As the SEO landscape continues to evolve, so do the algorithms and ranking factors used by search engines like Google. Keep up with the latest best practices and guidelines to stay ahead of the curve and make sure your website works as well as it can. One such factor that has come to the forefront in recent years is E-A-T there’s many EAT Checklist out here already., or “Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness.”
In December 2022, Google updated the term E-A-T to include an additional “E” for “experience,” making the acronym E-E-A-T or “Double-E-A-T,” if you prefer. E-A-T plays an integral part in Google’s Search Quality Raters tests.
Experienced Content Creators
When it comes to online content, the experience of the creator is just as important as the quality of the content itself. As consumers, we’ve all been there: browsing through a product review and wondering if the person writing it has actually used the product they’re reviewing. Has this person had first hand experience in medical and health to give the advice about how decrease their stress levels? Are they truly an expert in their field?
Regarding demonstrating experience, Google says:
Very high E-E-A-T is a distinguishing factor for the Highest quality pages.
“A website or content creator who is the uniquely authoritative, go-to source for a topic has very high E-E-A-T. A content creator with a wealth of experience may be considered to have very high E-E-A-T for topics where experience is the primary factor in trust. A very high level of expertise can justify a very high E-E-A-T assessment. Very high E-E-A-T websites and content creators are the most trusted sources on the internet for a particular topic.”
So we know that EAT has existed for a while. With this new addition and the waves of AI content going out there, without further ado, here’s the E-E-A-T checklist:
Adding in Your First Hand Experience
- Adding in case studies, examples or links to relevant resources you’ve created, you’ve done the work before, show it to the user to qualify why your content should be trusted
- Bring in experts in your field to back up your statements, get commentary from trusted pros to back up your content as as source.
- Videos and images, videos are a great way to supplement content, showing your face and providing that content in a audio and visual way adds diversity to your content, as well as trust through people seeing you’re a real person!
To improve your content through experience will show Google’s algorithm and users your knowledge in your niche.
About Page
Create a very detailed “About” page for yourself if you’re a solo operator, or your company.
If you’re a business with many team members, add in profiles for each one with headshots and biographies about them personally and professionally.
Add organisation or person schema
Schema structured data is useful to have on a website because it communicates important information to Google that can then be used to present an organization’s or a person’s data in the search results in an attractive manner – here’s the link to about page schema:
Contact information
Contact information is needed so people can get directly in touch with you.
- Contact emails for different departments
- Actual phone and address (once traffic is consistent)
Why is this important? Well, you’re confident that people to reach out because your website / content is so awesome.
Although privacy is a concern, think about how Google can qualify your website as legitimate because it may not, and you’re scratching your head as to why. It isn’t a deal breaker but something to consider and test.
Accuracy is important here too for user experience, you need to keep this information updated and consistent with your Google Business Profile too.
Real authorship
Create an author bio page with your credentials and who you are on your blog to show your authority.
Manual assessors / Google raters will go through these pages when assessing EAT, so having a name and a face will add weight to your content.
This will also be connected to your about page bio, with your credentials
On Healthline’s articles they’ve put in the work behind adding in these biographies, to the extend of adding “Medically reviewed”
They’re highly aware that the information they provide is connected to E-EAT being in the medical industry:
Topical Authority
Topical authority is an SEO concept where a website aims to become the go-to authority on one or more topics. Building topical citation is about helping search engines understand a website’s matter so that it has better potential to rank for topically related keywords.
In your keyword research, make sure you’re covering what google wants to see out of authority, if you sell coffee, write about coffee, what it is when it was invented, and all the basic questions you should have the answer to because you’ve got experience
Use Semrush’s keyword magic tool to get an idea of when you select your core keyword and what questions people ask to start building topical authority.
Be Crawlable
Resolve errors in Google Search Console, cover off the basics of good tech SEO as well – address these types of issues first:
Crawl Errors occur when Googlebot cannot access your website pages, resulting in 404 errors.
Sitemap Errors occur when the sitemap submitted to Search Console is not in the correct format or contains broken links.
- Extra tip get your HTML sitemap in place as well, have hear great results from something this simple.
Security Issues occur when Google detects security issues on your website, such as malware or hacking.
Structured Data Errors: These occur when there is an issue with the structured data on your website, such as missing or incorrect information.
Mobile Usability Errors: These occur when there are issues with the mobile version of your website, such as text being too small or tap targets being too close together.
Time to E-E-A-T!
It’s clear that Google places a high importance on the concept of E-E-A-T, or experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, in its search results. By demonstrating expertise through first-hand experience, having a clear and professional About page, and building topical authority are just a few ways to improve your website’s E-E-A-T.
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