Google has a clear vision for its search engine.
Google wants to help users find (not search for!) information on the internet—this collection of incredible masses of content.
The algorithm, which separates the wheat from the chaff within milliseconds, is continuously developed and optimized on a daily basis. Until 2018, the focus was primarily on content, networking aspects (external link profile), and user-friendliness aspects (page speed, encryption, and mobile optimization).
In 2018, this perspective expanded: What is new is that Google wants to take greater account of an author's expertise, authority, and credibility in order to define which search results are truly relevant.
This is where the E-A-T principle comes into play, which will be examined in more detail in the following article. At the same time, measures will be described that have a positive effect on a page's rankings in terms of E-A-T.
{{divider}}
What is E-A-T?
E-A-T is an acronym that stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Google first used it in 2018 in its Quality Rater Guidelines (PDF). These guidelines serve as a guide for a team of over 10,000 quality assessors at Google who collect data every day to evaluate the quality of search results. This document defines the vague terms more precisely and fills them with life.
Expertise
Expertise describes the qualitative level of content. Unlike traditional criteria for content quality, however, it is not about the written words themselves, but rather the author!
How is an author's expertise measured?
The answer to this question is not entirely straightforward, as it depends on the topic in question. In the areas of health, law, and finance, an author's expertise is largely measured by formal criteria such as education and qualifications. Google describes this area with the acronym "YMYL" – Your Money Your Life.
Practical experience also comes into play in other areas. Google writes:
"If it seems as if the person creating the content has the type and amount of life experience to make him or her an 'expert' on the topic, we will value this 'everyday expertise' and not penalize the person/webpage/website for not having 'formal' education or training in the field,"QRG, p. 20.
If the intention behind a search query is personal in nature, Google refers to everyday expertise that can be understood as personal life experience:
For example, there are forums and support pages for people with specific diseases. Sharing personal experience is a form of everyday expertise, QRG, p. 20
Authority
Authority describes the reputation of the author and the entire website. Quality raters are encouraged to search the web for the company and the author, looking for reviews, references, and recommendations. If such signals are found and are predominantly positive, this indicates a higher level of authority. A distinction is made according to subject matter: a lawyer with great authority in the legal field is by no means necessarily a good investment advisor.
Look for reviews, references, recommendations by experts, news articles, and other credible information created/written by individuals about the website […] Look for information written by a person, not statistics or other machine-compiled information. News articles, Wikipedia articles, blog posts, magazine articles, forum discussions, and ratings from independent organizations can all be sources of reputation information. Look for independent, credible sources of information.
Trustworthiness
In the Quality Rater Guidelines, trust is composed of credibility and transparency. Content can only be trusted if it is clear who the sender is. In turn, it is only possible to assess the sender if they are tangible. Similar to expertise, the amount of transparency required about the author and site operator varies depending on the field.
However, the amount of information needed about the website or creator of the MC depends on the purpose of the page. For personal websites or non-YMYL forum discussions, an email address or social media link alone may be sufficient., QRG, p. 35
For YMYL sites (which also includes any form of online shop), it is therefore all the more important to show your face and offer visitors a quick way to get in touch if problems arise—for example, due to issues with the payment process.
At the same time, credibility is called into question when a website contains numerous statements that contradict generally accepted views or those held by many experts. Credibility also declines when the seriousness of the site is severely compromised by advertisements, pop-ups, or unencrypted connections on pages where data is entered.
{{divider}}
Impact of E-A-T on SEO
The data collected by the Quality Rater Team does not directly influence rankings. Google describes the purpose of these surveys well in the following article.
Furthermore, there is no E-A-T score or one important signal on which everything depends. Danny Sullivan describes that there are a variety of individual signals that are evaluated to assess expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
Overall, however, E-A-T is a principle that has a strong influence on the composition of search results. Since 2018, major core updates to Google's algorithm have been announced regularly, which have significantly shaken up the search results. The Medic Update in October 2018 marked the beginning of this trend. Looking back, the SEO industry agrees that there are strong links to the E-A-T principle.
{{divider}}
E-A-T optimizations
Anyone who wants to continue to successfully optimize search engines in the YMYL sector in the future will have no choice but to adapt their external presentation strategy to the E-A-T principle. The following guidelines are helpful in this regard:
- Advisory content should be created by experts or at least verified by them.
- Expertise must be communicated to the outside world by participating in industry discourse. Involvement in conferences, associations, and much more pays off.
- Active reputation management must be practiced. However, all measures to generate reviews and recommendations can only work if customer criticism is accepted and leads to changes in service and product.
The various signals that Danny Sullivan wrote about on Twitter are not fully known. Nevertheless, experience shows that concrete measures are effective:
- Provide information about the site operator
It must be clear who operates the site. In addition to an imprint, a detailed section with information about the company is helpful. The use of structured data helps to make information machine-readable. - Show your face
On pages with advisory content or in-depth information, the author should be named. Ideally, this should be done using an author box containing a picture, name, and a very short description. Ideally, the author box should be linked to an author details page. This author detail page should describe the author's education and qualifications and provide structured data. If the author has practical experience, this should also be included. It can also be helpful to provide links to social media profiles such as Xing and LinkedIn, which confirm all information publicly. - Highlight contact details
YMYL pages should feature clearly visible contact details. Please note: Google works on a mobile-first basis. This means that email addresses, phone numbers, and other details must also be displayed on mobile devices. Phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses should be marked with structured data. - Attract experts as guest authors
Drawing on the expertise and authority of other experts can help improve your own authority and credibility. Guest authors are usually easy to find. Networking with other experts also opens the door to participation in industry discourse. - Networking & linking
As described above, authority depends, among other things, on whether traces of positive reputation can be found in neutral sources. These traces arise automatically when participating in professional discourse within the industry. Offer your services as an expert for specialist articles at conferences or as a guest author for industry-relevant digital magazines. This also creates external links, which are considered a recommendation for your own site.
review management If your products and services are already well aligned with market and customer needs, you should actively invite customers to submit reviews on industry-relevant portals, social networks, and Google Maps. Please note: Direct incentives are prohibited on most portals. However, there is no reason not to combine a nice giveaway with an invitation to submit a review.
Most companies already build on a strong foundation of expertise. In the course of search engine optimization, it is simply necessary to ensure that this expertise is presented transparently and communicated to the outside world. All signals outside of your own site must be approached with a great deal of patience and consistency. Those who consistently stay on top of these issues will continue to be successful in organic search in the future.
