Nicknamed the Medic Update, Google E-A-T caused many high-ranking websites to slide down the SERPs due to modest E-A-T scores.
E-A-T stands for:
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
Funnily enough, Google’s Gary Illyes was quick to dismiss the acronym at PubCon 2019. According to him, no single E-A-T score exists; rather, it is a conceptual way to look at the result of multiple algorithms, baby algorithms, and signals. But he did mention the positive impact of E-A-T scores on the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) space.
Does your website fit the profile? Then avoid ‘untrustworthy’ or ‘low quality’ labels to prevent the penalization of your site and its removal from the index completely. Know how to improve your ‘E’, ‘A’ or ‘T’ score for Google:
1- Showcase Your Expertise
Content creation and management is the most important skill that every modern marketer must possess. Ask yourself, do you possess experience and knowledge about a specific topic? That isn’t enough to become an expert in the eyes of Google! You need to be able to use the information for crafting high-quality content. Only then can you make a difference within your website.
Create Useful Content
Try to understand what your audience wants as well as the intent behind their queries. Do not throw information at them; instead, create simple, concise answers. Understand the stage of your customers’ journey and then craft your expertise to maintain relevance, which is a key ranking factor for Google. Ensure your expertise is on display for your visitors to see.
One way to create useful content is by identifying the customer journey and buyer persona. When you have a customer journey map with you, then you can prepare content that pulls the prospects towards a sale. Tools like Omniconvert are pretty useful in conducting an-inclusive audit that lets you know the bottlenecks in your content so that you can take data-driven decisions and improve your overall conversions.
Promote Your Accomplishments
Post everything to highlight your website’s credentials and boost the ‘E’ part of your E-A-T score. This includes accolades and awards. Remember, external recognition builds your reputation and adds to your credibility, making your site rank higher.
Feature accredited professionals if your website deals with subjects like:
- Medical information
- Financial advice
- Any consultation on subjects that affect an individual’s happiness, health, finances, or well-being
Be Comprehensive
Make sure your website pages contain details about specific aspects under a single topic. So, create ‘core content’ along with plenty of ‘supporting content’ on one subject with sufficient internal links. Avoid sensationalizing your content through misleading techniques and apply proper SEO copywriting strategies to promote your content in a positive manner.
Add Visuals
People remember just 10 percent of the information they hear after three days. But adding a relevant image to the same information increases retention by 65 percent after three days. That’s why you should add images, infographics and tables that match the topic your site is covering. Allow search engines to recognize them easily by adding captions, diagram elements, and numbers.
Online grocery service, Mercato does a great job in creating content that helps their target audience. Their blog has tons of useful content for merchants who wish to join the store and increase their profits.
2- Ascertain Your Authoritativeness
Google determines website authority based on:
- Quantity and quality of links from relevant websites and authorities.
- Mentions, even when unlinked, from trusted, reliable websites.
- Regular sharing of content on social media.
- Branded search volumes.
Develop your off-site reputation to appease Google. Ensure the author of your content has several citations under their belt and have published on other authoritative, trustworthy websites.
After cementing your expertise, gain authority in your domain. Leverage your social status by posting reviews, quoting opinions from peers, and highlight positive feedback regarding your work.
Educational Content
If you post educational content on your website, include the full name of the author after every article. This remarketing playbook page from Search Engine Journal clearly lists the author and his experience. Do not forget to embed links so the names of each author lead to a list of his/her works, a brief introduction, images, and position. Remember, if author information is not immediately available, your E-A-T score may drop approximately 35 to 50 percent due to link penalty.
Guest Posts
Link guest posts to company websites with authority. Google prefers signatures under the articles to display the party responsible for the information. Translate articles from websites with high authority, and credit the author and source.
Use infographics and other supporting material from reliable websites as required. You may even source video content for marketing purposes. But add credits always. Ensure your website contains an ‘About Us’ page, containing details about your site’s authors along with the owner. Include more links, such as social media profiles, to improve your authority. The visitor should have easy access to your business contact details.
Allow clients to visit different social media accounts. Also, support your credentials with certificates, awards, diplomas, licenses, and educational qualifications. Do not simply scan the documents; describe all of it in detail to establish your authority in the field.
3- Make Your Website More Trustworthy
The ‘T’ in E-A-T stands for trust. Find different ways to improve trust.
Be Mindful of Content Quality
Establish both yourself and your website as reliable by posting accurate, credible content. Remove duplicate or re-written content from your site. Avoid stuffing pages with keywords that offer little to no useful information. Ensure the title and meta tags match your content.
But the genuineness of your content alone cannot increase the trust factor. Pay attention to website security and implementing an SSL certificate.
Be Secure
Invest in technical security to boost your E-A-T score. Otherwise, Chrome brands HTTP sites as “Not Secure”. Add an SSL certificate to your website. Google pushes for websites with HTTPS and assigns a higher E-A-T rating than URLs without SSL in place.
Be Transparent
- Allow visitors to express their opinions about your content through a ratings system
- Include data from other experts in your content and update the information
- Mention various ways how the content from your site has improved lives
- Use the actual names of businesses or people you’ve helped for verification
Be Responsive
A great way to improve your website’s trustworthiness is to interact positively with visitors who leave comments about your industry.
A Forrester Research study found that customers equate fast response times with satisfactory experience. 41 percent expect a response to their inquiries within six hours. So engaging your audience on time makes them more likely to post about your product, brand, or website on social media frequently.
Respond to each review on your website and external review platforms to control the user experience. If you successively receive negative comments or fake reviews, your website E-A-T score may suffer. Rely on a professional ORM and SERM course of action to minimize the damage to your brand and reputation.
Concluding Remarks
E-A-T strategies are not a one-time thing. You cannot achieve a good E-A-T rating overnight. But if you consistently communicate your expertise on subjects that demand accuracy, authority through high-quality content and trust through positive security and reputation, expect to rank at the top in SERP later.