Is E-A-T just related to author or does it also apply to the brand?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

• 
  Tim Capper: It typically applies to the site itself and how it views the quality and authoritativeness of the content based on the genre of the site.
  
  So if it was a medical site, Google will try and understand the doctors, are they qualified and does the published content meet medical standards.
  
  If it was a plumber, then it would like to see relevant trade associations - content not so much in this regard, as long as well written and makes sense to the user.
  
  So its not a catch all.
  
  
• 
  Richard Hearne: Tim Capper I wonder has anyone tried to research site-level versus document-level attribution of EAT? It`s still a black box IMO, second only to Discover (and they overlap).
  
  
• 
  Kristine Schachinger: Tim Capper respectfully they don`t do that.
  
  
• 
  Kristine Schachinger: Google doesn`t know if it`s your money or life it only knows it at the query level and they don`t evaluate authors or facts or accuracy -- they`ve stated all this
  
  
• 
  Richard Hearne: I don`t think that`s accurate. They most certainly can tell at the page level if the content is YMYL. Define "evaluate authors" please.
  
  
• 
  Kristine Schachinger: Richard Hearne they cannot they can tell if the queries are your money or your life because queries are known entities.
  
  The do not care who your author is or if you have one.
  
  
• 
  Kristine Schachinger: It is nothing but something in the Quality Raters Guide that`s meant to give the Quality Raters a way to understand how to rate a website in response to Google testing algorithm changes.
  
  If you`re going to define it however, Gary said the most relatable thing is citations and inbound links.
  
  There is no authorship and there is no expertise authoritative or trust that`s measured by Google outside standard ranking factors.
  
  
• 
  Richard Hearne: Kristine Schachinger I think you`re conflating a few different things here.
  
  Why do you think they would train human raters to evaluate results based on these factors if they were not trying top evaluate the algorithm`s capability to measure those factors? Gary get asked "what is EAT". He answers it`s something from the QRG. He says EAT isn`t part of algorithm. He does not say that EAT is not a more basic representation of the factors baked into the algo.
  
  
• 
  Stockbridge Truslow: I always look at it as E-A-T is not a factor of the algo but what all the factors in the algo are trying to amount to. It`s the dividend, not a factor. It`s the desired result, not an element to achieve that result.
  
  
• 
  Kristine Schachinger: Stockbridge Truslow yes Google States it as part of what they`re trying to surface in the algorithms -- it`s the goal of the algorithms -- it`s not how you SEO your content.
  
  
• 
  Michael Martinez: Stockbridge Truslow I describe E-A-T as the alternative way of determining if the kids did their homework right - and the homework is about assembling a search results page, not ranking a Website.
  
  
• 
  Kristine Schachinger: Michael Martinez I like that
  
  
• 
  Michael Martinez: You cannot optimize for E-A-T because there is no E-A-T algorithm. It describes the qualities of a Website that Google engineers aspire to reward in their algorithms.
  
  
• 
  Kristine Schachinger: Michael Martinez Yes and the funny thing is they even say that on the website.