The Importance of E-A-T in SEO
To put it another way, if you are optimizing your website for the current version of Google’s algorithm, you are already behind the competition.
Google has released a number of algorithm updates over the course of the past few years. These updates have shown us the general direction in which the company intends to take an organic search in the future, as well as the types of content and websites that Google considers to be the most suitable destinations for users. A significant number of these changes can be traced back to the E-A-T principles, and websites that have been adhering to these guidelines to a high degree are being rewarded with an increasing number of benefits with each new update.
Sites that are striving to optimize by focusing on previous SEO strategies may achieve success in the near term; but, because these sites are not looking into the future of organic search, they may be prone to having a negative impact as a result of Google’s inevitable and continual algorithm modifications.
It is quite evident that E-A-T is where SEO will be headed in the future.
However, first…
What Does EAT Stand For?
Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness is the meaning behind the acronym E.A.T., which is used in SEO. It was initially published in the document known as Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines, which is distributed to those who evaluate the quality of Google’s search results on their behalf.
• Expertise focuses on the creator or author of the content and their level of skill or knowledge. • Authoritativeness reflects on the creator or author, the content itself, and the site as a whole. • Expertise focuses on the creator or author of the content and their level of skill or knowledge.
• Reliability is determined by the content’s creator or author, as well as by the content itself and the website as a whole.
In point of fact, the Quality Rater Guidelines make reference to E-A-T more than 180 times and even more.
Is There a Role for the E-A-T in Ranking?
No, not by itself by any means. However, there are a lot of different things that show good E-A-T in SEO, and any of those things might be regarded a ranking factor on their own. It can be confusing, but the best approach to think about it is to examine the possibility that there are signals that exhibit good E.A.T. that also happen to be criteria that are commonly thought to be ranking factors. For instance, it is generally believed that high-quality backlinks from credible sites are powerful ranking criteria and signals. These connections might also help signal E-A-T concepts in a good light. Therefore, while links by themselves are considered to be ranking elements, they are not considered to be a ranking factor when it comes to E-A-T; rather, links are considered to be a signal of strong E-A-T.
YMYL in addition to E-A-T
Let’s throw one more abbreviation into the mix. Your Money, Your Life is an acronym that is used to identify websites, webpages, or subjects that have the potential to influence a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. YMYL is an acronym for this phrase. Shopping, medical information, financial advice, news, and legal information are some examples of the topics that fall under the description of a YMYL topic. There are many other topics that may not explicitly fit into any of these categories but still fall under the concept of a YMYL topic.
When viewed through this particular lens, it is easy to see why E-A-T plays such a significant role in Google’s algorithm. Google’s goal is to direct people to the web pages that are the best available and which provide them with the content that is the most comprehensive, accurate, expert, authoritative, and trustworthy. Users will have the best experience possible as a result, which will encourage them to continue using Google’s services.
Because of this, E-A-T is an even more significant factor for YMYL websites. To give you an idea, absolutely anyone may launch a website on the topic of real estate investing; nevertheless, just because they do so does not signify that they are an authorized and trustworthy expert in the field. In this day and age of widespread misinformation, Google would rather direct visitors to websites that they are aware have strong E-A-T signals behind them since the content found on those websites is more likely to be beneficial and true.
What exactly are some of these indications or hints that Google has been giving us about the future algorithm and how it will look?
The Medical Status Report
The Medic upgrade, which was launched in August of 2018, concentrated mostly on websites dealing with medical topics. This update was not identified by Google; rather, it was called by the SEO community in its entirety. In point of fact, when the update was being carried out, Google had nothing more to say than the following:
After that, it was up to the greater community to investigate, evaluate, and comprehend what had actually taken place with this fundamental algorithm modification. Although this update did not concentrate solely on health and medical websites, those kinds of sites were the ones that benefited the most from it:
We have seen more traditional and reputable websites, such as the Mayo Clinic, the CDC, the Cleveland Clinic, and the FDA gain more organic visibility as a result of this update and other smaller non-announced updates that have occurred over time. On the other hand, websites such as MedicineNet and Psychology Today have experienced a decline in their organic visibility.
During that time period, this particular algorithm update was the single most important one that was connected with distinct E-A-T signs.
Given that Google makes thousands of changes to their algorithm each year (over 4,500 changes in 2020 alone), there have undoubtedly been many smaller, non-announced updates with E-A-T as a focus. The Medic update certainly hasn’t been the only algorithm update to take E-A-T into consideration, but given that Google makes thousands of changes to their algorithm each year, there have undoubtedly been many smaller, non-announced updates. However, the Medic upgrade stands noteworthy due to the magnitude of its influence and the fact that it constituted a significant overhaul of the game’s underlying algorithms. On average, these significant fundamental updates are only put out in conjunction with an announcement from Google three to four times per year.
The Improved Version of the Content
In August of 2022, about the time that this article is being published, Google made an announcement about yet another tweak to their algorithm, but this time they gave it a name: the Google Helpful Content Update. Quite intuitive and descriptive. Its primary goal is to reward and better rank content that is written by humans for humans rather than content that is written solely to rank better with only SEO performance in mind. This is in contrast to content that is written solely for the purpose of improving its performance in search engine rankings.
This update is one that will have effects across the entire website, which means that the machine learning component of the algorithm will examine the content that is present on the whole website in an effort to determine whether or not a sizeable portion of the content is unhelpful or of poor quality. If that’s the case, the entire website might get penalized, which would result in a major loss in its ranking. According to Google, the signal is weighted in such a way that websites that have only some problematic content will be influenced to a lesser degree than those that contain a majority of unhelpful content.
Therefore, what role does E.A.T. play in this update?
Google has released a support page for an update with the heading “What Creators Should Know About Google’s Helpful Content Update.” Within this document are six questions that content creators should ask themselves about the content that they produce:
• Do you already have an established or planned audience for your company or website? If that audience came straight to you, do you think they would find the information useful?
• Does your content exhibit a clear demonstration of first-hand expertise as well as a depth of knowledge (for instance, competence that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?
• Does your website have a major objective or central point of interest?
• Will someone who reads your content feel as though they’ve gained sufficient knowledge about a subject to assist them in accomplishing their objective?
• If someone reads your content, will they feel as though they’ve had a fulfilling experience by the time they’ve finished?
• Are you keeping our recommendations for core updates and product evaluations in mind when making decisions?
When we take a look at the second bullet, we can see that the concepts of Expertise and Authoritativeness are alluded to in a roundabout way. On the other hand, Google includes a section about how to avoid creating content for search engines first within the same document. The section poses the following question to readers: “Did you decide to enter some niche topic area without any real expertise, but rather mainly because you thought you’d get search traffic?”
It is now abundantly evident that Expertise is of critical importance. Sites that have been concentrating on optimizing their content for Google in its previous iteration will almost surely start to lag behind Google in its next iteration.
How to Improve Your E-A-T for Search Engine Optimization
It is essential that you have a solid understanding of what this implies for your website and how you can best future-proof it now that it has been firmly established that E-A-T will play an increasingly more critical role in Google’s algorithm.
The following are some significant methods that you can increase your E-A-T score:
1. Ensure that your content can be ascribed to a knowledgeable individual by giving them that responsibility.
It should come as no surprise that Google will perceive the content you are generating for your website as being of higher quality if it has been produced by or reviewed by an expert in the category, industry, or niche in which it is located.
2. Include a detailed version of their biographies on each and every page that the expert produces or reviews.
If you include a bio on the page itself, rather than just on the About Us page, Google will be able to attribute that expert with their qualifications and credentials in a more direct and immediate manner.
3. Expand that expert’s presence on search engine optimization sites.
Because Google will go outside of your site to try to get a notion of how respectable an expert is, it is crucial to provide additional external signals that Google can pick up on. This may be done by publishing authoritative content on other websites. This can take the shape of the expert publishing articles as a guest contributor on other websites, or it might take the form of the expert developing their own website on which they can talk about themselves and compile their credentials.
4. Conduct first-of-its-kind, authentic study and give it.
Google places a high emphasis on information that contributes to the ongoing discourse. Simply rewriting what is already ranking well is typically not enough to go up to the first page of search results. You may provide Google a cause to prioritize your website over the sites that are already ranking by conducting original and novel research and presenting it to the search engine.
5. Obtain high-quality mentions and links from credible sources and sites that are linked to your content.
The number of times that other websites that are considered to be credible reference, mention, or link to your website is one indicator of its authoritativeness. You can contribute to the growth of the site’s and your experts’ external authority by establishing connections with websites that are relevant to your category, industry, or specialty and providing them with compelling reasons to link to your website.
6. Acquire positive reviews on every reputable review websites possible.
Google places a lot of weight on reviews that are consistently favorable across major review platforms since this indicates to the search engine that the entity being reviewed is credible and an authority in its field.
7. Act in a reliable manner.
Don’t lie. Please cite your sources. In a time when spreading false information is common practice, the algorithm used by Google is always on the lookout for information that is as accurate as it can be. You can provide Google with clear trustworthiness signals by publishing credible information that is either well-researched or quoted extensively.
8. Make every effort to stay away from stuff that is excessively promotional.
Information that is first and foremost instructive will signal to Google that you are trying to provide useful content that will leave the user satisfied. This may not always be achievable, but it will demonstrate that you are trying to create valuable content. Because of the major role that this plays in their most recent Helpful Content Update, it should be a priority to offer users with the information that they are looking for before resorting to advertising strategies.
9. Always ensure that the content is current and relevant.
As a result of the fact that things are continually changing, assessing earlier content and keeping it up to date with fresh facts, statistics, and information will help illustrate all three of the E-A-T principles.
10. Audit your existing content
Because the algorithm is constantly being updated, previous content that may have performed well in the past may now be perceived as having lower E-A-T signals over time because the algorithm is always being updated. With the Useful Material Update, it is essential to ensure that all of the content on the site is helpful, as having some content that is less helpful than the rest might have an effect on the entire site.
11. Establish detailed About Us sections in your website.
Even while author biographies should be included on every page of content, providing lengthy “About Us” pages provides Google with an additional location to learn about the credentials and degrees of competence of the site’s authors and reviewers. These pages offer the possibility of going into greater depth than traditional on-page biographies would allow for.
12. Integrate connections to high-quality sources into your content If you add internal and external links to your material, especially links to high-quality sites on the internet, you may show Google that the information you are offering is factual, correct, and helpful.
13. Utilize author schema markup
Schema markup is an effective method for providing Google with important information about a webpage that is contained within the code. Because of this, you should make use of the author-specific schema that is offered because it is available.
Organic search will continue to exist for as long as individuals have a need to find information. Make it a priority to keep ahead of the curve when it comes to SEO by adhering to the best practices recommended by E-A-T. This will ensure that your website will not only avoid the bad effects of any future algorithm modifications, but may even benefit from them.
