E-A-T Algorithm: What It Is And How It Affects SEO
Posted on: February 6, 2020
In SEO, E-A-T stands for expertise, authority and trust. This model is addressed in greater detail in the Guidelines for Google’s Quality Raters. It can possibly help boost your Google rankings by illustrating good E-A-T on and off your site. E-A-T is incredibly important because Google Quality updates have adversely impacted many sites due to their lack of E-A-T.
Websites or web pages that have no constructive purpose encounter poor search results, of course. Such pages are most often created purely for the purpose of profit, causing harm or fraud to searchers, or are considered to give users minimal interest. Apart from these low-quality pages, there is a strict assessment of quality content and the extent of E-A-T obtained is becoming increasingly valuable. If you’re looking for a more in-depth understanding of google algorithms such as E-A-T, we recommend you to sign up for Digital Marketing Courses in Singapore.
How Does E-A-T Affect Websites?
From Google’s update, one thing is for sure: E-A-T influences your money, your life (YMYL) sites. Google has claimed that the quality standards of YMYL websites are higher than those of non-YMYL websites because all these sites have the capability to greatly impact the life of an individual. If you aren’t sure what type of website Google categorizes as YMYL, a useful definition given to us by Google is YMYL websites are “websites that may have an influence on a users’ personal happiness, wellbeing, financial security or safety.”
If the website of your organization does not fall within the scope of YMYL, it does not mean that E-A-T is not available to you. Google said that any site, whether it’s beauty blogs, news websites, forums, or even parody websites, is covered by E-A-T. If your company falls into the classification of YMYL, you must pay closer attention to what you are posting. Make sure that all your statements are reliable and adequately cited. You will also want to take measures to demonstrate the authority and competence of the authors writing your content.
Incorporating Google E-A-T In Your Content Strategy
#1 Optimize your About and Author pages
For E-A-T, these pages are extremely significant as they assist Google in recognizing your authority and expertise. These pages must demonstrate why your business is an expert in your sector and how you produce those content. Try to ensure you list down every accolades and award that you have won from the industry. For content writers, you should link to their website or to the appropriate social media channels for Google to trace the source.
#2 Make Your ‘Contact Us’ Clearly Visible
This one is a component of E-A-T’s trust. Google notes that it should be convenient to contact the organization whose site you are on throughout the Performance Rating Guidelines. If your website does not allow users to get in contact with you, in the eyes of Google, you’re likely trying to hide something. When it comes to Google, it’s all about transparency.
Place a mobile number in the header and footer if you would like your site visitors to be able to contact you. To allow visitors to interact with you, use a live chat plug-in. Have a page that is strictly dedicated to your users to easily contact you. Even if you are just manning a blog site and very little else, give readers an email address as a way for them to contact you.
#3 Remove Low E-A-T Content
A few pieces of low-quality content will bring down your entire website. If your company has been producing and posting content for years, several low-quality pieces are likely to have been written. More is not always better when it comes to E-A-T. Take some time to find and get rid of your low-quality articles. This can be achieved by modifying certain pages to enhance them, or by completely removing the problematic pages.
Conclusion
When it comes to Google E-A-T, there is no instant “trick” or “hack” you could do to get your site to what it was before Google started updating these algorithms or updating any future broad core algorithms. Just like with SEO as well as other types of marketing, you can not guarantee that things will turn around as soon as you would like them to.
You can, however, make the kinds of changes and enhancements that will yield a return on your time and money. As with incremental improvements, a little change today might not be a great improvement on yesterday, but with little changes every day, it can bring a huge improvement later on down the road. If you are interested to find out more about optimising content for Google’s E-A-T algorithm, we encourage you to take up an SEO course in Singapore. With the right SEO course, you will be equipped with the latest techniques and skills!
