In the past couple of years, digital marketing professionals, specifically those who handle SEO, have been hearing about E-A-T quite frequently. The concept of E-A-T has been around since 2014 and is gradually becoming one of the critical elements of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Let us understand what E-A-T is and why it is a crucial element of every search engine marketing agency.
What is E-A-T?
E-A-T is the abbreviated name of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. The concept of E-A-T was first introduced in Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines document, and since then, it has been refreshed regularly with new updates. It is requisite to acknowledge that E-A-T is not a ranking determinant. Instead, E-A-T is more of a check for Google to ensure that the contents they are showing are correct and valuable to the searchers and whether or not Google should rank the content well. Google gives prominence to E-A-T as it evaluates the entire quality of the web page.
Expertise
It refers to how much of an expert the person is who wrote the article or is providing information about the topic. For instance, a person writing a finance article should be written or reviewed by a finance expert.
Authoritativeness
Google likes to show the best possible results to its users. And it looks out for the sites that are the best source to provide them with accurate information. So, for example, Google will give priority and fetch the information regarding anything related to medical from official medical websites. That’s how it shows that these official websites have authority over the topic searched.
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is the overall quality of the website and the reputation of the person writing the content earned over time. Positive reviews, vouching for the website across the web, and high engagement in the website are the factors that increase the website’s trustworthiness.
Why is E-A-T considered necessary in SEO?
During the present times, Google has become one of the primary sources of getting all kinds of information required. Also, Google is well-aware that people sometimes make critical decisions based on the content they read online. Therefore, it becomes more important to give correct and accurate details to the people to avoid any consequences caused by giving bad or wrong information.
Every Digital Marketing Company must ensure that the information they provide, especially if it falls in the Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) bracket, must be accurate and tread very carefully. YMYL are those websites that give information about and impact health, happiness, finances, and/or safety. These sites are held to the highest E-A-T standards due to the sensitive nature of their expertise.
Google is making extra efforts in improving the user experience. And as a step in that direction,
- Google penalises keyword stuffing to give a better reading experience to the users.
- Google made mobile responsiveness of the website a ranking factor.
- They prioritise HTTPS over HTTP to provide the user with more internet security.
The measures mentioned above are an essential part of SEO, and Search Engine Optimization is a crucial aspect of determining the success of digital marketing strategies. Therefore, every SEO company should keep E-A-T SEO in their mind and develop the strategy as per the E-A-T guidelines to help get a better rank in the search results.
The main objective of E-A-T is to deliver what the user wants and deliver the same in an expert, authoritative and trustworthy manner. And if the digital marketing company follows the same, their SEO has more chance to succeed than others. Hence, it is advisable to keep E-A-T as one of the core frameworks while developing SEO strategies to get guaranteed success.
