Techno Infonet

What is Google’s E-A-T?

Google’s E-A-T, where E-A-T is an abbreviation that represents the best three elements (Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness) Google utilizes for deciding the page relevancy and its standard.

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Summary:

The Google E-A-T update has impacted all websites on the internet – either positively or negatively. Find out how this update has impacted your site and what you can do to ensure that you don’t get penalized by this latest update from Google.

Content:

While it’s true that Google makes minor tweaks to its core algorithm frequently, most of these updates fly under the radar. It’s only the major updates that impact page rankings significantly. And, Google E-A-T is one update that has a huge impact on all sites.

Introduced in the second half of 2018, the E-A-T update didn’t make much news like Google’s other updates in the past – like the Google Panda, Mobilegeddon. But, that doesn’t mean it should be ignored. Here, in this post, we give you all that you need to know about the E-A-T update – its effects on page rankings, and what you need to do to ensure that your site continues to perform well.

So, what exactly is the E-A-T update from Google?

During the time the update was rolled out, Google announced that they were making broad changes to their core algorithms.

Image via Twitter

As a result of the update, plenty of website owners saw variations in their search rankings. So, what changed? According to the consensus of the SEO expert community, Google used the E-A-T markers to determine the ranking of a site. So, what is Google E-A-T?

  • Expertise – Whether the author or the site owner is knowledgeable on the topic they are talking about on the site.
  • Authoritativeness – The credibility of the site publishing the content. Credibility is determined using authentic testimonials, outside reviews, credentials, etc.
  • Trustworthiness – This determines the overall trustworthiness of the site include security, site quality, etc.

Google’s John Mueller said to make content more relevant.

Simply put, with this update, Google focuses on whether your site is trustworthy and whether you are providing relevant and knowledgeable information to users.

How does E-A-T Guidelines Impact you and Why you need it?

Whether your site lost traffic due to the E-A-T guidelines or you want to improve your current page rankings on par with this update from Google, here’s what you should do.

Remove all Spammy and Irrelevant Content from your Site

Remember that SEO is not about tricking search engines into sending traffic to your site. Instead, it’s about improving the end experience for the user. Google is now more and more focused on delivering the most relevant and high-quality results to users. As a website owner, you need to focus on not just attracting traffic, but pulling in high-quality traffic.

Start by taking a look at your site, blog, social media pages, etc. Analyze critically whether the information you are providing your users is relevant and trustworthy. If you come across any information on your site that is irrelevant, spammy, sketchy, or harmful to your end users, then you need to work on removing all this information from your site.

Make sure to include Author Names & Biographies for all Content

One of the critical parts of E-A-T is that Google wants to know who is responsible for particular content. This is especially important for all YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) websites. According to Google Quality Raters Guidelines, the term YMYL refers to all websites that could potentially impact the future financial stability, health, happiness, or safety of users.

Google expects YMYL pages to be created by authoritative and trusted experts on the topic. For product pages and landing pages, you need to ensure that business contact information and customer support information are easy to find. On the other hand, for blog posts, you need to provide more information on the author, so that Google can decide whether the information was provided by an expert on the topic.

For instance, here at Techno Infonet, all our blog posts contain information about the author of the piece. This helps to increase the article’s credibility while improving our page rankings based on the E-A-T principle.

Image via Techno Infonet

If you don’t provide information about the author, it could affect your E-A-T score drastically.

Optimize your About Page

Not just Google, but your users also want to know who is responsible for the content they are reading on your site. They want to evaluate it to decide if they can trust the author. The easiest ways to boost your credibility is to optimize your about page. Here are some essential information that you should include in your about page to fare well in E-A-T rankings:

  • Provide experience and expertise of each team member
  • Provide academic and other formal qualifications of each team member
  • List out the awards that your business/team members have won or been nominated for
  • Include authentic testimonials from previous clients
  • Showcase positive press about your brand/business
  • Include contact details, business address and your official social media channels

Manage your Online Reputation

Remember that SEO is not just about on-page optimization, but also focuses on off-page techniques. You need to ensure that your business has a stellar online reputation. Here are some ways to get your online reputation on track.

  • Press coverage – Try to get your business showcased in reputable sites. However, remember that Google can easily find out when you paid for coverage vs. when you were genuinely covered. So, don’t try to outsmart search engines by paying for coverage.
  • Reviews and Testimonials – The same goes for online reviews and testimonials. Try to build authentic customer reviews that are positive and showcase it on your site.
  • Guest Post – This is a crucial way to build E-A-T scores. Try to get featured on other sites that have a good reputation. Similarly, get industry experts on your niche to publish content for you on your site.

 

Finally, Focus on Building Relevant, High-Quality Content

Content is always King when it comes to your search engine rankings. The same applies to E-A-T too. You need to focus on building content that is expertly written, is trustworthy and authoritative. If you are having a hard time figuring out the right content strategies, you can make use of these helpful techniques like the 10x content or Skyscraper content technique.

As mentioned above, getting expert guest authors to post on your site will also help your content strategies in the long run. Again, as mentioned in the first point, review all the published content on your site, and check if it helps or hinders your E-A-T efforts.

Using Google Analytics data and Google Search Consoles will help you identify how older pages are performing on your site. Identify pages that are performing poorly and work out ways to improve it. You can either optimize existing content or remove it completely. If removing content, make sure to use the right redirects, to avoid broken links.

The Bottom Line: Google E-A-T is all about improving Site Quality

SEO is not a one-time process. You have to work on constantly updating your strategies to boost your page rankings. The E-A-T update is another step from Google to provide users with the most relevant, high-quality content. So, work on optimizing your content, improving the overall quality and user experience of your site, thereby boosting your page rankings.

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Author Bio

Parth Patel

Mr. Parth Patel is the Senior SEO Executive at Techno Infonet. He is well versed in the latest SEO trends and implements them meticulously. Moreover, he has extensive experience of over 4 years in the IT industry. In his free time, he likes to read content on the latest SEO tools and techniques.

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