E.A.T in SEO stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness.
Google always aims to show those results which possess these three parameters.
Google aims to show only those results which users can trust upon. If Google surfaces unreliable results for queries then that is neither beneficial for Google nor for the user.
The reason why it would not be beneficial for Google is that if there are unreliable and untrustworthy results then Google would lose the trust of its users and would lose its customer base.
We only use Google because we believe we are going to get some quality information about what we are trying to look for.
So, Google prefers to show results that are trustworthy and reliable. That’s the reason why E.A.T in SEO is the most crucial thing.
Google uses two-three main checks to know if a website is a high quality or not. Those checks are Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT).
Let’s talk about these and learn how we can leverage these to succeed at SEO.
1. Expertise
Expertise indicates whether the content on the web page is coming from an expert or not.
In other words, we can say when we start writing the content for a web page, do we have the proper credentials, knowledge, and experience to write that content? If we want to write about a sensitive medical topic then we have to get an expert on board to write that content for us.
How does Google infer whether the content is coming from an expert or not?
Well, Google uses a few things to check that. The first thing is checking the content itself. If the content is poorly written and plagiarised then that is an obvious sign of incompleteness and Google can quickly figure out that it is not coming from an expert.
Another thing that is checked is whether there is anything mentioned about the author of the content.
If there is an article without any information about the author then maybe there is no expert behind it. And if there is an author mentioned, then Google checks the author’s URL, bio, and any other mention on other websites.
So, what can you do to improve your article or web page’s expertise? Here are some things:
Write High Quality and Unique Content.
This is the key. This should be your approach whenever you begin to write an article. Do not scrape content from other websites and rephrase it to make it your own. Make sure your article adds value to the user
Include Author Bio With A Link To Profile.
Here, you can show that you are actually an expert to talk about the topic. Make sure you include your credentials and previous work on your profile page. This boosts your article’s expertise.
2. Authoritativeness
If you are writing about some topic, does your website have the authority to talk about it?
The one way Google uses to figure out your authoritativeness is to check what topics are covered in your website. If your website has been writing about cars and buses and suddenly you decide to write about dental implants then obviously it means you have no authority to talk about it.
Google’s algorithm will discourage your article to rank among the top results.
So, given this scenario, what can you do to improve your authoritativeness? Here is one thing:
Cover A Single Niche In Your Website
You can’t go on talking about everything unless you are a magazine. You need to decide on one niche that you are going to cover extensively. That will boost your website’s authoritativeness and your articles are likely to rank high in search engine results.
3. Trustworthiness
Google also checks whether your website is trustworthy or not. Some of the things Google uses to check this are if your website is using a secure HTTPS connection, are other articles on the internet referencing your article, etc.
If you have to increase your chances of ranking in Google then you have to get others online to talk about you by referencing back to you and mentioning your website in their articles. Given these things, here are some things you can do to improve your trustworthiness.
Use HTTPS connection
It is highly recommended to use only an HTTPS connection if you are serious about SEO growth.
Would someone complete a transaction on your website if they are displayed a message that this is an insecure connection, proceed with care?! Obviously no.
Make Sure Your Article Is Referenced
If you are writing a valuable article then you would find people sharing and referencing it in their own blogs. If this does not happen, then you have to create backlinks for your article in order for it to gain the trust of people.
Backlinks also help you with trustworthiness besides helping you with keyword rankings.
So far, we have discussed E-A-T in SEO and saw how we can improve it and then improve our keyword rankings. There is one thing that can help you with all those above things and that is Brand Reputation. Let’s talk about it briefly.
Brand Reputation
If people positively recognize you from your brand then you might already have all these three things (EAT) and in that case, you need a minimal amount of SEO work or you don’t even need SEO at all.
Brand reputation includes having positive reviews on various platforms, people mentioning your brand in forums, blogs, etc. So, in the end, you should focus on building a brand.
Alright so now you have a good understanding of EAT and how you can leverage it for your SEO growth. Next, we will talk about Google’s algorithm updates.
Search Engine Code Team is comprised of SEO experts and strategists having more than 20 years of combined experience. We keep testing and delivering knowledge of SEO for the community of SEO.
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