What is E-A-T in SEO?

E-A-T SEO

It’s actually E-E-A-T now, since Google added another “E” at the beginning of its name in December 2022.

E-E-A-T is an important factor considered in Google’s web pages’ ranking. It isn’t easy to find out how precisely it’s checked, since every online content is different. However, it’s highly recommended to understand what it means and apply some general methods to provide E-E-A-T on your website. It can substantially impact your pages’ ranking – thus, it’s considered important for SEO.

While experience and expertise apply purely to the content’s creator (whether it’s you, the people writing for you, or an interviewed person), the authoritativeness and trustworthiness should be demonstrated by all three: the creator, the content itself, and the entire website.

Google extended the factor with personal experience because, in some cases, it can also be a source of expert knowledge. For instance: you don’t have to be a world-class chef to write a review about whether you enjoyed or not an excursion to a local restaurant, or you don’t have to be a doctor with many years of experience to describe how you cope with your life when having a particular disease. Do you get my point?

It might seem that only websites writing about “serious stuff” should care about such aspects, but that’s far from the truth. Search engines want to ensure that no matter what their users are looking for, they will always find reliable and verified information about it. It makes perfect sense because when standing under the shower while bleaching your hair (even if it may not be generally considered “serious”), you’d rather use some tried-and-tested info on how long should you leave the bleach on, wouldn’t you?

Of course, some topics demonstrate an extraordinary obligation to align with these factors. The so-called high E-E-A-T websites are related to:

• Health and medical issues,
• Legal and financial advice,
• Science,
• News and journalism,
• Impactful information (regarding e.g. raising children),
• Skill acquisition (teaching how to properly learn new things).

There are also websites covering the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics. These pages can directly impact users’ life or finances. But also, if poorly formulated, such subjects can cause significant damage to the well-being, sense of inclusiveness, and overall safety of the people interacting with the content or the ones it speaks poorly or even aggressively about. Such websites are obviously strictly verified in the context of E-E-A-T quality factors.

To help you understand if what you write about could be considered a YMYL topic, and therefore requires high E-E-A-T compliance, I’ll use an example: a self-explanatory YMYL content would guide on “how to deal with a stab wound” clearly impacting the health or even life of the person reading and following it. A topic that can be (but not necessarily) defined as YMYL might be “how often should I change the electric toothbrush head” since it may affect the user’s health (in this case, oral cavity hygiene). And an unlikely YMYL website can advise on irrelevant (for life and health) things, such as “what is the best temperature to wash woolen socks”.

How to create E-E-A-T compliant content

To make your website’s content willingly “E-E-A-Ten”, it has to be P-U-R-R-F-E-C-T – so try to incorporate the following aspects into its creation:

• Purpose
  This is the reason why you started creating content online, so just make sure that it’s clearly understandable to anyone visiting your website and ideally helps users in some way;
• Updating
  The published information has to reflect reality. Otherwise, it can cause confusion! If on your website there’s, for instance, a review about a company that no longer exists or has completely changed its policies or offered products, you might misguide your readers;
• Reputation
  People may be influenced by whatever information regarding your website they’ll find on the internet, so don’t ignore it! Keep an eye on the comment sections, users’ activity on your social media channels, and forums related to your industry. And remember to always try to keep a cool head, even when responding to hostile opinions – how you behave has a massive (if not crucial) impact on your reputation;
• Relationship
  Try to build strong relations with your audience. To do so, you should focus on two significant aspects, i.e., user retention and website credibility;
• Facts
  Double-check everything you write about – don’t rush to be the first ever to raise a given subject, because such behavior may lead to spreading fake news. And that is just something that both users and search engines’ bots don’t accept;
• Erudition
  It’s always better to provide advice on things you have comprehensive knowledge of, especially when it comes to the high E-E-A-T or YMYL topics. Not only you’ll have a lot to say on the matter, but it’s also way safer since it allows you to deliver only top-notch content;
• Confirmation
  This is about exposing your audience only to confirmed external knowledge sources. It involves cautious external linking, but also collaborating solely with verified brands and experts;
• Trust
  Last but not least – make people trust you. I know it’s easier said than done, but you must put trust first. Sometimes, along the way, life may put you to the test of choosing between staying sincere or, for instance, making some more money by promoting shady products. Even if the second option sounds a bit tempting, trust me – it’s not worth it in the long run. A loyal audience is not something you can build overnight, so take good care of it!