Improve Your EAT for a Better SEO Quality Rating

 

In SEO land there is a lot of talk about EAT. Google values ​​pages that contain expertise, have authority and can be trusted.

EAT is not new. Since 2015, Google has already included this in their Quality Raters Guidelines. This is the handbook for Google's evaluators who assess the relevance and quality of search results. Why has EAT become such an important ranking factor and how is it applied in practice?

What does the abbreviation EAT stand for?

Since the beginning of search engine optimization, content and link building (authority) have been two of the three SEO pillars, in addition to technology. Google believes it is increasingly important that content is of high quality and that links are relevant and come from good quality websites.

With EAT, which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, Google goes one step further. Google has indicated that EAT is one of the top three ratings for page quality. Google takes an extra critical look at the so-called YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) websites.

What are YMYL websites?

These are websites that deal with topics that can have both a positive and negative effect on the happiness, health and financial situation of the user. Think of websites from the medical sector, the financial sector and healthcare.

SEMrush has provided some examples of YMYL categories:

·         Pages where financial transactions are made, such as web shops

·         Pages that provide financial information, such as information about investments or taxes

·         Pages that provide medical information about specific illnesses and mental health

·         Pages that provide legal information about child benefits, divorce, inheritance, etc.

Websites that fall into one of these categories are at higher risk when they publish low-quality content. On the other hand, YMYL websites that rank high in the search results score very well on EAT.

What exactly is meant by EAT?

Expertise

Be an expert in your field. In any case, emphasize this in the most important text that can be seen on the web page. Make sure the content is reliable and useful to readers. This is especially important for YMYL websites. If the content on these websites contains incorrect information, your users are more likely to be at risk. It is recommended that content on these websites is written or checked by a certified professional.

If your site does not fall within the YMYL branches, a person with expertise is not necessarily necessary and a professional writer or journalist will suffice. On blogs and forums, for example, it is acceptable if content such as recipes, is written by 'normal' people who share their experiences online.

Authoritativeness

Google would like you to show that you are an authority or that the authors of the content are.

For example, add to the content the position of the author or a short piece of biography at the top or bottom of the page. You can also link to a page with the full biography if the content is written by an expert within your own organization.

Especially for YMYL websites it is important that you show what qualifications you have. For example, if you provide specific medical information and advice, it must be written by doctors or healthcare professionals.

If your content employees are not experts, it is advisable to show through thorough research and source use that you consider it important to share correct information.

Choose your sources carefully and link to these sources with the correct anchor texts. Google likes high quality backlinks and your user likes transparency. This increases the confidence of your users.

Strengthen your reputation

Another way to strengthen your authority is to share users' personal experiences with your brand online, such as testimonials and reviews. Good reviews ensure a good reputation. Potential customers often review these reviews before taking action. These reviews can therefore influence the purchasing process of a user. They can also influence your Google quality rating.

The Google Search Quality Rating Guidelines state that user popularity, engagement and ratings can be taken as proof of your reputation.

Monitor all channels where customers share their feedback and experiences. By responding appropriately to these channels and providing excellent customer service, you will leave a strong impression on your customers.

If you have a lot of bad reviews, don't worry. Google looks at the details of these reviews and the total number of reviews. If the large majority is positive, this need not have any further negative influence on the quality assessment.

Trustworthiness

Show your visitors that they can trust your business. Write content for your users and not for the search engines. Content should help users or teach them about a topic related to your business. Google has set out a number of general page goals:

·         Sharing information on a particular topic

·         Sharing of Personal or Social Information

·         Sharing photos, videos or other forms or media

·         Expressing an opinion or position

·         Entertaining the user

·         Selling products or services                                

·         Allowing users to ask questions that other users answer

·         Allowing users to upload documents or download software

Contact information

Displaying contact information on the website gives users confidence because they see who is behind the website and that they can contact a person behind the website.

Provides users with a safe environment

Reliability is especially important for E-commerce websites, which ask users for credit card information. Everything on the website should make visitors feel safe. If the website does not yet have a secure SSL connection, that is the most important step to start with.

Get started with EAT

Make sure every part of your website meets Google's requirements, both at the page level and at the site level. According to Google, websites that ignore EAT get a lower quality rating. If you are not an expert, authority, or not trustworthy, Google will rate your page as low quality and it will affect your rankings.

By writing credible content, you also build trust with the users of your website.

How do you apply this to your website?

Make sure the most important content is of high quality. You do this by demonstrating expertise and authoring the content to be written. This is generally considered reliable.

Provides enough additional information and value for visitors on the website. This includes name and address details, an 'about us' page and additional customer service.

On your 'about-us' page, please include all the reasons why you have the most authority in your field. Name awards won, media coverage and your years of experience.

Make sure that the website contains content that can be used to answer queries and that the website offers information of added value.

Update and edit the website regularly to provide qualitative, accurate and relevant information.

For a complete overview of guidelines including examples, see the full Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines document.

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