but Trust is the broadest and most misunderstood component. Most SEO content focuses on Experience and Expertise (author credentials, first-hand knowledge) while Trust — the signals that confirm a site is a legitimate, honest operation rather than a misleading or manipulative one — receives relatively little specific attention.

This guide covers the specific trust signals that Google's quality systems evaluate, based on the Quality Rater Guidelines and observable algorithm behaviour.

Business Legitimacy Signals

Google's quality raters are explicitly instructed to check whether a website represents a real, legitimate business. The signals they verify, which map to algorithmic proxies Google uses:

Physical address. A verifiable physical address — not a PO box or virtual office — signals a real operation. For service businesses, a Google Business Profile with a verified address creates a business legitimacy signal that is independently verifiable. As we covered in our guide to entity SEO, the address in your GBP, on your contact page, and in your schema should all match exactly.

Business registration signals. Company registration numbers, VAT numbers, and professional body registration numbers that can be independently verified on official registrars create verifiable business legitimacy signals. Quality raters are instructed to verify these. A website that claims to be a registered business but provides no verifiable registration details receives lower trust ratings than one where the registration can be confirmed.

Phone number accessibility. A real phone number that reaches a person (rather than voicemail or an automated service) is a trust signal. Prominent display of a phone number that quality raters can actually dial and reach someone represents ongoing business operation.

Contact and Transparency Requirements

Your contact page is one of the most evaluated trust signals on your entire site. Google's quality raters specifically look for: a genuine contact email or form, a physical address, a phone number, and information about the organisation behind the site.

Sites with insufficient contact information receive lower Page Quality ratings in quality rater guidelines — and these ratings train the algorithm to apply similar quality assessments algorithmically. A one-line contact page with just a form creates measurably lower trust signals than a comprehensive contact page with multiple contact methods, a clear address, and information about the team.

Editorial Standards and Correction Policies

For sites publishing information (as opposed to pure service sites), editorial transparency is a trust signal. Major authoritative publishers have explicit editorial standards pages, correction policies, and editorial independence statements. These are the signals that quality raters use to assess whether content will be accurate, honest, and maintained.

For smaller sites, implementing: a clearly dated "last reviewed" note on factual articles, a correction/update log that shows factual errors were corrected when identified, and an editorial process note in your About page all contribute to editorial trust signals.

The About Page Trust Audit

Your About page is among the top three pages quality raters check after the homepage and a content page. A thorough About page for trust signals includes: the organisation's founding story and mission, the key people behind the site with real names and credentials, what makes the site's content authoritative on its topics, what editorial standards are maintained, and contact information for the editorial team.

The contrast: a generic About page saying "We are a team of SEO professionals passionate about helping businesses grow" provides almost no trust signals. An About page naming specific team members with their backgrounds, explaining the organisation's credentials, and providing verifiable information creates the trust signals quality raters and the algorithm are designed to find.

Privacy Policy and Terms of Service

These legal pages signal that the site operates professionally and understands its legal obligations. Sites without Privacy Policies or Terms of Service receive lower trust ratings from quality raters as they indicate either a lack of professional operation or potential data handling concerns. These pages are a low-effort, high-trust-signal investment — a legitimate Privacy Policy and ToS costs minutes to generate properly and provides a consistent trust signal that is checked in every quality evaluation.

SSL and Security Trust Signals

As we covered in our guide to HTTPS and SEO, HTTPS is both a ranking signal and a trust signal. Beyond the ranking benefit, a valid, properly configured SSL certificate verified with our SSL checker confirms to both users and Google's quality systems that the site takes security seriously — a baseline trust requirement for all sites in 2026.

Summary

Trust signals beyond E-E-A-T include verifiable business legitimacy (registered address, registration numbers), comprehensive contact information, editorial transparency for content sites, a thorough About page with real team information, Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, and consistent HTTPS security. Audit these signals systematically — they are frequently overlooked by SEOs focused on content and links, yet they form the trust foundation that determines how confidently Google ranks everything else you publish.

Continue reading: How to Run Data Studies That Earn Hundreds of Backlinks in 2026