{"id":1229,"slug":"rule-demonstrate-first-hand-experience-on-service-pages-for-eeat","title":"Rule: Demonstrate first-hand experience explicitly on service pages — named staff, real credentials, real projects — not slogans","kind":"rule","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","smb-owner","candid-team"],"topics":["seo-content","e-e-a-t","agency-methodology"],"reference_body":"**Rule:** Service pages must show evidence of **first-hand experience** — author bylines, real credentials, real project detail (addresses, photos, dates where allowable). Generic, templated, AI-spun content is now a liability, not neutral.\n\n**Why:** The extra \"E\" added to E-A-T in December 2022 ([[helpful-content-update-aug-18-2022-eeat-extra-e]]) is *Experience* — Google's evaluators are now explicitly checking for evidence the author has done the thing. The March 2024 absorption of Helpful Content into the core algorithm raised the stakes; Google stated the goal of cutting low-quality unoriginal content by 45%.\n\n**How to apply:** On every service page — who specifically did this work, when, where, what did they learn. For Ontario builders this overlaps with the regulator-disclosure rules ([[rule-display-hcra-licence-number-link-to-obd-on-builder-sites]] if present in the KB).\n\n**Related:** [[rule-answer-customer-questions-in-first-100-150-words-for-ai-citation]].","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"helpful-content-update-aug-18-2022-eeat-extra-e","title":"Helpful Content Update (August 18, 2022) + E-E-A-T extra \"E\" for Experience (December 2022) + folded into core (March 2024); Google said the changes aimed to cut low-quality unoriginal content by 45%","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-businesses-found-on-web-google-smb-june-2026","title":"Research brief: How businesses got found on the web — a then→now timeline (Google-focused, SMB lens, June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-18T00:10:55.897Z","updated_at":"2026-06-18T00:10:55.897Z"}