Most people know by now that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) increases how high your web pages rank in search results, when people are looking for related topics online. The more visible you are, the more chance you have of attracting more customers.
Google prioritizes great customer experiences when evaluating which websites deserve to get a high ranking (with the exception of paid ads). And since Google is currently the most popular search engine, their assessment criteria is important.
These days, Google uses sophisticated algorithms and strict guidelines to determine a web page’s quality. Their framework is called EEAT, which stands for: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Visualize EEAT as a wheel, with trustworthiness at the core, and the other principles supporting it. Ultimately it’s all about creating website content that people find useful and reliable.
This guide will walk you through the benefits and know-how to make sure your website is super EEAT-friendly. Find out how to let Google know your site deserves to sail to the top of search results, so you can get found online.
Gone are the cowboy days of SEO, where it was enough to pack a web page full of search keywords to make it rank higher. That’s likely earn you a penalty now, because ‘keyword stuffing’ is now frowned on as gaming the system instead of serving customers.
EEAT, which amounts to quality content that comes across as trustworthy, is a key part of Google’s Search Quality Rating Guidelines.
If you’re a small business, you may be thinking this is just some techy small print that you can ignore because you have more important things to do. But that’s not the case. Google takes it very seriously, and since they’re the market leader, they tend to set the standard for the search engine landscape.
Here’s a summary of why you need to prioritize the EEAT principles in all your digital content:
Now that we’re clear on the value of EEAT, let’s dive deeper to understand it more. The goal is for you to be able to easily evaluate your content, to see if it aligns with these principles.
In December 2022, Google added experience as the fourth factor. Previously it was purely Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
This signaled that Google recognizes the importance of first-hand experience for certain topics. A prime example would be Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) content, which impacts people’s health, financial stability, safety, or well-being.
There’s a big difference between theory and practice. Experience allows the writer to offer advice and insight based on their trial and error (or ‘The School of Hard Knocks’ as some call it).
They will be able to provide unique ‘in the trenches’ opinions, rather than just a high level overview.
But on the other hand, an excellent researcher and writer could create a guide based on the insights of many experienced sources who may not want to be cited in the article or book. This would end up being more useful than an experienced person writing a guide who may not be good at clearly communicating their opinions, or who may be heavily biased.
This goes to show that EEAT is more of a contextual guideline in many cases. It’s not just about ticking boxes.
This boils down to whether you have the knowledge, skills, and credentials to give the content credibility. Like a doctor giving health advice.
Although the type of expertise that readers find valuable will naturally depend on the topic and purpose. For example, people searching for money-saving tips don’t necessarily want advice from financial experts. They would more likely prefer the expertise of a someone who understands their circumstances and isn’t biased.
What you want to keep in mind is the relevance, depth, and accuracy of your content.
This factor relates to your website’s reputation as a reliable source. The main way that Google judges that is through backlinks i.e. links to your site from other sites. The reasoning is if lots of people are referencing your content, it must be useful and high quality.
But be warned that there are a number of ‘Black-Hat SEO’ companies ready to offer you lots of backlinks from non-genuine sites which are setup for that purpose. Google is constantly seeking to improve at recognizing these link farms, or Private Blog networks (PBNs).
If they suspect your links are bought instead of naturally earned, this you could risk getting a penalty, which would see your site rankings tanking for an unknown length of time.
While it may take some patience, the only sure way to get quality backlinks from reputable sites is through quality content. And there are some extra ‘White-Hat SEO’ tips you can try to increase your backlinks.
Learn more:
In summary, these are the criteria that search engines consider when assessing quality backlinks:
Trust is really what EEAT is all about. Quality content will grow your reputation as a leader in your industry, and customers will recommend your brand because they have a good experience using your website.
It’s also important to make sure your content comes across as primarily focused on helping customers. Being too aggressive with pushing sales could give your audience the impression that you’re mercenary and uncaring.
Building a strong brand reputation for being reliable is not only key to ranking higher, it’s also the sure way to achieve long term business success.
There are a number of added factors which Google uses to determine how trustworthy your site is. These will be covered in the next section.
Google assesses EEAT using a combination of algorithm signals and human reviewers. This is what they look for:
Google employs human evaluators called Search Quality Raters. Their job is to assess the quality of search results based on Google's Quality Rater Guidelines, and provide feedback on whether the content meets EEAT standards.
Here are some examples of their Quality Rater Guidelines:
Chapter 4.5.2: Lowest E-E-A-T
“If the E-E-A-T of a page is low enough, people cannot or should not use the MC of the page. If a page on YMYL topics is highly inexpert, it should be considered Untrustworthy and rated Lowest. Use the Lowest rating if the website and content creator have an extremely negative reputation, to the extent that many people would consider the webpage or website untrustworthy.”
Chapter 5.1: Lacking E-E-A-T
“Low quality pages often lack an appropriate level of E-E-A-T for the topic or purpose of the page. Here are some examples:
The content creator lacks adequate experience, e.g. a restaurant review written by someone who has never eaten at the restaurant.
The content creator lacks adequate expertise, e.g. an article about how to skydive written by someone with no expertise in the subject.
The website or content creator is not an authoritative or trustworthy source for the topic of the page, e.g. tax form downloads provided on a cooking website.
The page or website is not trustworthy for its purpose, e.g. a shopping page with minimal customer service information.”
Chapter 7.3: High Level Of E-E-A-T
“Pages with High E-E-A-T are trustworthy or very trustworthy. Experience is valuable for almost any topic. Social media posts and forum discussions are often High quality when they involve people sharing their experience. From writing symphonies to reviewing home appliances, first-hand experience can make a social media post or discussion page High quality.”
Chapter 8.3 Very High Level Of E-E-A-T
“Very high E-E-A-T is a distinguishing factor for Highest quality pages. A website or content creator who is the uniquely authoritative, go-to source for a topic has very high E-E-A-T.
A content creator with a wealth of experience may be considered to have very high E-E-A-T for topics where experience is the primary factor in trust.
A very high level of expertise can justify a very high E-E-A-T assessment. Very high E-E-A-T websites and content creators are the most trusted sources on the internet for a particular topic.”
There are other on-page signals that Google’s algorithms are programmed to scan for when evaluating EEAT. These include:
With the online space increasingly being flooded with AI generated content, let’s look at whether this meets EEAT standards.
The main rule of thumb is to use AI platforms like ChatGPT for your research, but Google advises against publishing AI-generated content without human review and editing. There are a number reasons for this:
Currently, Google is increasingly rewarding original, high-quality content created by thought leaders, and devaluing generic or low-quality AI-generated content. This is unsurprising, given how they’re centered around evaluating websites that provide the best customer experience possible.
Google’s March 2024 Core Update saw the deindexing (unlisting) of hundreds of websites, many of which had significant AI-generated content. This indicates that they’re looking to
combat the rise of sites that are heavy on AI content.
So, be sure to keep originality and quality front-and-center. AI is best seen as an assistant, not a replacement, for human content creation.
Added to the above criteria, here are a couple of further things you can do to increase your EEAT rating:
SEO is still about ‘driving traffic’, or in other words, optimizing your website with the right keywords so it appears in search results when people are browsing for related topics. But more visits to your website won’t translate into more paying customers, if your audience doesn’t feel they can trust your business.
Implementing Google’s EEAT guidelines throughout your web pages is the modern way to ensure long term SEO success – they will rank your site higher so people find your business instead of your competitors, you’ll build brand trust, and ultimately gain new customers
The bottom line is that nowadays, modern SEO is more about high quality content which is reliable and useful, to make people want to engage with it and share it.
Getting in the habit of creating EEAT content is a practice that will continue to reward you over the long run. It will help you stand out from the increasingly competitive online space, as a leader in your industry. Making both Google and your customers happy – that’s a double win so well worth taking some extra time on.
And for help with the website optimization side of things, so you can easily do it yourself instead of having to hire an agency, RelateSEO is worth looking at because it’s both affordable and straightforward.
From keyword research to everything technical, here’s what you need to rank well in search engines.
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