Google’s search engine takes into account a number of factors to deliver users relevant and high-quality content. One of those is the E.E.A.T, and if you’ve been working closely with content for the past decade or so, then you’re probably familiar with the concept. Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness, or E.E.A.T for short was first introduced in 2014, initially only being named E.A.T. What changed? Well, an additional E for starters in 2022.
It’s a fundamental concept that websites centering around YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) have built themselves on to ensure that they can rise above the competition and provide high-quality content to their viewers.
Key Takeaways
- Write content that’s always for your reader’s benefit
- Always remove useless content that doesn’t bring value
- Show off your credentials if you have them
The Reader’s Benefit, Ultimately Contributes to Your Notoriety
The reason Google has baked E.A.T into their Quality Rater guidelines is primarily to ensure that the content being produced on different parts of the internet, is at the end of the day beneficial for readers.
That’s what this era of connectivity has all been about, to introduce individuals to ease of accessibility and information, so they may grow. Regulation on this front proves to be extremely important and thus can not be taken lightly. If you fall within the terms of E.E.A.T, you’ll notice that your organic reach will naturally grow as surfers will begin to trust and rely on you.
You might have noticed how the content that we’re discussing specifically is meant to sway opinions. Websites that are categorized as such are called YMYL websites. The information provided on these online platforms is meant for quality-of-life decisions, and should someone be misguided by a not-so-professional opinion, then that isn’t in the best interest of the general public.
Let’s break down every letter of E-E-A-T, to help you better understand the gist of its technicalities.
Experience
The individual writing a piece on some ‘subject’ needs to have sound knowledge and first-hand experience with the topic in question in order to be able to provide reliable advice. While arguably most writers can research a topic and write a sound piece; credentials still matter. The person writing the topic should have a background that readers can trust. If that is the case, then you’ve already checked one of the boxes for E.E.A.T.
Expertise
With enough experience, you would eventually become an expert based on your real-world experiences on the topic. If you’re writing reviews regarding a product or providing financial advice, have you actually tried the product out for yourself or made the investment yourself to be able to guide individuals with the help of the expertise that you’ve acquired with personal experience?
Authority
And now, we have authoritativeness. You have the experience, expertise, and knowledge in order to be able to guide others through the same path that you took. Your authority on the matter has to be built over time as you build a decent reputation around your name with certifications and reviews.
Trustworthiness
All of the above factors will ultimately contribute to your trustworthiness within your niche. All of this also applies to whoever you’ve chosen to write your content.
E.E.A.T and YMYL Go Hand-in-Hand
As we discussed, YMYL stands for Your Money or Your Life and such websites need to make sure that they have the highest possible E.E.A.T score possible in order to be able to compete within their niche.
If the subject being discussed does not provide the right information or may be up to misinterpretation due to the nature in which it is written, then the website would have a low score. These websites are heavily scrutinized to ensure that no harm comes to a person’s happiness, safety, or financial stability. You need to be an expert within your area to be able to provide sound advice. There are different types of YMYL websites that may be providing advice to their visitors.
News
Any website covering topics about the latest occurrences within a specific field needs to stay within the boundaries of E.E.A.T.
Financial Consultation
If your website is providing individuals with advice regarding maintaining their finances or sensitive topics such as investment, then it should be done so by a professional.
Shopping
Should your business be centered around Ecommerce, you need to make sure you assess all facts and figures before recommending your viewers to purchase something from your website. Misleading content regarding products is going to get you penalized.
Health
This is extremely crucial and if done wrong can be detrimental to a reader’s health. The advice provided on health should be done so by medical professionals with adequate research and sources to support it.
People
Any content that discusses people with respect to their ethnicity, religion, age, disability, etc. should be catered to accordingly by writers that have had relevant experience within that field.
Law
These kinds of YMYL websites will primarily be discussing the law within a given country and provide readers with legal advice.
What Role Does E.E.A.T Play in Your Website’s SEO?
When we talk about SEO, you’re probably thinking about what the metrics are that Google uses to determine a website’s trustworthiness when it comes to its capability to deliver content. Keep in mind that while E.E.A.T isn’t directly a ranking factor that Google takes into account, it does most certainly uses other variables to determine a website’s E.E.A.T.
Overall, Google will be going over your web pages, the credibility of your authors, accessibility of the website itself and what you’ve used to back the information on your website.
Gone are the days of black hat SEO and keyword stuffing, where you could essentially put in as many relevant search terms as you wanted to come out on top. There have been a lot of changes, like site responsiveness, preference for HTTPS, and core web vitals to continuously improve user experience.
E.A.T was one of many new additions to this long list of factors that you need to pay attention to in order to satisfy Google. When you’re developing a strategy for your Search-Engine-Optimization, then E.A.T should most definitely be at the top of that strategic brief.
Checklist to Improving Your E.E.A.T
To improve organic traffic for your website, you’re going to have to ultimately adopt a few conventional practices to make sure that your E.E.A.T score remains high. YMYL websites should hold the words of E.E.A.T in very high regard since their content will have to meet a definitive standard.
Create High-Quality Content With the Help of Experts
Your content needs to be high-quality, period. How can you do that? With the help of experts who actually have first-hand experience with the type of content, you’re creating. You might already have some level of authority on the subject, but may not be good enough with writing to encapsulate what you’d like to say within a given language. In that case, you can always hire a ghostwriter to best transmit your thoughts to the public.
Google favors expert content that adds value to a subject. If you’re properly sourcing the right information and providing advice that may help others, then it will work in your favor. However, this isn’t the only factor, and when you’re done creating a high-quality piece, you need to be mindful of the factors mentioned below.
Be Clear and Concise With Your Words
Nobody likes to read the same thing over and over again. Be clear with what you’re trying to write. Do you wish to discuss the topic, make a sales pitch or simply describe the subject? By using simple language, you’re able to grasp a larger audience.
Let’s consider this post per se, and the way it’s designed to make sure that you understand what E.E.A.T is, its variables, and how you can enforce a well-thought-out strategy to improve the quality of your content.
Cover whatever topic you have in your mind thoroughly, and answer any questions that the readers might have as soon as you can without burying it under walls of grey text that they might never end up reading. While bounce rate isn’t a ranking factor, we still don’t want too many of our viewers to leave when they don’t find what they’re looking for.
Stay Up-to-Date
Depending on the nature of your website, your content will need timely updates in order to maintain relevance with any new trends that may have otherwise affected the information you’ve posted on your pages. Make sure that you and your writers are well-equipped with the latest sources of information in order to stay updated.
As your blog is maintained with accurate information, it will be ranked higher in Google’s Search Engine. Sensitive information needs to be constantly updated as it’s absolutely critical.
Link to Reliable Sources
Sources, sources, and sources. During production, you’ll be looking at various sources to gather as much information as possible. Always make sure to link the reputable papers that you’ve read in order to be able to come to the conclusion that you have. By doing so, not only are you creating a well-informed opinion for your viewers to see, but also helping Google make a positive ranking decision. How?
One, by using reputable sources, the quality of your content will automatically increase. Sources like tweets, reports, and papers by professionals will immensely improve your information density.
Two, When you use authoritative sources to create transformative content, you’re opening yourself up to be used as one as well. When trustworthy websites use you as a source, you’ll gain more notoriety through organic traffic.
Create Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are also one of the factors that contribute positively to your E.E.A.T score. You probably already know that backlinking is perhaps the most important factor in creating an SEO strategy that actually works. It identifies and validates your credentials within your specific niche.
You need high-quality and relevant backlinks. Let’s say you’re in the fashion industry, then backlinks from similar websites that already have a considerable amount of traffic can help you out. Irrelevant backlinks with websites that have nothing to do with the nature of your work will not provide you with any benefits.
Backlinking or off-page SEO requires a tremendous amount of effort. You need to invest your resources accordingly in order to create the right public relations with others working in the same niche that you are.
Get Reviews
You probably saw this subheading coming. It’s a given that you should try to garner as many reviews as you can from individuals utilizing your services. By doing so, you’re building a positive reputation around your brand that will help your platform in terms of content as well. By using websites like Yelp, Facebook, Trustpilot, and Google itself, you can improve your standing within your audience.
When you do have these reviews, always be sure to respond to them. Be open to constructive criticism, as it will show that you’re open to change in the case of anyone’s poor experience and can keep your readers/customers happy.
With reference to Google’s product reviews update, reviews that offer more insight regarding a service/product will be promoted higher in search results.
Perform an Audit
To filter out any unnecessary efforts that you may have made in order to improve your website, an audit can be extremely helpful. Over the years, various strategies can convolute the direction that your website may have been originally headed in.
By auditing every page of your website, you’ll be able to see clearly what has happened in the time that you’ve gone online. Answer simple questions for yourself like whether or not the work that you’ve done helps out any visitors coming to your website. Does your website satisfy all the signals mentioned in this post?
Naturally, you’ll notice a few weaknesses in your online presence and you’ll be able to realign yourself with the intent of your users in order to be able to improve yourself and consequently increase your organic traffic.
Remove Any Useless Content
If you have any old content on your website that you feel might be just filled with useless fluff instead of actual information pertaining to the relevance of your website, then it’s better to just remove it right off.
Your SEO strategy needs to be built around quality, instead of quantity. There’s no need to continue adding filler articles in hopes that you’ll finally get noticed by the Search-Engine Gods. Focus on being transformative content that offers value instead of useless volume.
Show Your Credentials
As we’ve already established that YMYL websites contain sensitive information that can and sometimes will sway an individual’s mind towards a certain decision. With these specific cases, it’s important to build a sense of trust with your reader by showing them that you know what you’re talking about.
Add information regarding the authors writing the content, or where this information is coming from in the case of ghostwriting. Show off contact details, qualifications, and CVs to establish their experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
Maybe Get a Wikipedia Page?
Wikipedia is a well-known repository of information and by establishing the history of your brand on this website, you’ll be able to get a backlink from their domain to further strengthen the foundation of your website.
You can create a page, and add relevant information for your brand, like the work that you’ve done over the years and any notable publications that you might have made. Google will take this as a signal that your brand is in fact legitimate and boost it accordingly.
Conclusion
E.E.A.T is a fairly simple concept, yet often difficult to establish in a highly saturated market. What you need to do is have the right resources, both human and logistical to be able to make your place with your own targeted audience. By the end of this post, you know what E.E.A.T is about, and now that you know every single factor there is to know about, you can begin formulating a strategy accordingly. We definitely recommend that you do an audit from the top of your website keeping in mind the information that you’ve just learned.
