EEAT is one of the most important elements for achieving a good position in Google search results! It refers to four essential pillars:
- Experience;
- Expertise;
- Authority;
- Trust.
With the evolution of Google’s algorithms, simply applying SEO techniques is no longer enough! You need to demonstrate that your brand has these attributes through strategic content.
Here I will explain the key role of EEAT in your Internet positioning strategy, following Google’s Search Quality Guidelines.
You will learn how to integrate EEAT with SEO techniques and what to look for when choosing a partner agency.
This way, your company will be able to implement an effective digital strategy, affirm the relevance of your business on the Internet and build trust with your audience — and with the robots that index the content!
Let’s get started!
Unraveling the EEAT
In a perfect world, achieving good positions in Google and other search engines would be a piece of cake. But the truth is that, to rank in the most privileged positions, you will need to master the algorithms.
And when I say “dominate,” I don’t mean that you should bend the rules. Quite the opposite!
Google’s algorithm, for example, has very sophisticated mechanisms to understand whether the content on a page follows quality guidelines and is, in fact, relevant to the audience.
One way to ensure that only websites and content that are truly useful to the public are indexed (displayed in search results) — and away from sensitive topics — was to change the algorithms so that they analyze not only the technical application of SEO, but also:
- The authors’ experience demonstrated in the brand’s content;
- The company’s expertise in offering practical solutions to the public;
- Its authority within the market, niche or sector in which it operates;
- And the confidence she carries because of this authority!
Today, each of these four elements makes up the acronym EEAT, which translated into Portuguese means:
- Experience (the author’s experience);
- Expertise (the specialty);
- Authoritativeness (the authority);
- And trust.
Since the implementation of this automated interpretation system by robots (which is how algorithms are also known in Digital Marketing), the Internet has never been the same!
If you, your team or your company invests time and money in ways to increase visibility from Google’s failures, I suggest you stop right now!
A simple update (or a Core Update) can cause:
- Your pages are deindexed (many of them permanently);
- Your website loses authority;
- Your traffic drops dramatically, damaging not only your visibility but also your sales;
- And that you have to invest even more resources and money (this time, with really experienced agencies) to start SEO strategies from scratch, taking EEAT into account!
When it comes to SEO, the scoundrel always ends up becoming the fool at some point. The recipe for success is, therefore:
- Do good On Page SEO (optimization within content pages);
- Apply link building and content distribution techniques for Off Page SEO (pointing other pages and companies to the business website);
- Ensure that your website is well aligned with Technical SEO rules (the manipulation of page code aimed at search engine visibility);
- And follow Google’s Search Quality Guidelines, creating exemplary content, signed by authors with real credibility. Period.
Without implementing EEAT into your SEO strategies, it will be basically impossible to appear in the top search results!
This is because Google does not want to have a relationship with companies that demonstrate unethical behavior — something that harms the credibility of the search giant itself!
Fortunately, Google offers a valuable step-by-step guide so that businesses like yours have a chance to compete for the best positioning in searches — and that’s what I’ll talk about below!
The role of EEAT in Google’s quality guidelines
Many of the factors that algorithms use to decide which sites to index (and in which positions) are billion-dollar secrets that are kept under lock and key!
But the most important elements of this equation are widely publicized, as your success at the top of organic searches also means success for Google!
In other words: the more authority and trust your brand has, the more Google will like to display you in the top positions!
That’s why the most important factor algorithms consider is the quality of your content.
Since “quality” can mean anything (like a well-written text or a well-produced image), Google has developed a manual to point out exactly what your business needs to do to please the robots and be catalogued: EEAT!
Well-produced content (whether in page code, text, image, video or audio) is still considered to define the overall quality of a brand on the Internet.
The difference is that EEAT further refines this mesh so that only the most useful sites appear in the top positions!
By “useful”, I mean that all material shared by a company in the digital landscape needs to take into account how that content impacts Consumer Success, consisting of:
- To the extent that the author of the content (or the brand itself) has theoretical and practical expertise to educate the public;
- How much the website pages are referenced by other sources (which indicates the level of authority and trust in a business);
- And how interested the brand is in becoming a valuable solution for users (without deceiving, manipulating or exploiting them)!
Highlighting strengths and ignoring weaknesses is part of Digital Marketing. However, there is a huge difference between guiding a curious person to become a customer (through a sales funnel, for example) and lying to a visitor by promising impossible solutions or exaggerating the qualities of a mediocre product.
Today, algorithms can capture the intention of content just like a human!
The result of this innovation is that if the content is of low quality to a real person (if it is not useful, in practice), it will be ignored by the robots.
In the worst case, the brand itself could be flagged as potentially dangerous and hidden from search results for years into the future!
To avoid this terrible fate, I will show you a step-by-step guide to strengthening your business’s EEAT — and selling much more as a result!
Strategies to strengthen EEAT
Each letter of the acronym EEAT needs to work in sync with the other. By following this order, your company is guaranteed to at least be listed in search results!
Little by little, over time and with audience testing, you will have accurate data on audience behavior and will be able to further optimize your content, raising your business’s position in Internet search results!
As long as you focus on Customer Success — and maintain ethical behavior — you can hardly go wrong!
Experience
I’ll start with the “E” for experience, which was recently added to the guidelines. A lot of content on the Internet points out that experience refers to User Experience, but that’s not the case!
Google is interested in the practical experience that the content author has with that subject, and this is clear in its guidelines. The algorithms evaluate whether the content provided presents some level of real experience, whether the person who produced it had real experience in producing the material. Google’s own platform indicates the importance of content being produced by someone who:
- Used the product or service you are reviewing;
- He visited the place he writes about;
- Communicates someone else’s experience.
But why is experience important to search engines? Many pages become trustworthy because they are created by people with real experience in that subject. After all, which would you trust more: a review made by someone who has the product or a “review” from someone who has not used it? For us, and for search engines, it is much better to trust someone who has had the experience!
To write about a specific topic on a blog, you need to have authenticity and credibility. When an author writes from real experience, they produce richer, more engaging, and more trustworthy content for search engines by sharing unique insights based on their real experiences. In addition, personal experience can add a layer of emotional connection, making the content more engaging and persuasive.
Expertise
Expertise and experience are similar words, but in the case of EEAT for SEO, experience illustrates the experience, or practice, of the creator of that content with the subject.
Expertise points to your company’s level of ability to provide practical, valuable and applicable content solutions — remembering that different topics will require varying levels of knowledge to be considered reliable.
Since content is the best way for a company to create a long-distance relationship with millions of people spread across the Internet, expertise defines how much your brand is able to express the competence it has accumulated in a way that can be applied by those who consume the content!
This expertise needs to be explored and optimized taking SEO into account, ensuring that your business:
- Respond excellently to the questions most frequently searched by your audience;
- Overcome the most common objections in your market;
- And create a digital presence that becomes synonymous with effectiveness, which naturally leads to authority and trust!
Keep your pages updated, develop an unmistakable personality for your brand to communicate, and research important topics for your company’s discovery moment, using the engagement of the profile or personas of your ideal customers as a perspective!
This is the best way to increase sales!
Authority
Authority takes a little longer to establish without any help. For content creators, using articles with biographical information or promoting discussion groups can be good sources for building a reputation. They can also provide proof of education, validation from peers in the field, and quotes about their experience, which can be evidence of positive results from their work in the market.
For those looking to start creating content, including ordinary people who post on social media or forums, Google recommends investing in reputation information on the page itself, using comments from those who follow the author, for example.
It is important to consider the extent to which the author and the website are recognized as a reference source on the subject matter. One way to accelerate this recognition is by having other already popular websites and companies pass on some of their authority to your brand through backlinks!
Backlinks are the references or indications that third parties make to your business , making your company inherit a part of their authority to build yours!
There is no point in promoting the backlink of an entity that is not trusted on the Internet or that publishes questionable content!
You need quality, respected references that can influence algorithms to look at your company through a positive — and lasting — lens.
Trust
Establishing trust is an essential part of EEAT; untrustworthy pages will be ranked poorly, no matter how knowledgeable, expert, or authoritative they appear to be. Contrary to what many blogs say, you should not stuff your content with keywords, use fake link schemes, copy content, or publish the same content on multiple platforms.
To better understand, I will go into more detail about content plagiarism. Consider that a competitor blog copied content from Enjoy Minder, an Inbound Marketing specialist. The content will have quality and practical basis, but it was not the competitor’s blog, so it will not be trusted by search engines, mainly because this is a criminal practice and condemned by indexing algorithms.
Another case that can exemplify false trust is the lack of credibility of the sources used to support the content. The author may even sound like someone who researched the facts, but if robots identify suspicious pages, the trust will disappear!
Search engines can only gain trust in a company and an author through real, proven information. Therefore, you should evaluate:
- What the site and authors say about themselves. Is there enough information to say that it is a reliable source?
- What do other people say about the site and the authors, whether on or off the brand’s site?
- What is visible on the page, from the main content to the reviews and comments sections. Is there anything that demonstrates trust?
Of course, the website or the author can be assessed as unreliable if a conflict of interest is noted. Providing real reviews from people who have purchased your product generates value and trust, but “reviews” made by the brand itself that self-affirm the quality of the product and “reviews” from an influencer paid to promote the product are not as reliable due to the conflict of interest.
If a page is not trustworthy, for whatever reason, it will not qualify for EEAT. So make your page accurate, honest, safe and trustworthy, and the algorithms will evaluate your content carefully. That way, you’ll be on the right track to building the trust that will put your company at the top of searches — and sales!
Why is EEAT essential for YMYL websites?
EEAT is even more important when your business niche (or the content it promotes) addresses more sensitive or potentially risky content, such as:
- Use of own money;
- Taking care of your own health;
- Legal/juridical information;
- News and current affairs;
- Useful products and services.
All content related to these topics is grouped within a category called YMYL.
An acronym for “Your Money or Your Life”, this category of content is highly scrutinized to prevent malicious professionals from manipulating users or giving fatal advice — which could cost them their financial security or their lives!
YMYL pages are harder to rank in the top search positions precisely because they are sensitive topics that require brands to demonstrate their expertise (something that can take years to establish).
But if your business can prove such wisdom (whether through a certificate, diploma or title) and the practicality of the solutions being shared (through relevance, acceptance by the public and the generation of positive results from the published content), you will have nothing to fear!
Be ethical, transparent, and put your own experience first: if your company really has expertise on the subject and applies it to the content, this will be clear to the algorithms too!
Integrate EEAT into your SEO strategy!
EEAT was a game-changer for displaying results for Internet searches — and not only for maintaining the integrity of its brand, but for preventing Google from losing customers by promoting questionable content!
That’s why you learned in this text that it’s impossible to sell more online without:
- Focus on the real experience behind the content (the “experience” in the acronym EEAT);
- Have a communication strategy that takes advantage of the practical wisdom accumulated by your business (the “expertise”);
- Build an authority that is recognized by algorithms and traffic sources on the Internet (the “authoritativeness”);
- And without generating trust from information that offers credibility and data security (the “trust”).
Since EEAT is an automated website evaluation system based on Google’s Search Quality Guidelines, which take your brand’s experience, expertise, authority and trust very seriously, you need a bulletproof SEO strategy to ensure your business appears in the top search results!
You can find out now which quality requirements your business already meets — and which ones you need to meet — by completing Enjoy Minder’s free SEO Diagnosis!
After all, your success on the Internet is good for Google too — so it’s your right to grab a piece of this trillion-dollar market as soon as possible!
