Google is advancing the impression of Google E-A-T with an additional E. Thus the new E-E-A-T is an abbreviation for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. This concept has been used since 2014 but incrementally becoming an essential element of SEO.
This blog will provide you with a substantial understanding of the concept of E-E-A-T and Why the concept is essential in SEO.
So What is Google E-E-A-T in SEO?
For Google search results, it is vital to display first-hand experience. Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines enlighten the content creator about what Google looks for in a page. The concept of E-E-A-T evolves from search quality rater guidelines. The search quality rater evaluates the E-E-A-T of a webpage.
The quality of a page plays a huge role in ranking in Search Engine Result Pages. There are many factors to finding out the web page’s quality. Some of the significant factors that Google uses to determine the quality of web pages are as follows:
- E-E-A-T (Experience- Expertise- authoritativeness- Trustworthiness)
- The Quality and Quantity of the content
- Details of the website and the ABOUT of the main content creator
- The objective of the page
And, Some of the key factors that Google uses to rank the websites are:
- Google checks the content of the website and provides the most relevant and useful search results.
- Google determines the authority of the website, and the website with higher authority ranks higher in search results. The authority of the website is determined using the signals such as inbound links, the age of the website, and High-Quality content
- Factors such as the loading speed of the website, mobile device friendliness, and user experience play a vital role in ranking.
- The well-optimized website is likely to rank in search engine result pages.
The above-mentioned are only some of the ranking factors that Google uses for search ranking. Having said that, Google keeps changing ranking Algorithm updates to meet the user’s needs.
The more a Webpage’s E-E-A-T score ( Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), the higher the webpage rank in search engine results. In experience, expertise, authority, and trust- the most crucial component will be Trust. Because the pages which are untrustworthy have low E-E-A-T irrespective of how well the other three concepts are.
Let’s dig deeper into each element of the concept.
E (Experience)-E (Expertise)-A (Authority)-T (Trust)
The four elements of the concept E-E-A-T are similar but not the same. Each element is evaluated using different measures. Let’s look at each element for a better understanding.
Experience:
This element is about the personal experience of the content creator, whether the content creator possesses first-hand experience or real-world experience. A page is viewed as trustworthy when it is made with personal experience. To get a further understanding, let’s look at it with an example. If a person is writing a review about a product, it is important to know if they have used that particular product to gain more trust. A page is likely to lose quality if, let’s say, someone writes a review of a product that they never used.
Expertise:
The expertise element is about the level of knowledge or skill on a content level. For YMYL content (YMYL: Your Money, Your Life), the element is about the content creator’s expertise, education, and qualification. For example, A medical professional is more qualified to write about the symptoms and remedies of a disease than someone who has just gone through it on some posts. For non-YMYL content, it is about the content creator’s relevant personal experience on the content he/she publishes. The more experience he acquires, the more expert he tends to become on that subject.
Authority:
This element is about reputation. Particularly when other experts rely on you to grab information, in this element, Others consider you as the go-to source of information on the topic giving you authority. For example, the most authoritative source of the services provided by Airtel is their official website.
Trust:
Out of all four elements, Trust is considered an important element, and it is a relative concept. There are many factors that raters use to evaluate the trustworthiness of the website like contact information, the one responsible for publishing content, content accuracy, etc.
So, these are the four high-level primary components listed in Google search quality evaluator guidelines to help rank the website. And E-E-A-T is more important for YMYL content.
What is YMYL content?
YMYL is an abbreviation used for Your Money, Your Life. Google uses this abbreviation to categorize pages that will have an impact on a person. For YMYL pages Google uses high-quality rating standards, as these pages can have a negative impact on a person’s finances, safety, health or happiness, etc. Some of the YMYL pages include:
- News and current events
- Government and laws
- Finance
- Shopping
- Health and safety etc
- Subjective topics or content such as finding employment, research on school or college, housing information, fitness, weight loss, etc.
How Google E-E-A-T is Important in SEO?
People can make a life-changing decision after reading something online, especially through YMYL pages. if your webpage falls under this category, make it clear that your blog post is of proper standing. The more you can follow E-E-A-T guidelines and standards, the more the chance for you to rank in search engine result pages.
Google keeps updating the algorithm to meet user needs and for better user experience. Google E-A-T helps in determining the value of a website or individual pages for the users. Google will provide the pages with the most value on the basis of the search query. For your digital success, E-E-A-T Seo should be a priority when you prepare SEO strategies. Let’s check the different ways to improve E-E-A-T Seo.
Ways to Improve E-E-A-T Seo
The following are the various measures you can take to improve the trust signals that Google looks for and also to enhance the quality content of the website.
1. Build More Links:
Make more efforts to prioritize generating high-quality links. Getting Backlinks from high-authority websites will be a great way to show authoritativeness and trustworthiness in your industry. To get backlinks you need to come up with unique, accurate, and high-quality content that too in a consistent way.
2. Up- To- Date Content
If you are publishing YMYL topics, it is very essential that you keep content updated to demonstrate a high score E-E-A-T. The outdated information makes your website less trustworthy. Thus depending on the topic, it is very essential to edit, review, and update the content on regular bases
3. Get More Mentions:
Together with backlinking, getting more mentions from trusted sources helps in improving the E-E-A-T score. Getting more of your website or brand’s name in trusted sources, the more it makes Google see your authority. But how to get mentions from trusted sources? Some of the ways are Guest posting, Partnering with influencers, Appearing on podcasts, sponsoring charity events, coming up with innovations, etc.
4. Getting More Reviews:
Quality raters use reviews as a source to determine the reputation of the business. Promoting online reviews is a great way to score E-E-A-T. From Google’s eyes the more positive review about your brand or product on various review websites, the more trustworthy your company becomes. It is equally important to respond to the reviews for gaining more trust and the happiness of your customer.
5. Hire Experts:
Hiring experts to write for your websites is a great way to come up with high-quality content to score E-E-A-T. If you are covering YMYL topics getting accurate and expert content is of vital importance. You can also go for guest posting if you can’t afford to hire experts.
6. Flash Credentials:
To boost your trustworthiness in the eyes of Google, you need to flash your credentials such as Educational qualifications, achievements, awards received, books authored, certifications, etc. The two best places where you can place this are the “Author Bio” and “About” pages.
7. Contact Details:
Showing contact details makes your company more trustworthy. Businesses that fail to provide necessary contact details are often considered untrustworthy, especially on YMYL pages. Contact information such as a physical address, phone number, email address , and point of contact should be mentioned on the website to gain more trust.
8. Avoid stuffing the Website with Ads
For a better user experience, it is better not to overload your website with ads. Too many ads can create a bad reading experience and make your website less trustworthy. However, displaying some ads is totally fine.
Final Thoughts:
The E-E-A-T or Experience, Expertise, Authority, and trust evolved from Google search quality rater guidelines. And it is very essential to boost E-E-A-T to rank higher in search engine result pages. Each element is equally important as each element is individually evaluated:
- Personal experience
- The expertise of the creator
- Authoritativeness of the creator on the content
- Trustworthiness of the creator of the content
Make sure you follow the E-E-A-T standards and take the necessary measures to improve each element, especially if you are publishing YMYL content.
Hello, I’m Farhan Srambiyam, co-founder of Betaedito and growdigitally.org. I am a Microsoft and Google Certified Digital Marketing Strategist and an SEO Expert in Kerala. The extensive experience I possess with commitment and hard work has indeed made a mark on my career journey.
I greatly helped several companies and businesses get the most out of the digital space. Need to catch up on anything related to Marketing? All you have to do is to Buy me a Coffee to schedule a session.
