E-A-T Your Way to a Healthier SEO Profile

No, Google’s E-A-T isn’t a new food-related rich snippet or online delivery service.

Instead, E-A-T, which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, is a set of quality standards Google uses as the core pillars to evaluate website content. The concept was introduced in Google’s 2014 Search Quality Guidelines, but it has gained more and more importance over the years with algorithm updates that have continued to emphasize quality.

It is especially relevant in assessing content among YMoYL sites (Your Money, Your Life), which includes topics such as news and current events, financial, medical, legal and safety. So if your business falls under the umbrella of happiness, health, or wealth then E-A-T could be vital for you to understand.

Now, let’s take a closer look at E-A-T, and what it means.

What Is E-A-T?

Expertise

This one seems pretty straightforward.  Is the content creator an expert?  While there isn’t specific criteria, Google looks at the context of content as it relates to author credentials and the query itself.

So if you’re in the financial space and advising on asset allocation strategy, having content creators with Certified Financial Planner (CFP) or Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designations would be good. Or, if you own a health and wellness studio, and you’re espousing on the medical benefits of a new supplement and don’t have medical certifications or degrees, you should consider finding someone with those credentials to write your content.

However, if the searcher is looking for information on what it’s like to live with diabetes, a personal account from a popular member of a forum or influential social media contributor would likely rate very high on expertise.  It’s all about context and meeting, with expertise, the need and intent of the query.

Authoritativeness

Authoritativeness deals with how others view you and your content. These ratings are derived from other sites linking back to your site, signaling that your content is considered valuable and shareworthy by external sources.

Authority is judged based on the authority of the content itself AND the domain as a whole.

Trustworthiness

This is similar to expertise but is more focused on whether the page content lines up with the rest of the site. In other words, if you’re a financial firm with thin and shady content throughout your site and then feature a thought-provoking guest post by Warren Buffet, the page would appeal to the expertise element of E-A-T but not the trustworthiness of the website.

Why is E-A-T Important?

It’s no surprise that Google values high-quality content.  It’s been a guiding principle for SEO and how to improve rankings for more than a few years. There is a direct correlation between what Google considers high-quality content and what appears in search results.

So although E-A-T is not a ranking signal it does play a role in organic search results and should be an important consideration in your SEO strategy.

How E-A-T is Determined?  

Unlike most things at Google, content is reviewed by actual humans, called Quality Raters.

Google Quality Raters, of which there are thousands, evaluate its search results by rating the quality of pages that appear.

Raters assess pages according to the amount of expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness of the page’s main content as well as the content’s creator.  They are also rating whether or not the search results met the needs or intent of the search query.

While Google does not assign pages an E-A-T score – it is a term Google created to teach quality raters what to look for in reviewing a page — the data raters provide is used to improve Google’s search algorithms.

Therefore, although raters don’t directly alter a page’s ranking and E-A-T isn’t a signal in Google’s ranking algorithm, the input they provide helps determine how well algorithms are doing their job. So they indirectly impact pages over time through feedback that can alter the algorithm.

The end goal is that the algorithm will align with E-A-T principles.

Google’s direction for quality raters, when evaluating Page Quality (PQ) is that they should first attempt to understand the true purpose of the page. Based on their interpretation of the purpose, they should evaluate the expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness of the content, the content creator and the page itself.

3 Ways to Improve Your E-A-T Ratings

1. Become an Expert or Partner With One

How do you become an expert in your field?

First, it’s better to specialize and focus on a specific topic or subtopic than to be a jack-of-all-trades.  For example, a financial services company might have one advisor who is the sourcefor everything related to cryptocurrencies, another who is a bond expert and someone else who posts exclusively on the real estate market.

While contributing to major publications like Forbes, Business Insider or Investing.com would instantly build your credibility, it may take time to get your foot into those doors. If you’re just starting out, look for opportunities to contribute to smaller publications. Ideally, you want to choose outlets that still have relatively good domain authority and great content but may not be as well known yet.

You can also leverage sites such as HARO (Help A Reporter Out), a platform that connects journalists looking for quotes and information to include in their articles with sources who have that expertise. If you have information or opinions that are relevant to their content, you receive mentions, growing your expertise.

Seeking out known experts within your niche, and asking them to guest post, is another effective way to increase your site’s expertise. And it’s important make sure the author and their credentials display somewhere on all editorial content pages, especially if they are a recognized expert in your field.  Ideally, you should include links to the author’s social media accounts, other online profiles and to a bio page with more in-depth information.

2. Produce Great Content And Alternative Points of View

At its essence, E-A-T is all about quality.  Make sure your page has a purpose and your content is create is cohesive and authoritative. If your content is thin, misleading, or copied from somewhere else, it won’t rank high.

For YMoYL sites, backing claims with research or data helps build credibility.  Including subheads, charts, graphs, videos and other visuals helps with organization and readability.  Longer content is generally better than shorter, although there are no specific length guidelines.

A good first step in planning your editorial strategy is to see what else is out there and how you can improve upon it or provide a well-though-out contrasting point of view.

Try not be biased with your content. One-sided copy and pages may be deemed lower quality, especially if they pertain to YMoYL topics.

If you are reviewing products, make sure to include pros and cons sections. And convey the possible downsides, such as risks involved in a particular investment strategy.

3. Amass Links and Mentions From Other Sites

Building authority has to do with everything outside of your site. This primarily means building links from other high quality sites back to your site.

Although some sites may be unwilling to provide a link, mentions of your brand also helps build authority. Essentially, any reference to your brand or site from other high quality sites, especially ones that are connected to your industry, that’s obtained organically (non-paid) has value.
Google has gone into great detail to explain E-A-T and outline guidelines for improving it.

So you can be sure it plays an important role in shaping its search algorithms.  Improving your website’s content by focusing on E-A-T will not only build your authority in the industry but will also strengthen your rankings and pay long-term dividends in increased traffic and revenue.