Increasing content E-A-T value in Google
Writing content that isn’t ranking doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a bad writer. It might just be that Google’s thinking your content’s E-A-T value just isn’t high enough to rank you for.
E-A-T stands for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. It’s something Google mentions in its search quality guidelines. Meaning, it’s to be considered as an SEO ranking factor.
This got us thinking on ways we could improve E-A-T through our blog’s content. Which ultimately helped us boost our SEO results massively.
Improving E-A-T in blog posts
Originally, we began by trying to find ways on how to improve E-A-T separately. However, we soon came to realise that these three things actually work hand-in-hand.
Meaning, if we covered one, it overlapped with another. Making it impossible to document what improved which E-A-T factor for SEO.
Reference external resources
A method we researched that had said to improve E-A-T was referencing external resources, such as websites and publications for example.
It makes sense too, as it could help to show that a writer has done their research and also suggest that others are collaborating by documenting on the exact same topic too. Which would imply that it’s the “correct answer”, so to speak?
Borrow experts to validate content
Writing an article and backing it up with references is one thing. However, a bigger thing would be to consult an expert and ask them for their opinion.
Boilerplate method of consulting an expert
- Write your article and publish it.
- Find points in your article that you feel could be backed up by an expert.
- Find an expert in this field (try to look for authors, as they just love to write).
- Reach out to them through email, LinkedIn or Twitter and ask if they could help confirm your article’s points.
- If and when they confirm, get their permission to write “X-point was backed up by X-expert” in your article.
It’s really that simple; you’re essentially borrowing an expert, who is an authoritative figure which is helping back your article to increase its trustworthiness for the reader.
…see how it all works together?
Be vocal about the author
You should introduce author cards to the end of each article. If someone who’s blogging on your website is already an expert on the topic they’re covering — use this!
Let people know by adding their name, profile image, bio and even LinkedIn URL.
This should help:
- Expertise, as you could mention their experience in their bio, which could even be covered on their LinkedIn page to back this up.
- Possibly authoritativeness, as they might already be an authoritative figure in their industry.
- Trustworthiness, as it puts a face to the article.
…again, E-A-T seems to always work together.
Understand that links may play a role
Links towards a specific article or website may play a role to measure authoritativeness.
This does not mean that you should participate in any link schemes whatsoever, as Google will penalise you for this.
However, what we suggest is that you allow links to build organically, as they’re much more natural, relevant and most importantly trustworthy, whilst allowing you to stay in Google’s good books.
How is YMYL writing more difficult?
YMYL is a term coined by Google, which is mentioned in their official search quality guidelines. It stands for “Your Money or Your Life” (…no, we’re not referring to Ice Cube’s song).
Website content which falls under YMYL is considered more of a risk to rank. This is because, if for any reason their content isn’t accurate, it could potentially have an impact on someone’s money or their life.
Here’s a list of website topics that fall under YMYL:
- Medical information topics.
- Financial information topics.
- Legal information topics.
- Shopping and transactional topics.
- Government, political or lawful information topics.
- Any other topics that could impact a person’s health and wellbeing.
For the full in-depth list, please refer to Google’s official search quality guidelines.
So, if your content happens to fall under the above YMYL list of topics, just be sure you’re producing the highest quality of content and following the best E-A-T practices.
Other E-A-T considerations to rank better
E-A-T may not just page related. It may also take into account the rest of your website too. Meaning, having a good E-A-T score sitewide is important to consider.
The design of your website
If you’ve got any important partnerships, incorporate them into your website’s design. We’ve even heard others say that this can help impact SEO results, which was because of E-A-T.
The security of your website
Improving the security of your website is crucial. Google actually favours websites which have an SSL certificate. Meaning, other security measures may possibly also be taken into account.
Create the basic pages
Google’s search quality guidelines mention that including; contact, about and customer service information pages can help indicate the quality of a website. Meaning, you should defiantly try to include these when possible.
If you think about it, they’re right, It provides the reader with clear ways to understand;
- what a website is about (about page),
- how to contact the website’s admin (contact page),
- finally, an overview of customer service information (possibly referring to privacy policies and business terms for example).
In summary, if you’ve followed the general rules we’ve covered, you’re going to be producing high-quality content which should rank well.
If you’re like me, you’ll go read all 164-pages of Google’s search quality guidelines thoroughly, as well as Google’s search guides too. As these would provide you with the most reliable information to rank well in Google.