Google: EEAT Isn't A Ranking Factor Nor A Thing That Factors Into Other Factors

We've covered Google saying E-E-A-T is not a ranking factor too many times here but have we covered EEAT not being a thing that factors into other Google ranking factors? That is what Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan said the other day on X.

Danny Sullivan wrote, "It's not a ranking factor. It's not a thing that's going to factor into other factors." This is when he was talking about "No, EEAT is not a ranking signal."

Ryan J. Brown asked:

Can you say if it factors into rankings? Example, I have an interview questions website. If I hired an ex Amazon recruiter to write Amazon interview questions, that alone should improve my ranking? Right? Maybe only a fraction of a fraction but it should be a good thing?

So he responded no.

Here is his full response:

It's not a ranking factor. It's not a thing that's going to factor into other factors. Having an expert write things doesn't magically make you rank better, because 1) anyone could self declare someone to be an expert, and that means nothing and 2) we don't somehow try to check and say "yes, that's an expert." What would be a good thing is having an expert write content that people like an appreciate, because the expertise they have is self-apparent. And if people like your content, you're naturally lining up with completely different actual singles we use to reward people-first satisfying content.

I mean, Google said this before - renting an expert won't help you with EEAT.

Here are those posts:

Honestly, I'm at a loss sometimes what else to say. We get asked things like:

Is EEAT a ranking signal?

And say "No, EEAT is not a ranking signal"

And people go "Well, what does ranking really mean. Maybe it's signals? They didn't say it's not signals!"

So do we have a signal…

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) February 5, 2024

It's not a ranking factor. It's not a thing that's going to factor into other factors. Having an expert write things doesn't magically make you rank better, because 1) anyone could self declare someone to be an expert, and that means nothing and 2) we don't somehow try to check…

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) February 7, 2024

Forum discussion at X.