Acronyms get thrown around in digital marketing like confetti these days. So it’s understandable to find yourself wondering “what is E-A-T and why is it important for your SEO”? E-A-T actually stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. They’re the core benchmarks of page quality for search engines like Google (so they have a big impact on rankings). We’ll break down each element and its impact on your SEO below:
E- Expertise
Expertise refers to the writer’s skill level, experience, or knowledge about the subject matter. For critical topics that are related to life-changing decisions (YMYL), the algorithms will look for formal qualifications and education. So, if you’re writing a blog article about influenza, it will check to see if you have a degree in a related field or have been cited as a credible reference for similar medical topics.
For less serious content, the algorithm will simply check if you have enough life experience to be credible. According to Ahrefs, “Some topics require less formal expertise. […] If it seems as if the person creating the content has the type and amount of life experience to make him or her an “expert” on the topic, we will value this “everyday expertise” and not penalize the person/webpage/website for not having “formal” education or training in the field.”
A- Authoritativeness
Authoritativeness is a measure of whether others value the expertise of the website. There are two great ways to become the authority in the eyes of a search engine. You can get a brand or author mention in news stories or on other credible websites in your space. That’s one way.
The other way is through building backlinks to other high quality and relevant pages. Of course, it goes without saying that you should be tracking the domain authority of your website and benchmarking it against others in the space regularly.
T- Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is all about general sentiment towards the brand or organization plus static trust indicators. If you’ve been collecting negative customer reviews, it’s only a matter of time before it tanks your rankings. You’ll want to manage all customer-facing reviews sites like Trustpilot, Facebook, and Google My Business to ensure that consumer confidence remains high.
Wordtracker suggests, “The website should have validation information, such as an About Us page and if it’s a transactional site, links to customer service information.” Elements like this add to the base level of consumer confidence in a website (especially for YMYL categories). Think about adding a high level of security and encryption as well, to boost transactional trust.
With E-A-T forming a big part of rankings, it’s important that your SEO addresses each element. Work on improving the authority of your writers, getting more mentions, building backlinks, and providing a great customer experience. It might seem basic, but as the foundation of good SEO, E-A-T should be front and center in your optimization plans. If you need help with your SEO strategy, let’s talk!