E-E-A-T, Citations & Authority Patents Reference
70+ patents across all 4 E-E-A-T dimensions — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — with engineering implementation checklist.
Experience Signals
| Patent | Description |
|---|---|
| US8150842B2 | Author reputation — time-based reputation growth through demonstrated experience |
| US8645396B2 | Engagement-based author ranking over time |
Hands-on experience markers detected in content text:
- First-person accounts ("I tested this for 30 days...")
- Personal data from direct use ("In my experience measuring...")
- Specific outcome reporting ("My results showed a 23% improvement...")
- Photos of actual products or locations used
Expertise Signals
| Patent | Description |
|---|---|
| US8458196B1 | Topic Authority — per-topic expertise signatures, key phrase extraction |
| US20210004416A1 | Topical Authority Ranking (2021) — moves beyond domain authority to page-level topical expertise |
| US9767157B2 | N-gram quality analysis — writing quality depth signals |
| Website Representation Vector (2018) | Expert/Apprentice/Layperson YMYL scoring |
| US20140250127A1 | Tight thematic clusters = specialization signal |
| US10108694 | Content clustering for topical authority |
Topic Authority (US8458196B1): Per-topic expertise signatures are extracted from a site's content. Sites with tight thematic clusters score higher for specialization on those topics. A general site covering everything scores lower for expertise than a specialist covering one domain deeply.
Authoritativeness Signals
| Patent | Description |
|---|---|
| US6285999B1 | PageRank — foundational citation-based authority |
| US7603350B1 | TrustRank — seed site trust propagation |
| US9165040B1 | TrustRank distance — link graph distance from seed sites |
| US8577893B1 | Contextual link weighting — topically relevant links worth more |
| US7565358B2 | Agent Rank — expert agent links boost target authority |
| US9875313B1 | Ranking authors and their content in the same framework |
Agent Rank (US7565358B2): Links from expert authors to a piece of content boost that content's authority. The author's reputation propagates through links — a link from a known expert carries more weight than a link from an unknown source.
Trustworthiness Signals
| Patent | Description |
|---|---|
| US9684871B2 | Fact verification — multi-source comparison (web, databases, encyclopedias) |
| US9015037B2 | Interactive fact checking system |
| US8707459B2 | Content originality — original-to-copied ratio |
| US8126882B2 | Third-party author review signals |
| US7533092B2 | Good sites don't link to spam (TrustRank inverse) |
| US8554601B1 | Managing content based on reputation |
Fact Verification (US9684871B2): Google cross-references factual claims against multiple sources: web pages, structured databases, encyclopedias, and authoritative institutions. Claims that contradict the consensus receive lower trustworthiness scores.
Author Entity Patents
| Patent | Description |
|---|---|
| US8150842B2 | Author Reputation — credibility scoring affects ranking |
| US8126882B2 | Credibility of online content authors |
| US11275895B1 | Author Vectors — neural network writing style fingerprint |
| US8606792B1 | Scoring authors of posts |
| US9324112B2 | Ranking authors in social media |
| US20140279798A1 | Expertise summary derivation |
Author Vectors (US11275895B1): A neural network trained on an author's body of work creates a writing style fingerprint. This fingerprint allows Google to attribute content to an author even without explicit attribution markup — and to build a reputation model for that author across all their content.
E-E-A-T Engineering Checklist
1. Author Entity Build
(Patents: US8150842B2, US11275895B1)
[ ] Dedicated author page with real name, credentials, and photo
[ ] Experience description (years in field, specific projects)
[ ] Topic coverage list (what subjects this author covers)
[ ] Publications, certifications, years of experience listed
[ ] Author byline linked to author page on ALL authored content
[ ] Off-site mentions: guest posts, interviews, podcasts, LinkedIn
[ ] Schema markup: Person type with jobTitle, worksFor, sameAs2. Topical Authority Map
(Patents: US8458196B1, US20210004416A1)
[ ] Map all content to topical clusters (pillar + spoke model)
[ ] One pillar page per core topic (comprehensive coverage)
[ ] Multiple spoke pages per subtopic (depth)
[ ] Cross-link all spokes to pillar AND to each other
[ ] Avoid orphan pages (every page linked from cluster)
[ ] Content gaps identified and queued3. Trust Signals Stack
(TrustRank patent family)
[ ] Privacy Policy linked from footer
[ ] Terms of Service linked from footer
[ ] SSL certificate installed (HTTPS, no mixed content)
[ ] Contact page with real phone number and/or address
[ ] About page with real team information and photos
[ ] Physical address displayed (for local businesses)
[ ] Press mentions from authoritative external sources
[ ] Wikipedia or Knowledge Panel presence (if applicable)4. Fact-Check Layer
(Patent: US9684871B2)
[ ] Primary source link for every factual claim
[ ] Date of data included with statistics
[ ] Government or .edu sources where available (.gov, .edu preferred)
[ ] No claims that contradict scientific consensus
[ ] Citations from recognized institutions in the field5. YMYL Compliance
(Patent: Website Representation Vector 2018)
[ ] Medical content: MD/DO credential or medical review visible
[ ] Financial content: CFP/CPA/CFA credential visible
[ ] Legal content: JD + bar admission + jurisdiction visible
[ ] Professional guidelines referenced (CDC, AMA, IRS, ABA)
[ ] "Consult a professional" disclaimer present
[ ] Review date visible on time-sensitive YMYL contentRelated Learning Modules
- Module 20: E-E-A-T & Citations — Full E-E-A-T patent coverage
- Google QRG Compliance Audit — QRG application
- Agent Rank Author Audit — Author entity building