Google continually ensures the quality of its search results. Did you know that simply having great quality content won’t do unless it’s easy on the eyes?
There are so many updates and rules to worry about. It’s enough to make SEOs throw their hands in the air.
But, EEAT is a relief in the confusion of the algorithm updates. Google has updated its algorithm almost every year and will continue to do so to make search smooth.
That’s why it uses the EEAT guidelines. EEAT is what Google uses as its rating signal.
By optimizing your website for EEAT, you ensure that your website doesn’t get crumpled by sudden algorithm changes. You create a robust website built on strong ranking signals.
So, how can you improve EEAT for SEO and improve rankings? We’ll discuss just that today.
In this article, you’ll get:
- What is EEAT?
- How to implement EEAT?
- EEAT and algorithm changes?
- How to conduct EEAT audits?
Why Has EEAT Become Important?
EEAT is an abbreviation for “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust.”
This is Google’s way of checking that the ranking content is relevant and useful.
Google’s quality rating guidelines aren’t new. Before 2022, we had E-A-T. In December 2022, Google added another significant rating signal called Experience.
So, why are these signals necessary?
If you’ve followed the rise of digital marketing closely, you know how the web was flooded with irrelevant, incorrect, and misleading content without scrutiny under the guise of faceless blogs.
Many creators used loopholes in SEO and brought ranking to pages that could not even answer the primary search intent. We know how harmful incorrect information can be, especially in sectors like health, wealth, finance, food, etc. Covid-19 was one such example of a massive spread of misleading information, and we all know its consequences.
To ensure Google isn’t ranking any such content, it uses the EEAT signals to check the overall quality of websites.
Though EEAT is not an actual ranking factor, it affects your rankings. Google’s quality raters access websites to determine their EEAT score based on the four factors.
How Raters Rate Your Website For EEAT?
Experience
The biggest tell-tell sign of poor content is a faceless blog. When you don’t even see a photo of the person writing the blog, how can you trust it?
The Experience signal tackles precisely that. In Google’s own words,
Experience is considered the extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic.
In simple words, if you’re writing something on a particular topic, do you have any experience? If not, you’re not qualified to create informative content for users.
Now, bloggers need to incorporate their personal or first-hand experience on the topic they’re writing. If the writer doesn’t have their own experience, they can borrow it from experts and contributors who can enrich the content with honest and trustworthy data.
After all, that’s the goal of a Google search—we want accurate, implementable, and reliable information.
That’s why Google is smart in adding Experience as a quality signal to the existing EAT. With it, you can find out who wrote the article, how to reach out to the website’s creators, and the writer’s or contributor’s qualifications.
With EEAT in place, bloggers can’t expect ranking with baseless, incorrect, ad-savvy content.
How To Show Experience?
- Add real and detailed information
- Review the content from subject matter experts or assign experts as writers
- Share personal experience
An example of showing experience in content:
In their blog post “How to get more views on YouTube,” Ahrefs shows their own YouTube stats right at the beginning. This builds the foundation of trust on which the readers can navigate the post.
Expertise
Experience alone can’t quantify the usefulness and trustworthiness of content. Would you trust a licensed doctor or someone who reads many medical blogs for medical advice on treating a serious illness?
That’s why we have the second consideration of expertise. According to Google,
The website should be able to show the extent to which the content creator has the necessary knowledge or skill for the topic.
Expertise has multiple levels, and different topics require different levels of expertise.
How To Show Expertise?
- Create thought leadership content.
- Position yourself as an expert.
- Use credible sources.
An example of expertise would be Healthline having doctors as their expert writers on their editorial team.
Authoritativeness
Authority is something you build over time. While many sources and experts discuss the same topic, not all can be considered the go-to source.
When you or your content has authority, you become one of the most reliable and trustworthy names in that field.
Think of health, and Healthline comes to mind. Think SEO and Ahrefs is the top pick.
Why? What do they do differently? Over time, these websites have earned authority by creating authentic, real, trustworthy content that is never misguided.
How To Gain Authoritativeness?
- Build high-quality backlinks
- Provide actionable and accurate content
- Get published in big publications
- Adding social proof
- Showing recognitions and awards
An example of a website that gained authority is Zendesk, which shows a list of client testimonials and platforms that trust them.
Another example is Ahrefs and how they mention the author of blog posts and who reviewed them.
Trustworthiness – The Most Important Signal
You must have guessed trustworthiness is the most important signal merely by the number of times I’ve mentioned it.
Experience, Expertise, and Authoritativeness together lead to Trustworthiness because, without trust, the other three don’t matter even if you’ve nailed them.
You wouldn’t want advice from an SEO who leads his clients’ websites to loss. Though he has experience, it’s of no use.
Similarly, a product review from a real user is more trustworthy than a product page praising how good their product is.
How To Show Trustworthiness?
- Never use fake data about the blog
- Clarify who wrote the article
- Use accurate and authentic sources
- Don’t hide content
- Have a clear About page
An example of showing trustworthiness is again Ahrefs with the way they present stats of each article they publish.
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How To Improve EEAT For Your Website
1. About Page Above All
Your About Page tells your story. It pretty much sums up the EEAT signals all on one page.
Write an About page that speaks directly to your audience, telling them:
- Who you are
- What you do
- Why you’re qualified to do that
- What your expertise and experience are
I’ve rewritten my About Page to show my audience (writers and bloggers) about my one and a half years of content writing experience.
I’ve also listed all my published bylines in publications and blogs. Accompanied with that are my social media links and the testimonials I received for my newsletter.
Don’t leave any stone unturned. Talk about your academic, professional, and personal experience; mention any notable accolades you’ve earned and anything noteworthy that will reinforce your credibility.
Add your photos. If you’re the sole person running the website, show the audience who you are. If you’re a business, feature your team and founders. Mention every significant person running the website and their credentials.
Show the people that a human is running the website behind the screen, not a scammer.
2. Get Your Business Listed
If your business has a physical location, the first step is to create a Google Business Profile. This profile ensures Google identifies and shows your business in local search results. So, if most keywords and phrases important to your business have a local intent, you can get your business listed in the top search fields.
Google Business Profile is meant for businesses with a real physical location. But if you don’t have one, let’s say because you do home visits or something similar, you can still get a profile by adding the address of the locations you visit or using platforms that offer a virtual address and contact number for businesses.
It’s additional coverage that helps increase your business’s authenticity, so try to get a Google Business Profile even if you don’t have a physical location.
3. Quality Content Is Your Backbone
Content is the endgame of your website. After all, that’s what your audience lands on the website for. Here’s how you can ensure each content passes the EEAT check:
- Create high-quality content
I would have said it a hundred times, and I’ll say it more: Without high-quality content, nothing stands. When your content passes the quality check, you become the Beatles of blogging—still remembered after years.
Write something that’s not been said before. Make the information unique and painfully good. Meet the search intent before you meet the signals on SEO tools. Answer the search intent right away without playing around the bushes. When you do that, you’ve won half the battle.
- Write simple. Present simpler
How you present content is what makes online writing different from writing novels. Since your audience’s attention span is less, you must make the content presentable.
Write short and simple sentences. Use blank spaces and images in the right places. Highlight important information and work the UX to make your content accessible.
Remember that the readers see your content before they read it. Presentation and user experience matter.
- Use LSI and secondary keywords
Using LSI keywords improves search engines’ comprehension of the context and relevancy of your content because they are semantically related to your main keyword. Secondary keywords are additional relevant terms that support your main topic.
Incorporating LSI and secondary keywords in a natural, contextual manner can improve your content’s relevance and potential for ranking well.
With LSI and secondary keywords, you can optimize the blog posts to be highly informative without using the primary keyword more than required. The benefit of covering more related queries to create all-round content is a plus.
- Say no to thin and shallow content
Pages with little to no significant or useful material are referred to as having thin content. These pages are frequently made purely to pack keywords or make money from advertisements. Although it is not as bad as thin content, shallow content lacks substance, insightful analysis, and thorough subject coverage.
It’s crucial to go into great detail about your subjects and offer the reader insightful explanations, examples, and deep thinking to avoid information that is too thin or superficial. Ensure your writing is thorough and answers all the important questions.
- Perform keyword clustering
Instead of only targeting one keyword per blog post, create keyword clusters. This way, you generate a list of semantically similar keywords and group them together. Then, you target these keywords in one blog post, creating a more comprehensive article that gets ranked for not just the primary keyword but also its related keywords.
| Also read: Key SEO Mistakes to avoid for a healthy site
4. Be Clear About Your Author
Add an author bio with each blog post. Summarize the highlights about the author and specify what makes them the right person to write on that topic.
My author bio shows up on the sidebar and at the end of the content for each blog post.
If you have multiple authors or contributing authors, mention their credentials.
Link to all authors’ social media handles and personal websites, if any.
Finally, it’s nice to tie it all up on a separate authors page that features every regular and guest author with their list of blog posts.
5. Cite Credible Sources
Many bloggers cite sources without checking their credibility. What you’re linking to and what you’re borrowing from/building on matters equally as your original content.
Ensure these steps when citing external sources:
- Always find the original source of the information: Many articles that compile statistics are available. Usually, we cite one of them and call it a day. This can harm the content as you didn’t cross-check the original source. It can be outdated or even deleted. Always go for the original source and choose those with a reputable brand name to support their authority.
- Never cite sources over two years old: As I mentioned above, many sources have outdated research or no longer relevant data. It’s especially true for the ever-changing and trendy niches. It’s better to limit your sources to a maximum of two years old, as anything older than that can lead to a conflict of validity.
- Check if the source results align with your key takeaways: Many research and posts mention some statistics and then build up on them just to take a direction opposite of your content topic. When you link to such content, you confuse your audience by sending them to a source with conflicting thoughts. Avoid that by reading the complete source you’re citing. Use it only if it aligns with your messaging.
6. Moderate User Generated Content
If your website allows user comments, reviews, forums, or other user-generated content, it’s essential to moderate this content actively.
Weed out spam, inappropriate language, incorrect information, and anything that could make your site look untrustworthy or low-quality. Highlight positive, thoughtful comments that demonstrate expertise from your audience.
Use plugins to reduce spam comments and users or add Google invisible captcha or recaptcha to forms to moderate inappropriate comments.
I have set up the Recaptcha for my contact form, which ensures no bots are sending me unnecessary messages.
Monitoring user contributions shows you value providing a trustworthy environment.
| Suggested reading: SEO roadmap for Service-based businesses
7. Don’t Forget To Update Old Content
The magic of blogs is in the evergreen content. Blog posts have a shelf-life of months, if not years, something other content channels don’t enjoy.
But with time, the content needs some changes to stay relevant to the present. Some content could also have been consistently performing poorly. That’s why updating the content that has been performing well for you is crucial.
Removing or updating old content gives a fresh turn to the blog without investing much time in creating something from scratch.
If you update the old content, add more enhanced content with better examples, sources, and external links to trustworthy resources.
8. Build Authoritative Backlinks
Backlinks are important because they signal how other websites view you to search engines. Though Google says backlinks are no longer among the top three ranking factors, they haven’t lost their relevance.
But with the recent updates, the focus is more on content than backlinks—at least, you can no longer benefit from building low-quality and suspicious backlinks. That’s also why building highly relevant and quality backlinks can help your EEAT, as it only shows that you’re authentic in your approach.
Instead of going the conventional and prone-to-fail route of poor backlinks, work on your Digital PR. Create podcasts, contact industry influencers and peers for interviews, get featured in industry publications and go for guest posting. These are authentic ways to earn highly specific backlinks.
These methods require both time and money to show considerable results. Hence, I suggest you focus on content in the initial stages of your business. Once you’ve generated enough revenue through your website, invest it in building backlinks.
9. Leverage The Unique Angle Of Your Content
You can always differentiate yourself from the competition with something. That’s your USP.
It doesn’t have to be something huge; even a simple way to make your content sound different and better works.
For example, you run a website that provides cooking recipes. There are countless recipe sites, so how can you stand out? One unique angle could be providing recipes specifically for busy families or single working professionals or making recipes with home-based ingredients.
A simple twist can make your content ten times better than your competitors, and it’s a strong signal that you’re using your experience and expertise effectively.
10. Make Sure You’re Compliant With GDPR
One significant privacy regulation that controls how websites handle user data for EU citizens is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Being GDPR-compliant signals users that you run a trustworthy operation that respects privacy. Update your privacy policy, get explicit consent for data collection, allow users to access/delete their data, and implement adequate security measures. Displaying GDPR compliance builds trust.
11. Set Up A Privacy Policy
Setting up a clear and transparent privacy policy is key to being GDPR compliant.
A privacy policy describes how your website gathers, utilizes, and safeguards users’ and visitors’ personal information. A well-written privacy policy shows your audience that you are transparent and value their privacy, fostering audience trust.
Many online templates for privacy policies are available, or you can seek legal help.
12. Use SSL
A secure website with SSL/HTTPS is crucial for building trust with your audience and improving your EEAT signals. SSL encrypts data as it travels between a user’s browser and your website, keeping private data—like passwords or credit card numbers—safe from cybercriminals.
Implementing SSL/HTTPS encryption is a straightforward way to check off trustworthiness, user experience, and security best practices that contribute positively to your overall EEAT rating by Google. It’s an essential modern web standard that favors user privacy and safety.
13. Incorporate Smart Internal Linking
An intelligent internal linking structure demonstrates how your content pieces fit together into a cohesive whole—link to related pieces from different authors to cross-promote expertise.
Link out to product/service pages to show commercial transparency. Use descriptive anchor text so users understand what they’ll find by clicking through. A well-designed internal linking scheme creates a trustworthy, user-friendly experience.
14. Slow Down On Affiliates
Google isn’t a fan of affiliate links, given all the fishy and spammy faceless websites that used the loopholes of SEO to get rich quickly through affiliate marketing.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do affiliates. But hold your horses when working with affiliate links.
If you want to do affiliate marketing, don’t make every post about affiliate products. Make the content informative or educational, and naturally add affiliate links wherever they make sense. Be open about having affiliate links in the post. Add a disclaimer at the beginning of the post stating that you have used affiliate links in the blog post.
15. Cultivate Positive User Engagement Signals
It includes everything from bounce rate to comments and shares. A low bounce rate and high click-through rate indicate readers like your website. The longer users stay on your pages, the more engaging and valuable your content is.
Some examples of positive user engagement signals are:
- Reduced Bounce Rates
- Increased Dwell Time
- More Pages Per Session
- More Comments & Social Shares
- Optimized For Return Visitors
- High Click-Through Rates From Search
Optimize your site for these positive user engagements by improving site usability, content formatting, internal linking, and overall UX.
| Suggested Reading: Topical authority and it’s importance for SEO
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How To Conduct An EEAT Audit For A Blog?
Isn’t it wise to check your blog for EEAT before it impacts your ranking incorrectly? It’s one of the reasons I like using AI. ChatGPT is my go-to place to evaluate the EEAT score for every blog post I publish.
Simply plug your post URL into a Custom GPT, and Chat will show you where to improve. I swear by the Custom GPT named Helpful Content Analysis by Sarvesh Shrivastava. It gives the individual scores for each element of EEAT and finally offers an overall score for the blog post. It also suggests the improvements that can help increase scores.
Here’s an example of how the Custom GPT helped find the EEAT of a blog post:
Final Thoughts – EEAT Beats Algorithm Fluctuations
From what we’ve witnessed, it’s for sure that the search engine algorithms will keep fluctuating. Many SEOs and bloggers have expressed their concern since it makes ranking content even harder. But if you get your EEAT right, you need not worry about the changing algorithm.
Many sites lost huge traffic after the March 2024 Google update, but many retained their numbers. What’s different between them? The latter worked on proper and rightful methods and didn’t compromise their EEAT. When you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.
If you take time to improve your website’s authority and provide expertise through your content from an experienced team, you automatically cultivate trust. And no algorithm update can make you suffer because you built a solid foundation.
Got any questions? Ping me on LinkedIn.
