What is E-E-A-T?
Google has updated their E-A-T quality evaluation to E-E-A-T, adding a new factor of ‘Expertise‘ to its quality evaluation. E-E-A-T is a set of guidelines used within Google algorithms that determines whether the content is valuable to readers and, therefore, whether it should rank well or not.
Your E-E-A-T Guide
Google updating the old E-A-T and adding another ‘E’ for experience speaks volumes about what the search engine is looking for in terms of websites for 2023 and going forward.
Google is now looking into quality rating guidelines with insight into how the company instructs quality raters to evaluate a content creator’s expertise.
In addition to ‘experience’, Google has also emphasised the importance of ‘trust’ as the most critical component of E-E-A-T; even if a page has high levels of ‘experience’, ‘expertise’ and ‘authoritativeness’, it can have low E-E-A-T if they are untrustworthy.
What does ‘Experience’ stand for?
The ‘Experience’ factor Google has introduced is now something Google quality evaluators are looking at when ranking your website. Google looks at how well-produced that piece of content is written by analysing factors such as the actual use of a product, having actually visited a place or communicating what a person experienced.
Google’s updated search quality rater guidelines say this:
“Consider the extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic. Many types of pages are trustworthy and achieve their purpose well when created by people with a wealth of personal experience. For example, which would you trust: a product review from someone who has personally used the product or a “review” by someone who has not?”
There are some situations where really what you value most is content produced by someone who has first-hand life experience on the topic at hand. Take these examples:
Result: You will find an article from an expert in this field, meaning they have many articles about increasing website traffic through different methods.
Result: You will find a forum or blog reviewing every website platform, which goes into great detail about each pro and cons of the topic.
If you were to search these queries for yourself, we can almost guarantee that the top results will be from people or companies that you can trust and have experience in this topic.
How does Google use E-E-A-T?
The idea that E-E-A-T is an algorithm is a misconception; it’s actually a concept that influences Google’s search algorithm for evaluating website quality and content relevance. Google search quality evaluators judge website quality based on Quality Rater Guidelines and provide feedback that helps fine-tune the algorithm. The feedback affects the ranking of all websites in Google search results.
Why is E-E-A-T important for your business?
Showing your E-E-A-T to Google will improve your organic presence and, thus, hopefully, increase the business you gain through organic search; it shows your website is experienced, expert, authoritative, and ultimately trustworthy. Google is now aiming to remove any thin, unauthoritative websites from Google’s engines. Google’s reasoning for these factors is two-fold:
- It could cause legal issues and reputation issues if it shows untrustworthy and incorrect information about important topics such as health and finance.
- Google wants to show users the best content – for the user’s benefit and for Google to keep searchers coming back.
A great example of a website with great E-E-A-T would be the NHS. Experienced healthcare experts share their expertise on health-related topics. Through a vast array of content, they show themselves as an authority in the industry and a trusted name for users and search engines alike. Hence, they rank very highly for any healthcare terms like headaches.
The NHS will hopefully rank above other sources that may be sharing correct information but maybe don’t have the same level of authority or trust, as well as above those that are sharing factually incorrect information.
How to Optimise your website for E-E-A-T
Firstly, ask yourself, if you visited your website, would you trust what is written on the page or a question that has been answered? If the answer is no, then there are a few things you can do to start optimising for Google’s new update:
Experience
- Share personal experiences
- Include examples
- Reference sources
- Use technical language and explain
Expertise
- Understand your audience
- Keyword strategy
- Relevant content
- Useful content
- Regular blogging
- Video tutorials
Authoritativeness
- Link building
- Social media platforms
- Online conferences
- Topical authority
- Digital PR
Trustworthiness
- SSL certificates
- Reviews
- Deal with negative reviews
- Privacy policy, refund & returns policy and terms & conditions
- Include NAP information
Want to improve your E-E-A-T?
E-E-A-T can have a huge positive impact on your business, not just online but physically, helping generate traffic, leads and sales. At Solve, we’re experts in curating bespoke SEO strategies for businesses to grow online and reach their goals.
