E-E-A-T and Trust Signals

E-E-A-T is the single most actionable SEO lever an indie SaaS founder has — and most founders have never actually read what it requires. If you're competing against funded companies with PR budgets and domain authority built over a decade, you can't outspend them. You can outsubstantiate them. This article explains what Google's E-E-A-T guidelines actually mean, how Google evaluates them, where indie founders consistently fall short, and exactly what to fix this week. The [TrustGrowth SEO blog for indie SaaS founders](https://trustgrowth.ai/blog) covers this framework in depth because it's the foundation everything else rests on.

Google's quality raters evaluate 24+ specific signals across Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Here's the complete breakdown of what they are and how to improve each.