Last Updated March 6, 2023
Google's E.A.T. stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It is a set of guidelines that Google has used since 2014 to assess the quality of content on websites. This means that Google evaluates the authority, expertise, and trustworthiness of the content on a website to determine its ranking in search engine results.
This means businesses should focus on creating well-researched, accurate content that provides valuable information to their readers to succeed in SEO.
What's E.E.A.T. & Why Was it Changed?
Google recently changed the Google SEO Guidelines from E.A.T. (Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) to E.E.A.T. (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) to emphasize the importance of the user experience on a website or with a brand.
Google hopes this change will encourage content creators to ensure the user's experience on the website and with the content is top of mind.
We've broken down the four elements and provided tips for improving your blog, website content creation, and search engine optimization across each category. Follow these tips to help your content improve in Google search results.
You can read more on Google's SEO Guidelines at Google Search Essentials
How to improve experience in your blog posts?
1. Use quality content: Quality content is the key to having a successful blog. Make sure to include well-researched, comprehensive, and engaging content that provides valuable information to your readers.
2. Utilize visuals: Visuals such as images, infographics, and videos can help attract attention and break up large blocks of text.
3. Include internal links: Internal links help guide readers to other related posts or pages on your website, which can help to improve user experience.
4. Optimize for the reader: Optimizing blog posts for the reader can help to improve visibility and ranking in search engine results, leading to more traffic and increased engagement.
5. Optimize for mobile devices: Optimizing your blog posts for mobile devices can help to improve user experience, as more and more users are accessing websites and content via their phones and tablets.
How to improve expertise in your blog posts?
1. Research your topic thoroughly: Make sure you understand the topic before you begin writing, and use authoritative sources to support your claims.
2. Use data to support your claims: Provide evidence from statistics, surveys, or other data types to support your arguments.
3. Incorporate visuals: Use images, videos, diagrams, and other visuals to illustrate your points and make them easier to understand.
4. Link out to credible sources: Citing other experts in your field will help add credibility to your post and show you’ve done your research.
5. Update your content regularly: Make sure to keep your content up to date, as outdated information can lead to a loss of trust.
How to improve authority in your blog posts?
1. Establish yourself as an expert: Highlight your qualifications and any awards or honors you’ve achieved.
2. Feature guest posts from prominent industry figures: Show readers that you have the support of experts in your field.
3. Publish content regularly: Consistent content shows readers that you’re active and invested in your topic.
4. Earn quality links: Earning “passive links” with your content is the holy grail of content marketing. Backlinks from authority sites show that you are also an authoritative source.
5. Invite comments and feedback: Inviting comments and feedback will help build relationships with your readers and make your content more valuable.
How to improve trust in your blog posts?
1. Disclose any affiliations or sponsorships: Be honest about any financial relationships with any companies, products, or services mentioned in your content.
2. Adhere to industry standards: Following industry best practices will help show that you’re a credible source.
3. Use a professional, reliable design: Investing in a quality website and content design will help show that you’re a reputable source of information.
4. Offer customer service: Providing quality customer service and responding to inquiries promptly will help show readers that you’re reliable.
5. Ask for reviews: Ask readers to review your content, which will help build credibility and trust.
Google's E.E.A.T. & Your SEO Strategy
Google's guidelines for SEO should not be a reason for concern. The emphasis on quality content should be there for all content creators and not just a reaction to a Google update. Google's organic search results have always been about serving the best results based on a search query and the intent. Search engines are in business to serve the best quality search results, this change only seeks to enhance those further.
What remains to be seen is how other search engines react to the change in Google search and whether they will adapt and follow suit, or have they already been there and aren't as public about their search engine algorithms?
FAQs
What are SEO guidelines?
SEO guidelines are standards to optimize a website or web page for better visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). These standards usually involve optimizing the website's content, structure, and links for optimal search engine rankings.
SEO guidelines are typically based on the most current search engine algorithms and best practices for organic search engine optimization. Additionally, SEO guidelines often involve creating and maintaining a balanced backlink profile and adhering to the content guidelines set by the search engine itself. Following SEO guidelines is one of the most effective ways to ensure that your website performs at its best and gains maximum visibility in the SERPs.
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