Entity and trust · Branch E.A, Authorship and expertise
E-03 Who, How and Why must be explainable
For important content, it must be possible to explain honestly who produced it, how it was produced or tested, and why it was published.
- Scope
- All public content
- Priority
- High priority.
- Quality bucket
- Entity and trust
- Legacy coverage
- SEO-14
Why it matters
Without knowing who made a page, how it was made and why it exists, readers cannot judge whether it deserves their trust. Google's people-first content guidance uses these three questions to separate content made to help people from content made for other reasons. Being open about testing, data and any AI assistance also stops the page from appearing to hide its origins.
How to implement
- Name the real author or editor on important pages.
- Explain how the content was produced, such as testing, data, AI assistance or methodology.
- State the genuine purpose of helping the user.
- Check these three points on every pillar and review page.
Checklist
- Who: the real author or editor.
- How: testing, data, AI assistance, methodology.
- Why: the real purpose of helping the user.
How to audit
- Check the Who, How and Why fields for every important pillar or review page.
How UltimateSEO checks this automatically
This control needs human evidence: whether the site explains who produced the content, how it was produced and why it exists.
States used: PASS, FAIL, UNKNOWN, NOT_APPLICABLE or BLOCKED. UNKNOWN is never shown as a pass. How states work.
Sources
Part of The UltimateSEO Framework v4.1, revised 2026-10-07. Evidence states, control states and the publish gate are explained on the hub.