In SEO, the concept of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) has become increasingly vital. This blog post aims to answer some of the most important questions surrounding E-E-A-T, providing clarity for business owners and content creators but to provide real life examples of how business owners and marketers can incorporate this concept into their content – it is especially important with the new Search Generative Experience.
Why is E-E-A-T Important for SEO and How Can I Improve My Website?
E-E-A-T is integral to Google’s guidelines for assessing the quality of web content. Each component plays a crucial role:
Experience: This is about having direct, personal experience in the field you’re writing about. For instance, a food blogger sharing personal recipes they’ve created or a financial advisor discussing investment strategies they’ve successfully implemented.
Especially in this day of AI, so much content is the same online. Help your content stand out by weaving your personal / professional experience into the content. As a digital marketing company I might reference what my clients in a certain industry are seeing rather than just report on what other experts are saying.
Some other ways to indicate experience (and also expertise) are to have multiple pieces of content dedicated to the topic rather than just one and to use multiple forms of content such as videos, images, etc.
Expertise: Expertise requires demonstration of specialized knowledge or skills in a particular subject.
To be an expert, you must be a person. Ensure blog posts have an author and that author has a profile page.
- If you have written for other publications, have them link to this author page or at least the website as a whole.
- The author page should consider including details about the author such as
- Qualifications (feel free to link to a website that confirms your qualifications. An example for those in the wellness space might be Rate my MD or Psychology Today)
Career information
Status within a specific field
Links to this person’s social media platforms such as LinkedIn or Instagram.
Another way to show Google that you are a real person is to use Person Schema and Organization Schema.
You can create an author box to display on your website automatically each time you create a new page or post.
Authoritativeness: This is about being recognized as a reliable source in your field. It’s not just who you are, but how others perceive your knowledge and contributions.
The quickest way to indicate your authority on a topic is to acquire links from other websites to yours. These links need to be contextual – e.g. not just a link in the footer but a link in the middle of a paragraph that is related to the topic on which you are an expert.
If other websites trust you (as ascertained by their links), Google is more inclined to trust you. The greater the authority of those sites linking to you, the greater the trust Google has that you are an authority.
Domain Authority is an also important for SGE so two reasons to gain incoming links!
Trustworthiness: This involves the accuracy of your content, the security of your website, and your ethical practices in presenting information.
These all feel like the same thing – expertise, experience, authority, trustworthiness…
That’s because Google considers your site to be trustworthy if it demonstrates experience, expertise, and authoritativeness – that’s one less to do on your list!
One of the ways you can pull all of this together is by having an About page for the organization (or individual if you are a solopreneur). On this page you might have:
- A photo (or photos)
- The origin of the company (this is important with the new SGE as Google will use AI to create information about a company. May as well feed the beast the information you’d like to have published.
- What makes your company unique?
- Share something personal about yourself
- Testimonials and/or case studies
- Schema markup (for Organization if there is more than one person)
On the website as a whole you might consider some of these additional items:
- Privacy Policy
- Cookie Statement
- GDPR
- Have the date an article was last reviewed and/or who the reviewer was
- Have contact information easily accessible; you might include hours of operation with the contact info
A friend and client comes to mind for all of the above – Turnipseed Travel – Vanessa writes about what she knows… she provides advice on travel destinations, itineraries, packing advice, etc. → based on having done the trip. Her content is not cookie cutter and will be unique compared to the large websites. Google already rewards her well for her content and will likely continue to do so.
Another colleague who is an author has unique content that is focused on families. For example, she has several pages about travelling to PEI, but each of her content pieces weaves a family focus through topics such as accommodation, restaurants, activities, etc. With the new SGE, Google will understand that certain searchers will prefer this family focused content over other PEI content.
In competitive niches, where many businesses are vying for top rankings, those who excel in E-E-A-T can gain a significant edge. At DriveTraffic, we understand that each industry and business requires a slightly different priority focus on specific factors. Let us determine what your business requires and take care of the heavy lifting! Let us determine what your business requires and take care of the heavy lifting!
- About the Author
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Darlene is a search marketer, analyst, trainer, and owner of DriveTraffic Digital Marketing. She has been working in the digital marketing industry since the mid 90s and has narrowed her specialty to SEO, Google Ads and Google Analytics. She is especially interested in Google’s new Search Generative Experience and how businesses will need to adapt to remain visible. Want to see how DriveTraffic can help? Let’s chat!
