In the past, businesses were focused on creating content made for search engine queries and visible enough to get picked by search crawlers. They aimed to create content that was specifically tailored to search engines.
This made the content less customer-centric, which failed to solve customer queries and pain points. Ultimately, the content added minimal value to the user’s knowledge and hardly made any difference in influencing the user’s thoughts.
E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) was a predominant guideline introduced by Google to rate content quality.
Later, a new factor was added to the framework introduced as the new “E”- Experience, which makes it an E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). Now, we will understand what is E-E-A-T and its differences.
What’s the Difference Between E-A-T and E-E-A-T?
In December 2022, Google added a new E to their existing guideline and made it E-E-A-T. The question is how it is different compared to the previous framework. The previous framework emphasized that companies that create content must showcase their expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
It marks the importance of helpful content that must be provided to the user, which digital marketing companies around have also adopted for their content marketing strategies.
Now, adding a new factor, “experience,” means the author or entity writing content should also show their personal experience related to that topic. This guideline was updated regarding product review sites, stating that post reviews should also share the personal experiences of their reviewers using specific products or services.
Importance of E-E-A-T
Google’s E-E-A-T is the concept that was crucially needed to improve average Google user’s personal, professional, and financial lives.
This framework was needed to encourage the work of professionals who actually aim to add value to their target audience’s lives and adhere to qualified practices and approaches.
The importance of E-E-A-T is increasingly critical for YMYL topics. These delicate topics hold users’ happiness and security, making their information and content highly trustworthy and reliable.
For example, if an author is talking about some fitness equipment, he/she should have used the product and showcased its personal interpretation of it in its content.
The Core Factors of E-E-A-T
Let’s take a quick look at each of the factors that make E-E-A-T.
Experience
When Google mentioned experience, it meant human-generated and human-experienced content that is written from a personal perspective. This could mean the author who is writing about the content has practical knowledge about certain topics.
This means:
- The author used the fitness equipment that they were writing about.
- The author of the product or service review shared their personal experience regarding the product.
Expertise
Google sees expertise as tied to the creator of the content. It’s linked to the author’s formal or informal proficiency and education in the field.
The questions Google asked and rated related to one’s expertise are:
- Is the content written by an expert who has demonstrated their skills in the topic well?
- Is the creator well-educated in the subject?
- Does the creator have a professional degree within the field?
The importance of expertise depends on content class and types. The validation of knowledge is highly crucial in topics like finance and health.
To demonstrate expertise in these cases, one has to provide verified sources of information. At the same time, the author writing this content must also have specific qualifications, academics, and proficiency related to content types and topics.
Authoritativeness
Authoritativeness refers to how much authority and acknowledgement an author or site holds. It means how much one site or author holds reliability.
Authoritativeness is perceived by the quality of backlinks one site or content has. The higher the quality and relevancy of backlinks, the more authoritative the site is in the eyes of search engine users.
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is driven by experience, expertise, and authoritativeness. It is the factor that protects visitors from any falsified information and gives them complete confidence in understanding website content.
One must ensure the website is secure to level the trustworthiness factors and Google E-E-A-T guidelines. Secondly, ensure the content is top-notch and up-to-date. Finally, one should have relevant academic achievements and certifications.
Tips To Improve E-E-A-T
Here are five ways to improve a site’s E-E-A-T SEO Strategy:
- Create content that helps and adds value – Create content that is aimed to help consumers’ lives personally, financially, or professionally. The focus should be on creating content that makes users’ experiences memorable and helpful. Ultimately, the site’s users should have sufficient answers to their queries and take meaningful insights from the topic.
With E-E-A-T algorithm updates, content creators should focus on highlighting those areas that their competitors haven’t discussed before. The focus should be on investing efforts in quality instead of generating content similar to other sites.
- Follow strict editorial principles – These are the standards set in the preliminary stages of writing any site content. These editorial standards should reflect the E-E-A-T guidelines. So one can create consistent, reliable, and efficient content.
Some of the standards can be ensuring content is proofread by a professional writer other than the content’s author. Another one is that everyone on the team is aware of standards and always adheres to editorial standards. The last one is how frequently the content should be updated.
- Solidify Your Brand Reputation – Brand reputation mirrors the reputation and authoritativeness of any company’s content. Brands need to build their brand reputation to align with E-E-A-T ranking factors.
One of the practices brands can use to optimize their brand reputation is to try digital PR. Secondly, they can try to carry out influencer marketing strategies to promote their brand through influencers.
Thirdly, they can try guest posting. Fourthly, building a link-building strategy to ensure high-quality and relevant content is linked to their content can also help.
Wrapping Up
The addition of ‘Experience’ to Google’s existing E-A-T guidelines highlights the search engine’s expectation for brands to create human-first content. The Google E-E-A-T framework ensures that any content that’s ready to be published on their search engine result pages is written to add value to its related audience’s lives.
Instead of solely focusing on ranking factors, the E-E-A-T framework ensures that the content is still purely made to help search engine users.
FAQS
What is E-E-A-T in SEO, and why is it important?
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It’s a framework that Google uses to evaluate the quality and credibility of content on websites.
How does Google evaluate E-E-A-T on a website?
Google’s algorithms and human quality raters assess E-E-A-T by looking at factors such as the author’s credentials, content accuracy, sources cited, website reputation, and user reviews. They look for signals that indicate content creators have relevant experience, expertise, authority in their field, and trustworthiness.
How does E-E-A-T affect SEO rankings?
E-E-A-T affects SEO rankings by influencing how Google perceives the quality and credibility of a website. Websites with strong E-E-A-T signals are considered more reliable, which can improve their search engine rankings, particularly for sensitive or critical topics like health, finance, and legal information.
Can E-E-A-T affect local SEO?
Yes, E-E-A-T can impact local SEO. Local businesses benefit from showing trustworthiness and authority, like displaying local awards, certifications, customer testimonials, and accurate contact information. This can improve Google’s perception of the business’s credibility, positively affecting local rankings.
How can I demonstrate experience and expertise in my content?
To show experience, share real-world insights, case studies, or examples that highlight your practical understanding of the topic. For expertise, ensure that your content is written by knowledgeable authors or specialists.
