Ever wondered what Google uses to measure how much trust should be placed on your website? The answer is down to three factors, those being E-A-T. E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust and simply means exactly what it says!
E-A-T can be referred to as an indicator of the page and the website’s quality. The quality of your site is rated by the online experience a user has along with if the content meets exactly what they are looking for. If the user feels comfortable reading, sharing and linking to the content on your website, you will be on the way to proving your E-A-T.
The term E-A-T is set out in Google’s Search Quality Raters Guidelines, which is a document given to Google employees whose job is to rate websites. E-A-T is what the raters are looking for to provide a rating of the website.
What does EAT do?
Now you know what E-A-T stands for, we’re sure you’re curious as to what each element refers to. From a first glance, they seem pretty similar, but each element does through an independent evaluation using a different set of criteria.
Expertise
Based on the topic of the product or services you offer or discuss on your site, you could be classified as an expert based on your experience.
Authority
This is the reputation that your website has. A website with high authority is a site that searchers go to for trusted advice.
Trust
Trust of your website is measured by the accuracy and legitimacy of the content. Search quality raters will look at whether your content states who is responsible for published content.
Once you upload your webpages, the Google algorithm will determine just how much of an expert you are. Content on your web pages should be high-quality content which is original, accurate, comprehensive along with clearly communicated.
What You Need To Know About E-A-T
- Firstly, E-A-T is not directly a ranking factor. You should think of E-A-T as the guidance for how Google’s ranking algorithm is created.
- There is no E-A-T score in SEO, Google’s Gary Illyes confirmed there is “no internal E-A-T score”.
- You may not need to focus on it as much as other industries do. Many topics may not detriment a searcher in the same way others do.
Why is E-A-T important?
Having a strong E-A-T is important when it comes to many search queries, especially if you want to prove just how much of an expert you are in your field! By having strong authority on a topic on your webpage, this shows to web users that the chances of the content being accurate are high.
YMYL Topics
In many cases where the bad advice on a topic, where it could potentially cost the reader money or their health, these topics specifically require E-A-T. These kinds of areas are called YMYL topics. YMYL stands for Your Money or Your Life pages and refers to topics which are giving serious advice to their readers. Having high EAT on these pages is crucial.
Examples of YMYL sites:
- Medical advice
- News articles, these should be produced by someone with journalism as their profession
- Scientific topics
- Financial advice
- Home remodelling advice
- Hobbies that are technical, or learning to play an instrument
How to improve E-A-T for SEO
Getting your website to have expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness is crucial in showing your website meets searchers needs and is high quality. The higher up your website is, the more it can be classed as trustworthy for potential customers. To improve your E-A-T ranking there are several elements which you can work on. These elements are:
- Making sure every page has a purpose
- Strong optimisation along with easily visible contact and about us pages
- Expertly written blog posts
- Ensure content is not syndicated
With the constant changes to the Google search engine algorithm, it’s clear to say that you can’t simply create content without seriously considering whether E-A-T is important for your industry. To ensure your content creators are meeting the EAT guidelines, we recommend building a brand’s topic of expertise and ensuring you are a customer’s go-to.
Interested in adding a full SEO strategy into your business? Contact Onefeed today on 0800 130 3140 or email hello@onefeed.co.uk to find out how we can help make your business SEO savvy with a FREE audit.
