What Is E-A-T And Why You Should Care

No, this isn’t an article about food. Not for human consumption at least. Rather, it’s the kind that makes Google decide just how appetizing a website is for users.

If you run a website, you’d want nothing more than for Google to serve it as a main course. That is, you’d want your pages to appear on the top searches. This is where E-A-T comes in.

Today, we’ll show you what E-A-T means and why it matters to site owners. (Make sure to grab a snack while you’re reading!)

 

What is E-A-T?

E-A-T is an acronym for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google uses these 3 factors to determine the quality of a page.

Think of it this way… E-A-T are the key ingredients to include in your web pages, and Google is the food critic you’re desperately trying to please. E-A-T allows Google to get a taste of your website. It helps them guarantee that it is up to their standards, and thus, palatable enough for its users.

Let’s take a closer look at the trio of ingredients and how to incorporate them.

 

1. E for Expertise

Firstly, you want to give the impression that you’re an expert in your niche. As the main creator of a website, you’ll need the right credentials and experience in your field.

For example, a website that offers medical advice will require content written by medical professionals to be considered an expert. But if you run a medical support forum, even general information shared by members can be seen as expert content.

What classifies as ‘expert content’ will vary depending on the niche. For industries that require less formal expertise, Google will assess their content based on its usefulness. Websites that have received prizes, awards, and other recognitions from reputable organizations can also qualify as experts.

 

2. Authoritativeness

Next, you’d want to be seen as an authority in your chosen niche. Google measures authority based on several factors such as:

• Customer reviews and ratings

• Backlinks (the kinds of websites linking back to you)

• Mentions and citations by other authors

• Sites where you appear in (such as in guest posting)

Essentially, you want the content you put out, your website, and you as the content creator, to be recognized and accepted by both industry leaders and target consumers.

 

3. Trustworthiness

Finally, you and your website must be trustworthy for Google’s tastes. As the site author, your expertise and authority can help add to it. But you also have to produce reliable content for your readers.

On the more technical side, your website needs to be secured over https with an SSL certificate. Ecommerce sites or any website that conducts online transactions, requires log-ins, and asks for sensitive information must take precautionary steps to provide better security to their customers.

 

Why E-A-T Should Matter to You

Google officially recognizes E-A-T as part of their Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. Earlier, we mentioned how Google uses these factors to assess whether a page meets their standards.

But why is this necessary?

 

Because it enables Google’s algorithm to rank web pages. When people use their search engine, they expect to see the most relevant results first.

How you incorporate E-A-T into your pages provides Google the means to compare them with similar content, and then rank them accordingly. If you want to outrank competitors on search results, E-A-T acts as a guideline – an ingredients list for creating a delicious website that’s worth serving to Google’s search users.