In SEO, E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritative, and Trustworthiness. The term is first used in the 2014 edition of the Search Quality Guidelines. The guidelines are for evaluating the quality of webpages. E-A-T makes it easy for entrepreneurs and business owners, who are looking to put up their websites, to know what Google needs out of their sites. In the current version of the Quality Guidelines, E-A-T now appears 135 times in a 167-page report, the Business 2 Community notes. That’s just one indication of how important E-A-T has become in the SEO industry. Here’s why it matters and why it should be a significant factor in your SEO campaigns too.
Role in Updates
E-A-T plays a vital role in Google’s algorithm updates. Your Money Your Life (YMYL) sites have been drastically affected by E-A-T troubles. If your site doesn’t fall under the YMYL category, you’ve got nothing to be afraid of. Still, it is essential to note that because e-commerce sites accept credit card information, they are considered YMYL pages. That said, E-A-T is not an algorithm, but Google’s algorithms have been updated to look for signs that determine whether they’re going over content with good or bad E-A-T. Bad E-A-T will potentially lead to a
Search for Credentials
The point of E-A-T for YMYL websites is that they require a certified expert to provide the content or work closely with people who have the proper credentials. However, outside of demanding YMYL content—which usually deals with medical, financial, shopping or legal information—expert content that complies with E-A-T standards are those that meet the needs of its audience and understand the intent behind the questions or queries they pose.
No Score and Not a Ranking Factor
Don’t worry, there is no E-A-T high score that your pages need to achieve. Google’s algorithm doesn’t assign an E-A-T score for sites. Don’t lose sleep thinking over ways to improve that score. E-A-T is also not a direct ranking factor. Google has 200 ranking factors, at the very least, which includes page speed, the use of keywords in title tags, and more. But E-A-T has an indirect impact on the rankings of your page, as the content needs to match E-A-T standards. In that way, it becomes a ranking factor.
Does Not Resolve SEO Issues
Simply addressing E-A-T problems isn’t going to make your site’s SEO performance any better. For the results to be successful, you need to update your SEO strategy. If your pages have taken a hit from the algorithm updates, E-A-T is just another area you need to check and consider. That means you shouldn’t focus all your attention on these areas. An overall upgrade will benefit your site’s SEO performance more than focusing on just a few problem areas. Think about addressing user experience issues and working on improving the architecture of your pages to reduce technical SEO troubles. To improve penguin penalty recovery efforts, hire the services of a competent SEO company to help your business.
