Navigating Google E-A-T – SEO success in 2021
E-A-T stands for expertise, authority and trustworthiness. This concept of evaluation is nothing new for top SEOs. The concept was first published in Google’s 2014 Search Quality Guidelines and has become increasingly important over the years. E-A-T 131 was mentioned in the 168-page guidelines for 2020.
To create the E-A-T guidelines, Google has a thousand actual people manually review various websites so that they can then submit their quality analysis to Google.
Yes, you read that right – actual people. No machines.
It’s not an easy task, but it’s exactly the kind of work that keeps Google at the top of the search engine game. In October, Google controlled 88% of all search queries. Although E-A-T is not necessarily a direct ranking factor through the algorithms, the data still helps Google to improve these algorithms.
What you can learn from E-A-T will help you increase your online revenue. According to Google, this applies in particular to “Your Money Your Life” (YMYL) websites that offer advice or products relating to medical, legal or financial topics.
Expertise: This element focuses on the context of the content and offers an expert view. It looks specifically at the expertise of the content of the page and not the content of the website as a whole.
Authority: This element again focuses on the authority of the website’s content and the strength of its domain. These rankings result from external signals such as qualitative links from other relevant websites and brand mentions in forums and social media channels.
Trustworthiness: This element is similar to expertise. However, it focuses on the trustworthiness of the content in relation to the trustworthiness of the domain. This means, for example, if you had bad and untrustworthy content on your sales consulting website, but then landed a guest post from Jordan Belfort, the author of “Wolf of Wall Street,” the article would address the expertise element of E-A-T, but not the trustworthiness of the website.
Now let’s move on to some tips that can improve your E-A-T and boost your search rankings and sales.
Again, a strong E-A-T on your website cannot be achieved simply by using targeted keywords, a fast technical platform or building a few links from reputable sites. You need to follow the guidelines for each page and build the strongest content possible to meet all of Google ‘s E-A-T requirements.
Google outlines many ways to improve your E-A-T. Here are a few highlights from these guidelines:
- Does the content contain original information, reports, research or analyses?
- If the content comes from other sources, does it still offer significant added value and uniqueness instead of simply copying or rewriting sources?
- Was the content written by an expert or enthusiast who is demonstrably well versed in the subject?
- Is the content free of easily verifiable factual errors?
- Was the content produced well or does it look sloppy or hastily created?
- Is the content displayed optimally when viewed on mobile devices?
- Does the content offer significant added value compared to other pages in the search results?
From my own experience, and from other digital marketing experts, I have gained a deeper insight into what can help your E-A-T in 2021 and beyond. E-A-T strategies are unique to each niche, but the following strategies can strengthen the E-A-T of any website.
Expert content
Make sure everything is written by an expert or attributed to experts in the industry. After all, if a Google reviewer visits a website and the blogs are written by someone who is not even on Google, how can that reviewer trust the content? This should be defined in advance.
For example, if you create content about real estate investing, searchers will undoubtedly be looking for expertise. Tips and success stories from real estate gurus will form the basis for such content.
A tip for creating really competent content? Let the most successful and well-known person become the voice of the majority of your content. Regardless of whether some papers have to be written by ghostwriters. Also look for well-known experts in your niche and ask them for guest contributions.
Imagine selling chef’s knives and having a top chef provide content on how to properly cut different types of meat and vegetables. This would bring more attention to the chef and more E-A-T for your website. A win-win situation for everyone.
Strong and relevant signals from other online channels
Another guideline has to do with anything outside of your website itself. These are links that point to your website (pay attention to the link quality), as well as brand mentions in other articles or social media.
Sometimes these brand mentions are not linked to, but they add to authority and are certainly recognized by search bots.
Links, brand mentions and the way someone talks about you online are relevant to your E-A-T score. If you are doing SEO marketing and one of your articles is mentioned on a pest control website, this signal is obviously irrelevant. Instead, actively build relationships with authors and websites that mention you.
Set up Google Alerts for everything that has to do with your brand. From author or company names to the names of services and products you offer. As soon as you are mentioned online, it is advisable to get in touch and say thank you. This helps to build trust and influences whether your material will be used in the future.
Google has put a lot of energy into explaining E-A-T and establishing guidelines to strengthen E-A-T. Many online companies know nothing about E-A-T, which is very unfortunate. If you want to remain a leader in your niche, you should take a close look at the content on your website and the signals from other channels.
Take the above advice as an opportunity to refresh your website’s content and search engine optimization to improve your E-A-T. The results will enable you to build stronger rankings and sales and scale your voice significantly within your industry.