Trust signals are the visible evidence that a real, accountable expert stands behind a page: a named author with a byline linking to a real profile, credentials that can be verified elsewhere (LinkedIn, ORCID, Wikidata), machine-readable published and updated dates, claims linked to primary sources, and site-level pages for contact, privacy and editorial policy. Google's quality rater guidelines call the bundle experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust. AI engines corroborate the same signals before citing a source. This hub links the pillar-three audit checks, the author entity page, the Entity Authority framework and Laurelin's own published Non-Commodity audit.
The third pillar is the experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust that tells Google and AI models a real, accountable person stands behind the page. It is the newest pillar on the site, opened with our own Non-Commodity audit as the first proof, and the priority for the next commissions.
What has Laurelin published on E-E-A-T trust signals?
Which of the 330 audit checks belong to E-E-A-T trust signals?
22 checks in the Trust Signals pillar of the 330-check AEO audit, each cited to a primary source. The most consulted first.
- No named author
- Author has no bio/credentials
- No author Person schema
- Author not linked to consistent profile
- No expertise signals on YMYL
- No first-hand experience evident
- Claims without sources
- Citations to low-quality sources
- Factual inaccuracies
- No ‘last reviewed/updated’ on time-sensitive content
- Anonymous content where authority matters
- No About page
- No contact information
- No company/address details (YMYL/commerce)
- Missing privacy policy/terms
- No editorial/sourcing policy
- Excessive/deceptive ads
- No HTTPS (trust)
- Unverifiable reviews/testimonials
- Misleading/clickbait titles vs content
- No trust badges/affiliations (commerce)
- Inconsistent NAP across the site
Frequently asked questions about E-E-A-T trust signals
What are E-E-A-T trust signals on a web page?
Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, as Google's search quality rater guidelines define them, made visible in markup: a named author with a linked profile and Person schema, dates, cited sources, an about page, a contact page and an editorial policy. They are not a direct ranking factor but they are what raters and answer engines check before trusting a page.
Does an author page really matter for AI search?
Yes. Answer engines resolve the author to an entity before weighing the page, so a byline that links to a profile with resolvable sameAs identifiers (Wikidata, ORCID, LinkedIn) is corroborated, while an anonymous page or a name with no profile cannot be.