How to integrate Google's E-E-A-T guidelines into your blog content
Building your authority should be one of the main goals of your blog, but this isn't just for the benefit of your prospective clients; it's for Google too.
Google wants to show its users the most relevant and valuable content. But it also wants to show the most authoritative results because if you're an authority on a topic, you're more likely to be credible. You can tailor your content to address what Google looks for in content, and Google has provided guidelines
What are Google's E-E-A-T guidelines?
Experience
This is the newest addition to Google’s guidelines which used to only be E-A-T. Demonstrating first-hand experience is more important than ever for Google Search rankings.
Expertise
The E stands for expertise, meaning you should have substantial knowledge and understanding of the topic you are discussing or posting about.
Authority
The A stands for authoritativeness, with Google looking to promote content that is reliable and authoritative. A good indicator of this is other websites linking back to your content.
Trust
The T stands for the trustworthiness you build by protecting any data you collect from customers or site visitors, spreading true and verified information, and being ethical with your actions online. Google is placing even more focus on trust as “Experience, expertise, and authoritativeness support a quality rater’s trust assessment”.
Why is Google’s E-E-A-T so important?
There have been a lot of misconceptions surrounding Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines in the past few years. A lot of this stems from confusion over whether E-E-A-T actually impacts search result rankings. The truth is that E-E-A-T is not a recognised factor; however, that doesn’t mean you should ignore it completely.
These guidelines tell us what Google considers good content and what we should be striving for when creating it.
But while E-E-A-T is not a recognised ranking factor, Google has recently released a helpful content update that puts good content into the spotlight and could penalise a website for bad content. This includes:
AI-generated content
Unoriginal content
Focusing on word count
Low-authority content (which is actually directly related to E-A-T)
Who should care about E-E-A-T guidelines?
There are some areas where E-E-A-T is paid attention to especially closely, so if your business falls under one of these sectors, you have the most to gain from making sure to adhere to the Google E-E-A-T SEO guidelines. The areas that are looked at most closely are those which are deemed most important to a person’s well-being, including financial, security and health issues. YMYL (Your Money Your Life) was an algorithm update in August 2018 that targeted sites about these topics.
To ensure the well-being of the general public and avoid the spread of misinformation with serious consequences, the most closely monitored topics are finance, health, safety and security, politics, shopping, current events, culture and groups of people and news. These broad categories are key to maintaining a safe online environment and avoiding harm to the public and so are most closely policed. If your blog falls under any of these, you would greatly benefit from following the E-E-A-T guidelines.
How to create content that addresses Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines
Link building
One of the strongest ways to firmly prove your reliability is to have other sites point towards you as a trusted source. In effect, you need other sites or content creators to include links back to your own pages or website to build credibility. Once multiple people are linking your article in the same way as a citation, your article grows in terms of reliability.
Cite references
In a similar strand, it can be just as useful to build a strong bank of citations in your own articles. Including your references and backing up your stats and facts with reputable sources demonstrates your authority on the subject and signals that you are creating reliable content. This is a good way to boost your expertise, authority and trust.
Highlight expertise
When it comes to E-E-A-T, one way to improve the levels of expertise that go into the page is to point out your expertise on the subject. You could do this by including a small box that includes your professional background, making you more reliable.
Furthermore, as an expert in your field with your own experience, it can help to draw on this in your articles to demonstrate your first-hand knowledge, so avoid relying too heavily on other online sources.
Content that will build your brand and highlight your authority
We specialise in content strategy and content writing that shows your authority to Google and your customers. If you want to put your best foot forward and be recognised as an authority in your field, get in touch with us!
