If you’re in the digital marketing scenario, then that one word that has brainstormed the minds of the marketing officials is E-A-T. What exactly is E-A-T and why are people talking about it in regards to their SEO and Google Ranking?
Well, in this blog we are going to guide you with all the necessary details that would bust all the prevailing myths and give you a clear insight in regards to page ranking.
What is SEO E-A-T?
While no one rule applies to all, but the recent analysis has shown that Google E-A-T score contributes to the page ranking of a website. E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust, the three key attributes that build the reputation of your website. To get in the good books of Google, a site needs to perform well in all three areas to allow Google to give you a higher rate. At the same time, your customer and other competitors will consider your brand in high regard.
Let’s dig a little deeper, and understand each term individually.
1) Expertise:
Be it any field, today’s age demands expertise and competency. When people visit your website, they lookout for a specific solution. To claim that your brand is unique, you have to showcase your expertise in the field and how your brand is superior. No visitor would trust a shaky provider with superficial knowledge. Your website should very much speak or display your abilities and why your service is better than your contenders.
2) Authority:
This is a factor that cannot be proven with words but instead your actions. Why should your visitors trust you and not others? Instead of sending out log paragraphs, put the effort into constructing a good, appealing website with good content. This would give you the authority in the market that you, your visitors, and Google want.
3) Trust:
For your user’s t trust you, Google has to trust you first. Much similar to real-life scenarios, once you lose the trust, it’s gone forever. Do not overhype or exaggerate your brand name that questions the authenticity of your brand. Users are smart and can quickly detect the wrong sayings. Hence, plan the bait carefully. Few areas that help to evaluate the trustworthiness of a website is by visiting the original website, check the terms and conditions, description, contact information, refund policy, and other formalities.
Now let’s straight away head to the big question of the decade, is E-A-T a ranking factor?
Well, the answer is yes and a no. And, it’s not us who are saying it as Google itself has debunked the truth. To everyone’s distress, Google has a whole long list to determine the eligibility of your website and it’s not restricted to only E-A-T.
Remember that E-A-T is just a part of how your raters rank your website and there’s a lot more that leads to SEO success.
The top 7 aspects are:
- The accuracy of your content
- The purpose of your content
- The facts must be guarded with external references
- The user experience
- Backlinks
- Page Rank
- Quality of the links
Don’t be disheartened as your hard work could still pay off. The dilemma, that whether you should still optimize your content as per the E-A-T norms or not, is strictly based on your goal. Websites that have throughout maintained a good E-A-T appear trustworthy to the users.
Where is E-A-T most valuable?
Google has a different set of the algorithm to appoint the E-A-T score. The pages with content related to topics like health, happiness, financial investment, and safety hold utmost importance. Any kind of falter in these pages would lead to a log term negative effect ad hence, Google greatly values the E-A-T factor in these regards. This group is summarized as YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) pages.
If you’re brand deals with any of the above-mentioned topics, one common question that would cross your mind is: Is there any specific way to improve the E-A-T score? The answer is absolute.
1) Survey your Brand
To be aware of how your current customers perceive your brand is genuinely important. On a serious note, it’s advisable to evaluate your brand on a timely basis to check if it still checks in with Google’s E-A-T points. For better results, hire an SEO professional for more expert analysis. Having a thorough knowledge about the ins- and outs, a professional could determine the authority of your brand in the market.
2) Update your Content
A common mistake that occurs with most brands is that they skip updating their content and the website regularly. This creates a negative impression on an outsider. For several reasons, your previous content doesn’t serve your current state of expertise but still lingers on your website. It is important to evaluate whether the information feeds your customers or not. The more updated your site is, the more Google considers your brand as genuine and improves your E-A-T score.
3) Chop E-A-T
As literal, as it may sound. Chop the unnecessary content that lowers your Google SERP. If there’s anything that is not contributing to your E-A-T, cut it. In short, this is referred to as ROT- Redundant, Outdated, Trivial Content.
4) Seek Expertise
There’s a reason why some sites perform better than others and the reason is the involvement of the professionals. It’s alright if you can’t do everything by yourself. For example site design, writing good content, doing the SEO, etc. In such cases, seek expert guidance to ensure the smooth running of the scheme and achieve marketing success.
5) Link It
An expert and easy way to boost your E-A-T is by linking to sites that Google already values. When you stay at par with the other high-end brands and businesses, it adds a star to your profile. If somehow you manage to receive backlinks or inbound links from those profiles, then even better.
