Could my site have a reputation or trust issue?

Google uses E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) and reputation signals.

• No clear author or about information Thin or low-quality content Negative reviews
• Audit your content for E-E-A-T (authors, dates, sources) Check backlink profile and
• Add author and about information Publish in-depth, accurate content Build backlinks and

Google uses E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) and reputation signals. When your site or content is perceived as low trust—e.g. thin content, no clear author, or negative sentiment—rankings can suffer. Building expertise, authority, and trust through content and signals can help. Practical context: prioritise one representative URL, confirm the exact blocker with Search Console and live testing, then apply the fix in templates or settings so the issue does not repeat site-wide. Track impressions, indexed page counts, and click recovery for at least two crawl cycles before closing the task. Practical context: prioritise one representative URL, confirm the exact blocker with Search Console and live testing, then apply the fix in templates or settings so the issue does not repeat…

No clear author or about information. Thin or low-quality content. Negative reviews or press. Lack of credentials or citations. Spammy or manipulative history. New or unknown site with no backlinks or mentions.

Common examples

A real-world example: after a site update, a business saw visibility drop for "Site reputation". They checked Search Console, found the blocking issue, fixed it, and regained impressions over the following crawl cycles.

How to diagnose

Audit your content for E-E-A-T (authors, dates, sources). Check backlink profile and brand mentions. Look for negative content or reviews. Compare with top-ranking competitors. Review Google's quality rater guidelines themes.

Recommended fixes

Add author and about information. Publish in-depth, accurate content. Build backlinks and citations. Address negative content or reputation where possible. Be transparent and avoid manipulation. Improve over time. Practical context: prioritise one representative URL, confirm the exact blocker with Search Console and live testing, then apply the fix in templates or settings so the issue does not repeat site-wide. Track impressions, indexed page counts, and click recovery for at least two crawl cycles before closing the task. Practical context: prioritise one representative URL, confirm the exact blocker with Search Console and live testing, then apply the fix in templates or settings so the issue does not repeat site-wide. Track impressions, indexed page counts, and click recovery for at least two crawl cycles before closing the task. Practical context: prioritise one representative URL, confirm the exact blocker with Search Console and live testing, then apply the fix in templates or settings so the issue does not repeat site-wide. Track impressions, indexed page counts, and click recovery for at least two crawl cycles before closing the task. Practical context: prioritise one representative URL, confirm the exact blocker with Search Console and live testing, then apply the fix in templates or settings so the issue does not repeat site-wide. Track impressions, indexed page counts, and click recovery for at least two crawl cycles before closing the task. Practical context: prioritise one representative URL, confirm the exact blocker with Search Console and live testing, then apply the fix in templates or settings so the issue does not repeat site-wide. Track impressions, indexed page counts, and click recovery for at least two crawl cycles before closing the task. Practical context: prioritise one representative URL, confirm the exact blocker with Search Console and live testing, then apply the fix in templates or settings so the issue does not repeat site-wide. Track impressions, indexed page counts, and click recovery for at least two crawl cycles before closing the task.