Why Google EAT Should Be A Core Digital Strategy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr7viVv0aWo

In this video, Alastair Banks, director of Optix Solutions, explains the strategies that can you use to put E-A-T at the core of your business’s digital strategy and achieve create greater impact online .

What is Google E-A-T?

In 2018, Google made a core update to its search algorithm to make it easier for people to find content from reputable sources. One of the things prioritised was giving a higher weighting to sites which could demonstrate the following:

• EXPERTISE with content that is thorough, well researched, referenced and genuinely useful to users.

• AUTHORITY from a team who are certified, accredited or known as experts in their respective fields.

• TRUST demonstrated by the backlinks, reviews and overall reputation of the business

As Alastair explains, ‘Really it’s about understanding, the people who are writing your content for you and whether they have a strong personal brand or whether they are respected in the industry.’

Google themselves have said

“Assessing your own content in terms of E-A-T criteria may help align it conceptually with the different signals that our automated systems use to rank content”

Does it Apply to Your Website?

Improving your E-A-T profile is good practice for most websites.  But if you run a business which operates in a ‘YMYL‘ industry then it is essential. Any content that can affect ‘Your Money or Your Life’ is considered YMYL content because misinformation could ‘potentially negatively impact users’ happiness, health, financial stability or safety'(Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines May 2019). This covers websites with advice or products related to law, medicine, finance and more.

Even if you don’t operate in a YMYL industry we typically recommend reviewing your site with E-A-T in mind. Making improvements to make it clearer that you have expertise which means your site visitors should trust you has no down side. A lot of the things you may consider for E-A-T can help with conversion too,

So what can you do for your site?

As Alastair points out, taking an ‘E-A-T’ strategy for your business can ‘only be a good thing’. If you want to get started, Alastair recommends…

‘There are a few things you could do. One is to make sure that any kind of editorial content is authored properly. So maybe it’s got a link to the person’s name that actually created it. And perhaps that link could go off to like an author page something where it’s got a little bit of information about that person, why they’re respected, why their a trustworthy source in that space. And, maybe even better, you could link that off to things like their social profile so their LinkedIn and their Twitter if they’ve got them.

But it isn’t just about social media, isn’t just about their kind of brand from a digital perspective, it could be that they’re cited in white papers or they’re just known as being an expert in that space, all of this would really really help. So I guess the message really with E-A-T is to start to think more about the people that are actually writing or creating your content and whether they are those experts. and then if they are, and that’s great, then make sure that they’re referenced and that you link out and you give Google everything it wants to be able to find those people online.’

Resources:

Want to find out more about Google E-A-T? Check out some of the resources below:
Google Webmaster Blog

Moz on E-A-T and SEO

Marie Haynes on E-A-T

Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines

And if you need more help, get in touch for some with our team of digital strategists.