Read time: 3 mins
Written by Josh Westerman
E-E-A-T is an acronym for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, and is derived from Google’s very own Search Quality Rating Guidelines. These guidelines are a key component in establishing what makes for a good website that Google will happily rank well to ensure all the results it showcases are of a high quality.
Essentially, this is the latest version of Google’s E-A-T guidance with a new ‘E’ added to the start as it looks to clean up its search engine results pages (SERPs) for the better.
Here, I’ve broken down the key elements of E-E-A-T and offered insights into why it is an important consideration when it comes to your business’s website and content.
Experience is the latest addition to Google’s quality guidelines. Rolled out in December 2022, this element sees the search engine want to see a degree of experience in relation to the service, information or product a brand is talking about.
In its own description of what it means by experience, Google states:
“Consider the extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic. Many types of pages are trustworthy and achieve their purpose well when created by people with a wealth of personal experience. For example, which would you trust: a product review from someone who has personally used the product or a “review” by someone who has not?”
Having that background to your business has been around the block when it comes to service, products or information it is talking about will only stand you in good stead in the SERPs.
This factor is all about the credibility of the author, in relation to the content topic they are talking about. In short, expertise relates to whether a certain person has the knowledge and know-how to write about a certain topic – which to us, makes total sense.
For example, you’re unlikely to see a dog food brand writing about the latest trends in urban logistics rank higher in the SERPs than an actual expert in the field of urban logistics.
And, in the same way, it’s not likely that an urban logistics expert will rank higher than a dog food brand for an article on what food you should be feeding your pet chihuahua.
Authoritativeness, as the name would suggest, is showing that you and your website are an authority in your field. A key way of showcasing this is through a strong backlink profile, with links to your website from relevant website with high domain authorities.
As a working example – say you’re a law firm with an expertise in retail sector and you’ve curated a piece of content around the latest regulatory update. If other publications then start to reference and link to this article when discuss the regulatory update, it creates authority for the firm which Google will recognise and respect.
Google loves a trustworthy website – and quite frankly, who doesn’t. Proof of being a trustworthy source can include securing positive reviews from customers, suppliers and intermediaries and having a protected domain to ensure a user’s information is safe and secure.
Without having a protected domain and having swathes of negatives review will mean Google will deem you as an untrustworthy site and, in turn, look unfavourably on you in SERPS.
If you want to look good in Google’s search results, then E-E-A-T is key. Through demonstrating your experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, Google will like what it sees and bump you up in the SERPS.
Google is trying to rid its rankings of uncredible, unauthoritative sources – in particular, those which are spreading good old “fake news” in the fields of finance and health, but also on a much wider scope.
Websites and content which rank in top positions for high-volume searches queries, but don’t provide correct information can be dangerous for users. That’s why it places such high importance on E-E-A-T, to ensure users are being fed high-quality content from a source it respects and recognises.
If you’re looking for support to make sure your business’s content is hitting the E-E-A-T criteria, get in touch with Josh on e: josh.westerman@brand8pr.com or t: 07432 655 440