Gary Illyes Interview - Happiness and Sunshine from Google | Discussion with Top Google Algorithm Expert about current Search trends! #502

No. Gary Illyes states directly that EAT is not a ranking signal. It is a framework written for human quality raters to explain what Google algorithms look for. The best source to understand EAT is the publicly available raters guidelines document, which he describes as over 150 pages long.

Not always, but links matter more in less mature language markets. Gary Illyes explains that on the English-language internet Google understands the web well enough that pages can rank without external links. In other language areas, a lack of links creates a data void that makes ranking much harder.

Gary Illyes recommends specializing in one thing and doing it exceptionally well, optimizing images so the business appears in image search results, and creating a painless purchase experience. He uses a small Zurich bakery that specialized in croissants and offered fast bike delivery as a real example.

Google shifted from treating no-follow as a directive to treating it as a hint, matching what most other search engines already did. This allows Google to discover harmful content such as spam or malware links that were previously invisible because a no-follow annotation hid them from the algorithm.