Entity Authority & E-E-A-T

Entity Authority is about making your business a recognized "entity" in AI knowledge systems — not just a website with text, but a known business with a name, location, expertise, and reputation that AI can verify.

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — Google's framework for evaluating content quality. AI systems use similar signals to decide which sources to cite.

The key components: - **Experience**: First-hand knowledge demonstrated in content (e.g., "After 20 years collecting vinyl...") - **Expertise**: Credentials, qualifications, or deep domain knowledge - **Authoritativeness**: Recognition from other entities (backlinks, citations, reviews, social proof) - **Trustworthiness**: Accurate information, clear business identity, physical address, contact info

When AI systems generate answers, they must choose which sources to cite. Entity authority is the primary factor in this decision:

- AI systems prefer citing sources with verifiable business information (address, phone, email) - Author credentials signal expertise — "a blog post" vs "an article by a 20-year industry expert" - Consistent entity information across the web (NAP: Name, Address, Phone) builds trust signals - Schema.org Organization and Person markup makes entity information machine-readable - Google's Knowledge Graph and AI Overviews heavily weight E-E-A-T signals - Sites with strong entity authority get cited in AI answers; sites without get ignored

**1. Organization schema on every page** ```json { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Your Business Name", "url": "https://example.com", "logo": "https://example.com/logo.png", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "123 Main St", "addressLocality": "City", "addressRegion": "ST", "postalCode": "12345" }, "email": "hello@example.com", "telephone": "+1-555-123-4567", "sameAs": [ "https://instagram.com/yourbusiness", "https://facebook.com/yourbusiness" ] } ```

**2. Author bios on every article** Include a section at the bottom of each article with: - Author name (consistent everywhere) - Photo - Credentials and experience - Links to social profiles

**3. Person schema for authors** ```json { "@type": "Person", "name": "Author Name", "jobTitle": "Founder & Expert", "knowsAbout": ["topic1", "topic2"], "sameAs": ["https://linkedin.com/in/author"] } ```

**4. NAP consistency** Ensure your business Name, Address, and Phone number are identical across your website, Google Business Profile, social media, and directory listings.

**5. Demonstrate experience in content** Use first-person accounts, original photos, specific examples from your work, and detailed case studies rather than generic advice.

- Inconsistent business names or author names across pages and schema - No physical address or contact information — AI systems consider this a trust red flag - Generic author attribution ("Admin" or "Editorial Team") instead of real names - Missing author bios — articles without stated credentials carry less weight - Not linking to external profiles (LinkedIn, Google Business) via sameAs - Claiming expertise without demonstrating it through content

- Google's E-E-A-T guidelines (Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines) - Google Business Profile — Establish local entity presence - Schema.org Organization and Person type references