Google E-E-A-T and its Importance in SEO

If you’re new to SEO, you may be curious what Google’s E-E-A-T is and why it matters. Below, we dive deeper into what E-E-A-T is, why it’s important, and how you can optimise it to improve your website’s search engine rankings. So, whether you’re a seasoned SEO expert or just getting started, read on to learn more about E-E-A-T and how it can help you succeed in digital marketing.

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

What is E-E-A-T?

E-E-A-T is an acronym representing: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

Google’s quality raters use these key factors to evaluate the quality of search results. The Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines document was made available online by Google in 2013 to assist webmasters in understanding what Google considers important in a web page. In December 2022, Google added “Experience” as a new criterion to the concept. Google utilises E-E-A-T as a crucial factor to assess the general quality of a webpage. The quality of a page has a considerable impact on its position in the organic search results of Google, so you need to consider this when creating content for your web pages.

Is E-E-A-T a ranking signal?

E-E-A-T is not a direct ranking factor for Google but remains an important concept that influences the search engine’s assessment of a web page’s quality. Google has referenced E-E-A-T over 100 times in its current version of the Search Quality Rater Guidelines and highlighted its significance in a white paper released in February 2019 titled “How Google Fights Disinformation“.

Despite lacking a specific metric for measuring E-E-A-T, Google evaluates other measurable factors to determine the quality of authors, web pages, websites, and brands. This evaluation process involves measuring and assessing website quality by search quality raters, whose feedback informs the Google algorithm. Additionally, Google’s algorithm can measure signals correlating with E-E-A-T, such as backlinks.

Why is E-E-A-T important for your SEO strategy?

If you have followed the major Google core algorithm updates in recent years, you might have noticed a common theme: an ongoing effort to enhance the user experience. E-E-A-T is no exception to this pattern. It is another approach for Google to provide users with what they want.

E-E-A-T is instrumental in determining the credibility of a website. It serves as the basis for evaluating whether a website and its pages offer genuine value to the user. Since this is how it retains users, Google aims to present the pages that provide the most value concerning a particular search query.

If search engine optimisation (SEO) is vital to your digital marketing success, E-E-A-T should be a top priority when creating your SEO strategy.

Exploring E-E-A-T in Detail

Websites that demonstrate high levels of E-E-A-T are likelier to appear at the top of search results, while those with low levels may be harder to find. In this context, exploring E-E-A-T in more detail is crucial to understand each aspect and how to demonstrate it on your site.

Experience

Is the content creator familiar with the topic through real-world experience? For instance, if someone writes a review, have they used the product or service? If they publish a recipe, have they made the dish? Typically, having experience with a topic is easier to achieve than having expertise or authority.

For example, a product review from someone who has personally used the product demonstrates experience and is much more trustworthy than a “review” by someone who has not.

Expertise

Expertise refers to having a deep understanding or skill in a specific area. Google assesses it mainly based on the content rather than the website or organisation behind it.

Expertise looks for content produced by someone knowledgeable in the subject matter. It can be demonstrated by the creator’s formal expertise, qualifications, and education or by showing relevant personal experience and everyday knowledge.

For example, advice on rewiring in your home is much more valuable if it comes from a skilled electrician rather than a home enthusiast without knowledge of electrical wiring.

Authoritativeness

Authority is about how respected someone or a website is, especially among other experts and influencers in the same field. If people consider a particular individual or website the most reliable source of information on a specific topic, they have authority.

To assess authority, evaluators scour the internet for information about the website or individual’s reputation. They look for sources the website, company, or individuals did not create.

For example, the official government page for getting a passport is the unique, official, and authoritative source for passport renewal.

Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness is all about how legitimate, transparent, and accurate the website and its content are. Trust is the most important member of the E-E-A-T family because untrustworthy pages have low E-E-A-T no matter how experienced, expert, or authoritative they may seem.

To determine trustworthiness, evaluators consider various factors. For instance, they check if the website identifies who is responsible for the published content. They also verify if enough contact information is available, especially for online stores. Additionally, evaluators examine the accuracy of the content and whether it cites trustworthy sources.

Six Ways to Improve Your E-E-A-T

You can implement several measures to significantly improve your website’s content and guarantee it communicates the trust indicators that Google (and users) seek. Here are a few ways you can improve your website’s E-E-A-T.

1. Make your content great:

In SEO, the quality of content plays a critical role in improving your E-E-A-T score. Google’s site crawlers assign greater page authority to well-written, informative content offering a conclusive and insightful answer to users’ queries. For content to be considered good, it should be free of grammatical errors and have appropriate punctuation. Google prioritises easy-to-read content with a logical structure, using headings, subheadings, and bullet points to organise the ideas presented. While Google generally prefers longer content, you should balance the length against readers’ preferences for shorter, more concise content.

Therefore, effective copywriting is essential to rank well on Google’s search results. This fundamental concept underpins the importance of producing high-quality content for SEO success.

Avoid cluttering a blog page or other content with irrelevant information or ads. In recent years, online platforms, including Google, have faced significant pressure to address the spread of fake news and misinformation. A blog post can establish trustworthiness by citing sources and including outbound links to high-authority pages. Backlinks are particularly essential to Google, as they indicate the page’s authority and serve as a vote of confidence in the content. Ultimately, high-quality content people link to is the key to improving E-E-A-T.

2. Page Transparency and Credentials:

According to the Google Quality Rater Guidelines, the transparency of a website’s content creators affects the page’s quality. The more transparent you are, the more Google will trust you. Here are some simple ways to increase your transparency in your content marketing efforts.

• Use a by-line for every post to identify the author and ensure they have a biography.
• Create an “About Me” page describing your website’s purpose and organisation. Check out Pure SEO’s About Us page for an example!
• Have a visible contact page that provides your email.
• Implement a “Meet the Team” page.

One important detail to include when discussing yourself or your organisation is your credentials. You can improve your credentials by promoting your experience, explaining your qualifications, mentioning any awards or achievements you’ve received, and displaying reviews and testimonials about your business or organisation.

3. Make your site known:

Gaining recognition and credibility for your website or organisation is essential. Your content will become more reputable if authoritative sites link back to your content, positively affecting your ranking. Here are some strategies to increase public awareness:

• Reach out to the press or third-party websites and offer them a guest blog post or opinion piece to publish. This promotes your work and boosts your site’s authority with backlinks.
• Build a strong social media presence by sharing your content on various platforms to attract more traffic to your site.
• Invite guest writers to contribute to your site to help increase your links and online presence, thus improving your site’s credibility.
• Interview experts or respected academics to create insightful and innovative content that will impress readers and Google crawlers.

4. Get more reviews

Acquiring and promoting online reviews for your products or services is a sound business strategy. These reviews enhance your site’s trustworthiness as Google perceives it. A substantial number of positive reviews across various review sites (e.g., Google, Trustpilot, Facebook, Yelp) indicates that your company is reliable in the eyes of consumers.

Upon receiving reviews, allocate time to respond to them, including negative feedback. Doing so will elevate your brand’s credibility and demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction.

5. Audit your content

Unless you’ve just launched your website, you likely have a considerable amount of existing content, including blog posts, articles, reports, case studies, data sheets, white papers, etc. To ensure that all your published materials from previous years satisfy E-E-A-T standards, learn how to conduct a content audit.

With each page, you have three choices:

• Update it
• Delete it
• Combine it with other related pages

For example, say you have a blog post written four years ago. If the information is outdated, update it to be accurate for your audience now. If it is obsolete, not driving traffic or conversions, and not worth updating, then delete it. If the content is thin, either significantly beef it up or merge it with other related blog posts to make the page more valuable.

Just remember to use appropriate 301 redirects when deleting and combining pages. Check out this URL redirect guide for more information.

6. Keep user experience safe and secure

Scam content is a major concern for Google, as cybercriminals produce fraudulent articles or advertorials that deceive readers into disclosing their credit information or purchasing non-existent products. Any content that appears spam-like will harm a website’s page authority. To leave a good impression on both Google and your users, consider the following:

• Install an SSL certificate to confirm your site’s safety for visitors.
• Ensure that spam does not clog up your comment sections.

Don’t forget the basics of E-E-A-T

Google E-E-A-T is a crucial factor in search engine optimisation that determines the quality and credibility of a website’s content. It is not just about optimising for search engines but also for the end-users who seek trustworthy and authoritative sources of information. By prioritising experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness in your content creation, you can establish your website as a reliable source of information and establish a strong online presence that resonates with your audience. Here are a few key points to remember going forward:

• E-E-A-T is an acronym that represents a set of guidelines – experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness – which are key factors used by Google’s quality raters to evaluate the quality of search results.
• E-E-A-T is not a direct ranking factor for Google. However, it is still an important concept that influences the search engine’s assessment of a web page’s experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
• If search engine optimisation (SEO) is vital to your digital marketing success, E-E-A-T should be a top priority when creating your SEO strategy.

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