What is E-A-T, and why is it important? E-A-T in SEO stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. In 2022, the search engine confirmed that E-A-T is rated for every query searched, and the concept of E-A-T is profound.
All the high E-A-T articles should be produced with professionalism, and they should also contain accurate content presented in a way that helps all the users better understand all the events.
Is E-A-T a ranking factor?
E-A-T is not technically a ranking factor. However, it can also impact your content’s rank. E-A-T is the search engine’s guideline for determining precisely high-quality content. It should also be ranked higher and part of several different aspects of its algorithm. Even if it is not a direct ranking factor, it can still directly impact the overall search rankings.
According to the E-A-T Guidelines. Great content should-
- Help the users. Be created by an expert.
- Be posted on an authoritative site.
- Be updated regularly.
Following are some ways to improve E-A-T-
1. Link to authoritative sources.
Whenever you write a blog post, you should ask yourself, can I improve it by linking it to an authoritative source? Linking to authoritative sources where appropriate makes your blog more and more trustworthy and credible in the eyes of the readers and the eyes of the search engine.
2. Always edit your blog posts.
A well-edited blog is one which is going to come across as more trustworthy and authoritative than blog posts that are littered with spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes.
3. Write longer blog posts.
It is a known fact that longer blog posts are the ones that are more authoritative and trustworthy as they are more comprehensive and also answer the searcher’s questions. However, the long blog post should not be irrelevant. The longer and better quality blog post provides a better user experience and also helps you establish yourself as an authority.
High-quality content naturally attracts backlinks.
4. Do not hide your identity.
A critical part of assessing E-A-T for most websites is understanding who is responsible for a website. All the high-quality pages should also have clear information about the website so that the users feel comfortable trusting the website.
You should also have an ‘About me’ page on your website and link it to your menu bar. If you have guest posts on your website, you should be able to make it clear who the author is on each guest post and also underline the particular credentials of that person.
5. Make your about page awesome.
If you want to boost your E-A-T, write a good ‘About me’ page which explains who you are and why you are qualified to write about the topic of the blog.
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6. Shout about your credentials
If you have official expertise, you should ensure that you make this very clear on the blog. You should also include things such as relevant academic qualifications and awards that you have won and the authoritative sites you have been featured on.
7. Borrow authority
For adding legitimacy to the content you can add borrow authority from all the other experts in your niche, following are the number of ways one can do this-
- Guest post by all the experts in your niche.
- The interviews with the experts in your niche.
Having an expert vet your content well is not something most bloggers will need to do. For instance, a healthy food blogger who does not have any kind of official nutrition qualifications might get a full-fledged nutritionist to vet their blog posts.
8. Write guest posts
To increase your authoritativeness, write guest posts for all the well-known, respected blogs in your niche. It will help improve the credibility in the eyes of the search engine and your readers. You can also add it to the next level; you can pitch ideas to relevant magazines and newspapers.
9. Be present on social media
Sometimes, social media might not be a very productive way to drive traffic to your blog. However, it also helps in a small way to establish E-A-T as social media is another external validation that you are an expert and an authority in your niche.
For establishing E-A-T, one need not spend hours on social media. You should ensure you are present on the most relevant social media channels for your niche. Your bios should be complete as well as up-to-date.
10. Niche down
It is hard to be an expert or establish authoritativeness on multiple subjects. You can also aim to become a go-to expert in a much smaller, more focused niche.
11. Add author information
It is very important to make it clear who is responsible for the content of your website. The search engines want to see it is obvious who is responsible for the content of the website. All the articles on the website should be either written or reviewed by an individual contributor. In the author section, you should ensure to highlight the credibility of the contributor and also the expertise.
12. Add disclaimer statements and affiliate statements when applicable
For any news and any blog-type content, the editorial guidelines should be spelt out very clearly so that any visitor can trust that the information they are reading is up-to-date and also free of all ethical concerns and conflicts. Online content is very important, and all publishers should be transparent about their commitment to fact-checking and the process of making corrections for any false and updated information.
Any sources of information should also be readily accessible to all the readers and any opinion-based views should also be very clearly defined by the author.
Affiliate statements are very important in building website trust and any product or service review should state if the item was gifted to the publisher. If a publisher gets a commission from any affiliate links within the page content, it should be well outlined.
