Why should Google trust you? Legal notice, references and authors as ranking factors

Google trusts a website when it’s clear who is behind it, what those people can do and whether others can vouch for them. A complete legal notice, an About Us page featuring real people, verifiable references and advice articles with identifiable authors are therefore more than box-ticking exercises: they’re tangible signals for search. Google sums them up with the acronym E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust. This article explains what that means, why it matters especially for small businesses and SMEs – and what you can improve in an hour.

Why should Google trust you? The search engine’s perspective

Imagine someone rings your doorbell. Outside stands a person with no company van, no name badge and no business card, saying: “I repair boilers. I’m the best.” You’d probably start by asking: who are you, exactly? And how am I supposed to know you can do the job?

Google faces exactly this situation every day, billions of times over. The search engine can’t visit your business, see a master craftsman’s certificate on the wall or ask a satisfied customer. It only knows what’s written online. And everyone claims to be the best. On top of that, we’ve recently seen a flood of automatically generated content that sounds like expert advice, but has no one willing to stand behind it.

That’s why Google looks for proof of trustworthiness: information that can be checked, people with names and track records, and endorsements from third parties. If your website doesn’t show who you are and what you can do, you have to convince not just customers – but the search engine first.

E-E-A-T explained simply: the four letters of trust

Google employs more than 16,000 quality raters around the world, who assess search results using a public guide called the Search Quality Rater Guidelines. Their judgements don’t directly change the order of search results; they give Google a benchmark for improving its systems. The most important section is called E-E-A-T:

The first E, for Experience, was only added at the end of 2022. Since then, it has explicitly mattered whether someone is speaking from first-hand experience: a tiler who has renovated 300 bathrooms, not just an editor who has read about it. And the guidelines state explicitly: Trust is the most important member of the E-E-A-T family. The other three simply support it.

It’s important to know that E-E-A-T isn’t a score Google assigns to your website, or a switch you can flip. But in its guidance on helpful content, Google makes clear that its systems favour content that visibly demonstrates these qualities. The bar is particularly high for anything involving health, money or safety – such as medical practices, law firms, financial advisers and tradespeople working with gas and electricity. Google calls these topics “Your Money or Your Life”.

The legal notice: more than a page you’re required to have

In Germany, commercial websites are required to have a legal notice anyway (Section 5 of the German Digital Services Act (DDG)). Similar rules apply across the EU and, in the UK, under the E-Commerce Regulations 2002. Many businesses treat it like the leaflet in a medicine packet: it has to be there, but nobody reads it. For Google, it’s the opposite – the first answer to the question, “Who’s behind this website?”.

According to its guidelines, Google’s quality raters are specifically asked to check who is responsible for a website and how to contact them. A page without a name, address and contact details is a warning sign – and, for a shop or medical practice, can even be grounds for the lowest rating. That makes your legal notice a mark of trust:

• Complete: name, legal form, address, telephone number and email address; for tradespeople and professionals, their professional title and responsible chamber; commercial register and VAT ID, where applicable.

• Consistent everywhere: the same details as on your Google Business Profile, Facebook and business directories. Inconsistencies undermine trust – with Google and AI assistants alike.

• Easy to find: linked from every page in the footer, using exactly this label.

• With a human face: an About us page featuring the people behind the business, photos of day-to-day work instead of stock images, the year it was founded and its story.

References: evidence, not claims

“Quality, reliability, customer satisfaction” – those three words appear on what feels like every other business website. They’re not wrong, but they don’t prove anything. Google – and AI assistants even more so – have little use for self-praise. Verifiable evidence, on the other hand, goes a long way:

1. Projects with details. Not “many references available on request”, but: roof renovation of a block of flats in Oldenburg, 2025, 420 square metres, with before-and-after photos. Numbers, places and years are what machines recognise as facts.

2. Customer testimonials with names. A review from “M. from K.” isn’t worth much; one from “the Brinkmann family, Oldenburg”, with their permission, is worth its weight in gold. Better still are reviews on Google itself – find out how to get them in Get more Google reviews.

3. Certificates and memberships. Master craftsman’s certificate, trade guild, Chamber of Industry and Commerce, professional association, manufacturer training – include the year and, where possible, a link to the organisation that issued them.

4. Mentions by others. A feature in the local newspaper, a listing on an association’s website, your logo on a manufacturer’s partner page: this is authority in the E-E-A-T sense, because it’s someone else saying it, not you.

5. Accurate figures. “Since 1987”, “over 2,000 customers”, “training provider since 2001” – factual, specific and verifiable.

Authors: who’s actually speaking here?

Many businesses now have an advice section: “When is a heat pump worth it?”, “How much does a dental crown cost?”, “How do I look after parquet flooring?”. That’s a good idea, because these are exactly the kinds of questions people ask Google and ChatGPT. The problem is that the author is often listed as “Admin” – or not named at all.

That’s a missed opportunity. A guide that clearly shows it was written or reviewed by the dentist demonstrates experience and expertise at a glance – the same text by “Admin” shows nothing. Here’s how to do it better:

• Add an author byline with their name and role: “By Jana Weber, dentist and practice owner since 2012”.

• Add a short author bio at the end: two or three sentences about their background and area of expertise, a genuine photo, and a link to their profile on LinkedIn or the website of their professional chamber or association. Google can check there that this person really exists.

• Write from first-hand experience: “In our workshop, we see … every week” rather than “Experts recommend …”. Use your own observations, figures and photos.

• Reviewed by an expert: If an agency writes your content, still name the person with the relevant expertise – for example, “Expert review by …”.

• Machine-readable: Your web agency can add authors as structured data (Schema.org: Person with name, occupation and profile link). This helps Google recognise that the same person wrote multiple articles.

And what about AI-generated content? Google doesn’t ban it. But it does expect someone to take clear responsibility for it – and considers websites that publish large volumes of content without adding anything original to be spam. An AI draft that a master craftsperson revises using their experience and publishes under their own name is fine. A hundred articles by “Admin” aren’t.

What this means for AI assistants

If you want ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity to recommend your business, you need the same evidence of trust – only more urgently. An AI answer has room for two or three businesses. It names the ones it can identify with confidence: who are they, where are they based, what do they do, and who vouches for them? A business with a complete legal notice, an About us page with names and a dozen mentions on other websites is a known entity to AI. A business with “Welcome to our homepage” is just a rumour. Find out more in What is GEO?.

The 10-minute check: how trustworthy does your website look?

Open your website as if you were a sceptical new customer and work through this list:

1. Does your legal notice name a real person and provide their address, telephone number and email address?

2. Is there an About Us page with genuine photos and someone’s professional background?

3. Are there at least three case studies with a location, year and details?

4. Do advice articles name an author and their role?

5. Are certificates, memberships and awards listed and linked to?

6. Do your business name, address and opening hours match your Google Business Profile?

7. Does the browser show a padlock (HTTPS), and can visitors access your privacy policy and legal notice from the footer?

8. Have you received Google reviews in the last three months – and have you replied to them?

Every ‘no’ is a task for this week. And you can take care of each one without an agency.

Conclusion: Trust is built through hard work

Google doesn’t reward websites that look trustworthy, but those that can prove they are. That’s good news for small businesses and medium-sized companies: you already have the evidence – your master craftsman’s certificate, customer list, 30 years of experience and satisfied neighbours. It just hasn’t made it onto your website yet. Taking your legal notice, About Us page, case studies and author details seriously lays the foundation on which every other SEO measure can have an impact – on Google and AI assistants alike.