E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, but what does that mean, is it important and how is it used?
E-A-T can better be understood by reviewing Google’s Page Quality Guidelines in detail, but here is some advice for you to begin writing content according to E-A-T.
Content Is King
By now, we all (hopefully) know that content is king on the Internet.
“Content is King” is a phrase originally coined in a column by Bill Gates, “Content is King,” published in January 1996 and has been a guiding principle in Internet marketing ever since (Hat Tip to Craig Baily).
What is Good Content?
As mentioned above, Google’s documentation provides us with the answers. In their Page Quality Guidelines Google clearly stresses E-A-T. Quite simply Google states “Highest quality pages and websites have a very high level of expertise or are highly authoritative or highly trustworthy.”
Danny Sullivan, Google’s public liaison of search, writes in his Google Search Central Blog article “What webmasters should know about Google’s core updates” that E-A-T had been part of Google’s Core Updates (presumably in August, 2018). Sullivan explicitly states “We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward” and continues to devote a subtitle in his article to “Get to know the quality rater guidelines and E-A-T.”
Sullivan offers:
Content and quality questions
- Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
- Does the content provide a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
- Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
- If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
- Does the headline and/or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?
- Does the headline and/or page title avoid being exaggerating or shocking in nature?
- Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
- Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
Expertise questions
- Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site’s About page?
- If you researched the site producing the content, would you come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
- Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
- Is the content free from easily-verified factual errors?
- Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your money or your life?
Presentation and production questions
- Is the content free from spelling or stylistic issues?
- Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
- Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
- Does the content have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
- Does content display well for mobile devices when viewed on them?
Comparative questions
- Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
- Does the content seem to be serving the genuine interests of visitors to the site or does it seem to exist solely by someone attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
Sullivan refers us back to Amit Singhal’s (Senior VP of Search at Google at the time) article “More guidance on building high-quality sites”(May 06, 2011) where Singhal provides us with specific questions to ask “if you want to step into Google’s mindset [and receive] some guidance on how [Google’s] been looking at the issue:
- Would you trust the information presented in this article?
- Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
- Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
- Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
- Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
- Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
- Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
- Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
- How much quality control is done on content?
- Does the article describe both sides of a story?
- Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
- Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
- Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
- For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
- Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
- Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
- Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
- Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
- Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
- Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
- Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
- Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
- Would users complain when they see pages from this site?”
Answering these questions and reviewing Google’s Page Quality Guidelines is a great way to get started in reviewing your content.
For more reading, Sullivan provides us with a few articles written by third-parties* who share how they’ve used the guidelines as advice to follow:
- What is E-A-T?, from Marie Haynes
- Google Updates Quality Rater Guidelines Targeting E-A-T, Page Quality & Interstitials, from Jennifer Slegg
- Leveraging E-A-T for SEO Success, presentation from Lily Ray
- Google’s Core Algorithm Updates and The Power of User Studies: How Real Feedback From Real People Can Help Site Owners Surface Website Quality Problems (And More), Glenn Gabe
- Why E-A-T & Core Updates Will Change Your Content Approach, from Fajr Muhammad
* Note:Sullivan states, “Links to the articles above are not endorsements of any particular SEO companies or services, nor an endorsement of any general SEO advice given by them. We simply found the articles themselves to be helpful starting points for those who want to conceptualize how to assess their content in terms of E-A-T criteria.”
