Written by: Ryan Walsh

Date: 11/12/2024

There’s been colossal coverage and talk about the Google update known as “E-EAT”. In short, for those who don’t know what this abbreviation stands for, it simply stands for experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
This now needs to be demonstrated in all of your business’s content marketing if you want to get those pages onto the first page of Google’s SERPs.

 

What is the whole purpose of Google E-EAT?

There are countless thousands upon thousands of Google updates that Google rolls out yearly. So why should you take note of the Google E-EAT algorithm update in particular?

Well, simply because it’s been created and now set as “Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines”.

Therefore, the Google algorithm uses these Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines to decipher the importance of high-quality pages.

If they have a high Google E-EAT score, they rank higher on Google

If the work has a very low Google E-EAT score, it might not even get indexed.

 

Relevance and quality

Google’s algorithm constantly assesses the relevance and quality of the page. Therefore, it wants to serve the best possible answer to any question.

Whether you’re buying a bunch of roses or a classic car online, Google only wants to serve business listings on the first page that offers a good user experience and are relevant.

Old SEO experts, those who have been around the block a bit, will note that this guidance was once called “Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.”

Well, now things have changed. The guidance is much more precise and straightforward, and it’s now called Google E-EAT.
This is where Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines step in, offering a set of comprehensive guidelines for assessing the quality of pages.

 

 

Let’s break down the core elements of E-EAT. What does it mean?

Experience (what’s the level of experience of the author)

Google wants to work out whether you the author, whether you have real-life experience; how do you experience what you are talking about?
Therefore, Google wants to know if you have first-hand experience with what you’re writing about.

You can show experience by writing detailed articles showing you know what you’re talking about.

There should also be a link to your author’s LinkedIn profile, highlighting your employment and experience level in that particular business sector.

Therefore, Google is looking for genuine first-hand experience, so if you can offer helpful advice and tips that a plumber with only a high amount of experience, say 20 odd years in the trade, would know about and incorporate this knowledge, this expertise, into the article, well, you’re on to a winner.

 

A.I

We live in a world of artificial intelligence, and there is no doubt that in the next decade, artificial intelligence will change many of our everyday lives.

Currently, AI is used to write thousands, if not millions, of articles daily.

And AI is very clever; it’s based on comprehensive language models.

But what it can’t do, thankfully, is experience the real world like humans can.
So, Google rewards content marketing with higher rankings in the SERPs. These are pages that show real-life experiences. Does an actual human write them?

 

 

For example, if you are a food critic and you also run a travel blog, you could add unique pictures of your holiday in Bali that show you have actually been there.

It’s not A. I’m writing about Bali; it’s someone who’s really been there and seen the sights for themselves.

Therefore, this real-life experience documented different pictures, and you talked about your real-life experience of a holiday.

So, how do you demonstrate experience on your company website?

How to demonstrate real-life experience:

• Do add unique photos, not stock photography, to your website.
  Add detailed advice that shows you’re an expert on the subject
• Writing a comprehensive article with a high word count shows you put effort into the work.
  State your opinion, whether right or wrong and offer your unique opinion. Often, AI doesn’t have an opinion other than stating facts; by saying that opinion, you are shown to be a real human being.

 

Expertise

How can I show real expertise in my content marketing?

Our SEO agency will now offer you a top tip: Have a LinkedIn profile for every employee you employ.

Then, when an employee writes an article, link it directly to their LinkedIn article at the top or bottom of the article.
Why do that?

By offering that link, the Googlebot can index the LinkedIn profile linked to it.

Your LinkedIn profile shows your experience, including where you have worked and for how long. You can also add your qualifications. This is why our SEO company always says to offer a link to your LinkedIn profile at the top of every blog post.
This then demonstrates to Google’s algorithm how qualified you are and how much expertise you have on the subject you’re writing about.

 

YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) topics and why need to go the extra mile

Suppose you’re covering topics related to my (Money, Your Life) topics, such as medical advice or offering financial advice. In that case, you must ensure that these pages are highly quality and well-written. You must also push the boat out in terms of proving that you are an expert in terms of what you are writing about

 

Authoritativeness: how do you show authority on your company website?

This one is harder to do, but you can improve your business’s authority by building quality backlinks.
Build do-follow and no-follow links to high-quality brands leading to that page. The link juice, also known as link equity, will help push that page higher in the SERPs.

When your business has many excellent-quality backlinks, and the links come from top-quality, well-known brands, these can massively improve the authoritativeness of that page. However, a word to the wise: ensure all the backlinks you earn are high quality.

Trustworthiness

How can you improve the trustworthiness of your company website?

How to develop Trust on your website:

 

Be factually correct

You have to make sure that the information you publish in a blog post is factual, that you add facts and statistics, and that you also include links to where the statistics come from.

So, for example, if you offer statistics published by the United Kingdom’s Office of National Statistics, “ONS,” then provide a link to the page where you found the stats.
If you offer many facts and statistics on the page, this increases its credibility and accuracy by showing that you have heavily researched your work.

 

Company contact details

Make it easy to contact your business; some businesses don’t have an address, email, or phone number to ring. To increase trustworthiness, ensure you have NAP information on your website.

Nap information stands for name, address and phone number. Ensure this is on the website, as it increases the trustworthiness of that page.

Remember that Google’s E-EAT is not a direct ranking factor; instead, it’s an overarching set of guidelines that assess a page’s quality.
Yet for your company, whether you run a construction company or a dental practice, to get that page on page one of Google, you must have a high Google E-EAT score.

In short, by incorporating the Google E-EAT into the algorithm, Google’s core algorithm uses this set of guidelines to determine whether a page is high quality or not.
Businesses with a lot of thin, low-quality content marketing often saw their organic rankings substantially decrease when Google E-EAT was introduced into the algorithm.

 

Would you like to improve your SEO performance?

Ryan Walsh, the owner of an SEO agency, has managed and operated this digital marketing agency for over a decade. We understand how Google’s algorithm works to an expert level, and our work has been cited in industry-leading publications such as Search Engine Land.
Contact us today if you want to increase your sales and improve your organic SEO.