While consuming the content from the internet, we all must have questioned its authenticity at least once. And this happens more often when you are reading advisory content on financial, political, medical, or any such fields.
Moreover, this is not just the dilemma of users because search engines also find it tough to separate misinformative content from trustworthy content.
However, Google has defined some rating parameters in its core concept of Search Quality Raters guide to evaluate and judge the authenticity of the content. These parameters are E-A-T.
E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. To trust your brand, website, and content, Google uses these three factors, especially in YMYL websites that impact the lives of visitors.
YMYL sites are Your Money Your Life sites, which are highly scrutinized by Google, as low-quality content in such sites may impact visitors’ financial decisions, health, safety, and peace.
Some examples of YMYL site content are News (except entertainment, sports), Finance, Investments, Laws, Health Tips, Fitness & Lifestyle Advice, Jobs, Research, Religious Knowledge, and many more.
All these efforts by Google showcase that the search engine only wants to give users the most authentic experience. And it does not stop here. Google itself promotes the content or websites it trusts on behalf of them.
And that is where the E-A-T comes into the picture. But before moving forward, let us explain E-A-T in detail:
What does E-A-T mean exactly?
As mentioned, E-A-T means Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. All three correlatedly determine the E-A-T for all the websites (not just YMYL sites). Let us explain each three of them:
Expertise:
Expertise refers to the credibility of the content on your website.
If you have deep knowledge about whatever business, you are into, you can share that knowledge through the content on your website.
However, you can only be considered an expert or rank high in the expertise of the E-A-T matrix if the level of knowledge that you are sharing in your content matches or exceeds that of the already existing content on the internet (especially your competition).
For YMYL websites, expertise is crucial. But for non-YMYL content, Google also considers authors – experts, if they have life experiences. That means for non-YMYL websites, content determines the expertise of the author, even if they do not have any supporting education qualification.
Authoritativeness:
Authoritativeness in E-A-T is about telling Google that how reputed your website is. It essentially means that does your website is supported by the industry experts or influencers or not.
Generally, the major factor in determining the website authority is the number of quality backlinks from relevant and authoritative sites.
You can reach out for reviews, references, expert recommendations, news articles, and other credible information about your website to be published on third-party websites.
However, it is to be noted that authority is the relative concept to expertise. So, you can gain higher authority in your field of expertise.
Trustworthiness:
Trustworthiness considers the legitimacy of the content, brand, data, or any information put out in public through the website. It is more important to YMYL sites than the non-YMYL sites.
From having an SSL certificate to monitor the conversation about your brand on any other platform on the internet, Google considers it all while determining the trustworthiness of your website.
Again, trustworthiness is a relative concept like authoritativeness. As one website can be a trusted source of information regarding weight-loss but can not be the trusted source for financial advice.
Why is E-A-T important in SEO?
Although E-A-T is not the direct ranking factor in the Google Algorithm, proving your content/website for E-A-T highly affects your website ranking in SERPs.
If Google finds your website trusted, recommended, and legitimate, it will treat your website as an expert website and give it higher preferences in the SERPs to provide quality content to users.
Also, E-A-T determines the credibility of your brand. So, putting an extra effort into E-A-T would not cause you any loss but certainly give you many returns.
Hence by working on the E-A-T of your website, you can not just increase your ranking and drive more traffic to your website but can also improve the digital presence of your brand.
However, at this point, you must be thinking about how we can improve the E-A-T of our website. Well, do not worry, we have got it covered.
Also read, Daily SEO Checklist: 4 Daily SEO Task to Boost Your Website.
How to improve the E-A-T of your website?
As mentioned earlier, not all websites need a dedicated focus on the E-A-T but YMYL sites. But doing so will not cause you any harm in SEO efforts.
Here are some tips to improve the E-A-T of your website:
- Build more high-quality backlinks
- keep your content up-to-date
- Use authentic data and relevant outbound links to your content to support your arguments
- Get more ratings & reviews
- Use appropriate CTA with contact details
- Get your Wikipedia Page
- Optimize About Us and Contact page of your website
- Get more mentions from experts
- Prioritize User Experience on your website
- Utilize social media platforms to promote your brand message
- State your business policies clear on your website
In the end, If SEO is at the heart of your digital marketing strategy, then E-A-T is at the heart of that!
Since E-A-T is an integral part of SEO, you need to demonstrate your expertise and authenticity to Google to rank better in SERPs and build a strong digital presence.
E-A-T is all about being genuine, putting customer experience at priority, and doing relevant branding for your website/business. Maybe that is the reason why E-A-T efforts show slow and steady results in your website performance on search engines.
Also, Google changes its search result-rater criteria from time to time. So, there are high chances that the E-A-T rater may also evolve accordingly.
So, you can also hire a dedicated digital marketing agency like ABK Digital to enhance your website’s E-A-T and keep up with the trends.
ABK Digital is the leading digital marketing agency, houses experts in all fields, such as Web Designing & Web Development, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Media Marketing (SMM), Online Reputation Management (ORM).
Providing result-driven SEO Strategy to its clients, ABK Digital is the right partner for your E-A-T requirements. Contact us now to get the accurate solution for your SEO/E-A-T needs from the industry experts!
