9 Ways to Improve Your Website’s E-A-T Ranking and Skyrocket Your SEO

Looking to improve your Google E-A-T? By now you’ve probably all heard of the new(ish) acronym in SEO town that stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust. Google uses this criteria when ranking websites to ensure the information is accurate, reliable and helpful.

What does Google E-A-T mean?

Google talks about expertise, authority and trust all the time, so let’s break down and simplify what Google E-A-T actually means.

Expertise means you should know your stuff, if you say you’re a marketing expert then you should be a marketing expert. Authority means that your credentials are clear and can be understood by Google. Trust means that you deliver on what you say will.

In short, you are who you say you are and you do what you say you do when you say you’re going to do it.

What do you need to do to improve your E-A-T ranking?

Here are 9 ways to increase the Google E-A-T quality of your website.

Attribution

People who arrive at your site (and Google) should be able to see easily who owns the site and who created the content on it. You should always include contact details and these should be consistent across all of your business platforms. Here are few considerations to ensure you’re keeping Google happy:

• Make sure any published content such as blog posts are attributed to either a person, company, or organisation.
• If content is attributed to a person, consider creating author pages.
• Make sure your ‘About’ page and ‘Contact Page’ is visible and up-to-date.
• Consider creating more in depth content and information on your business so people can really understand who you are and what you offer.
• Ensure contact details are visible on every page.

Content

The content you deliver should always be high-quality, reliable and relevant to your target audience. All content should include the following:

• A title that accurately reflects the content.
• Appropriate number of words for its topic.
• Relevant images, infographics, videos etc.
• Correct sentence length.
• Researched keywords and phrases.
• Links to other relevant content.
• Subheadings
• Digestible paragraphs

Your aim is to create content that readers will want to share and content that adds value to the reader. Ask yourself the following questions before you publish anything:

• How does your content add value to the person using it?
• Is your content easy to read across all devices (mobile, tablet and desktop)?
• Do your web pages load quickly?
• Have you checked your content then checked again for any spelling or grammatical errors?
• Have you included relevant keywords (that don’t disrupt the flow of reading)?
• Is the information you’re delivering accurate?
• Is content frequently reviewed and updated?
• Have you carefully considered the title to ensure it’s not regarded as clickbait?

Policies

Policies are a simple way for both Google and users to know your website is legitimate. Shopping sites especially need to make sure their policy web page is clearly displayed or at least easy to find. Similarly with your returns policy and exchange policy.

Purpose

Do all of your pages have a clear purpose? Users should arrive on each page and instantly know what they are going to find. Any content should be clear, concise and easy to access. You should also consider the following:

• Do you have unnecessary information or pages? If so, get rid of it.
• Does your page deliver on what it says it will?
• Is the information accurate and reliable?
• Is it functional and does it offer a great user experience?

Qualifications

At the beginning, we mentioned that the ‘E’ in E-A-T stands for ‘expertise’. You need to ensure Google can find the information that highlights your expertise within your field. Whether you’re a qualified expert or an expert through experience Google wants to know to make sure it’s delivering the best possible results to the user.

If you’re a Google Partner make sure that’s visible, include any awards or qualifications on your ‘About’ page. Let Google know if your business is associated with any organisations, you get the picture. Don’t be modest when it comes to your accolades.

Relevancy

Google should be able to easily detect the connection between your business and the topics you cover. Creating relevant, useful and quality content will drastically boost your search engine ranking.

Is the content you publish clearly relevant to what you offer? For example, we are a digital agency so you won’t find (you won’t be surprised to hear) any content here about diet and exercise.
Does your content include relevant links to other useful content on the same subject?
Do you have good relationships with other experts in your field?

Related: What is a Content Cluster? Everything you need to know

Positive Reputation

As has always been the case, a positive recommendation is worth its weight in gold. Interact with your audience, respond to any enquiries or reviews, create a brand persona and ensure it is consistent across all platforms and even offline. Here’s also another opportunity to shout about those awards you have won or name drop the experts you rub shoulders with.

Anything that highlights your knowledge, trustworthiness or expertise is worth mentioning. This can include:

• Testimonials from your clients
• Industry awards
• Prestigious qualifications

Reviews

A positive reputation usually goes hand in hand with positive reviews. In today’s digital era there’s no escaping the importance of positive online reviews. They’re the modern day word of mouth and more importantly, people are influenced by them.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to your business reviews:

• Make sure you’re asking for them. Often people are less inclined to leave positive reviews unless encouraged.
• Reply to every review (if possible). This might sound like a lot but simply by responding to a negative review you can a) bring the customer around and b) show Google that you care.
• Keep an eye on how your business is performing on review sites and take on board what’s being said.

Security and Maintenance

If your site is secure it shows Google that you can be trusted, therefore it boosts your E-A-T ranking. Here are a few quick pointers:

• It’s recommended that you obtain an SSL certificate to show that you have converted your site to HTTPS. HTTPS protects the integrity and confidentiality of data between the user’s computer and the site and shows that you are trustworthy.
• Perform regular maintenance to ensure your website is up-to-date and clean from bad code or spam.
• Create a Google Console account and set it up to notify you if your site is hacked.

Essential E-A-T takeaways

When creating content around your subject, particularly in specialised areas, you need to have proven expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. This will boost your Google E-A-T ranking and in turn, your search engine ranking.

Related: How to Create an Internal Linking Strategy Perfect For SEO

It should be clear from before a person even clicks on your page what they can expect to find. The title tag and meta descriptions should be an accurate indicator. If Google recommends a page to a searcher, it doesn’t expect to give them false information. Your digital marketing strategy should follow the E-A-T framework to ensure you have the best possible chance of being found in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness do not come overnight. It takes time but rest assured that it is worth the investment. As a business, it’s in your best interest to create a strong, positive brand that will grow from strength to strength. If you follow the E-A-T criteria and continuously deliver quality content eventually, you will be rewarded with the Google top spots.

Improve Your E-A-T

If you’re looking to improve your E-A-T we can help. You simply tell us what your goals are and we will take a holistic SEO approach to improve your online visibility. Get in touch today on 0870 062 8760 and start your Google E-A-T strategy.

You might also want to check out the Benefits Of Using A Digital Agency – 3 Ways They’ll Help Your Business

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