As Google continues to shift towards a safety-first, trust-led search ecosystem, E-E-A-T is no longer just a YMYL concern - it's an element driving rankings across the board - but it's evolved. While finance, medical, legal, insurance and health websites feel the impact most acutely, the reality in 2025 is that every brand competing for visibility now operates under the same credibility expectations. E-E-A-T has moved beyond just a focus of on-page optimisation and into the realm of real-world trust, driven by expert authority, institutional citations, regulatory signals and off-site brand reputation.

This talk explores the evolution of E-E-A-T into a multi-layered trust framework that applies across all industries. It shows how Google blends content quality, author identity, brand credibility and third-party validation to determine which sources are safe, reliable and worthy of prominence, whether you're operating in a high-risk YMYL category or traditionally low risk sector now competing in an AI-first SERP.