do you have a blog or a website? If so, find out what Google EAT is and how it can affect your SEO
Google EAT, also called Google EAT and stylised as E-A-T, refers to three evaluation criteria: expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Although they are similar concepts, they have nuances that differentiate them. Let's see what each of them consists of:
- Expertise: This takes into account the ability, capacity and knowledge that a person has to talk about a specific field. This can be achieved in two ways: by being an expert in the subject or by demonstrating "everyday experience" related to the topic to be discussed, even if you are not professionally involved in it. For this second case, Google gives as an example the forums created by relatives of people with cancer. They are not doctors nor do they have formal knowledge of the subject, but they are personally related to it. This is also experience and is valued positively.
- Authoritativeness : Here what is important is that a website is a reference in a sector or field, which gives it prestige and reputation. This is achieved when a person goes to a specific website to look for information on a subject. Therefore, the website as a whole is more relevant here than the specific people who write content. For example, a psychologist may have authority on mental illness, but not on how a vegetable garden works. Those in charge of evaluating this metric must do so independently through sources outside the website they are investigating. In this sense, Google mentions Wikipedia as a reliable source, as it includes information on the reputation and controversies of companies.
- Trustworthiness , which consists of a website conveying an image of security and transparency, by constantly updating, providing contact details, providing truthful and accurate content, indicating the author of each content, including a privacy policy..
what is the relationship between Google EAT and SEO positioning?
The origin of the acronym EAT can be found in a 2013 Google document on the quality of search results. In it, they addressed webmasters to explain what elements Google valued in web pages. This document is constantly updated; the last time, in July 2022. But it was not until 2018 when the EAT concept gained strength, although with the arrival of several Google updates in January 2020, its impact on SEO was reaffirmed. Now that we know its acronym, we can delve into its relationship with search engine positioning.
Google does not set an EAT score for every website. It is not a scale that algorithms measure numerically, as the evaluation criteria (experience, authority and trust) are human elements. Therefore, Google EAT is a somewhat unusual ranking factor that requires the work of engineers and evaluators to find tangible EAT-related signals that the algorithm can understand. This process is called the "Test Zone", and several Google employees explain it in this video:
YMYL Sites
Be that as it may, the EAT rating of a website is relevant for SEO. But there is another nuance that is important to understand, and it is related to YMYL sites. These pages deal with topics considered "Your Money or Your Life", i.e. "Your Money or Your Life". With this, Google refers to topics that can affect the integrity of a person or their economic situation. That is, content that, if not treated with rigour, can pose a real risk. Or those that are directly harmful, such as self-harm or criminal acts. In this way, Google determines whether a topic is YMYL or not if it can pose a danger in areas such as the following:
- Health or safety: This includes any topic related to a person's physical, mental or emotional health, such as illnesses, medicines, hospitals, etc. It also refers to topics about physical and online safety.
- Finance: The aim is to prevent a person or a family from being ruined by accessing dangerous information, so this includes investment, banking, taxation, insurance or loans, as well as online shopping or transfers.
- Law and civil society- any topic related to institutions, laws, social services, elections, etc
- Society or information: This refers to current news that can have a significant impact and consequences.
In this sense, Google EAT directly influences the SEO positioning of websites or content on these topics. If they meet the parameters of experience, authority and trust, they will benefit from Google's algorithm. Otherwise, they will be marginalised as a problem or lacking EAT criteria. So, what can you do if you have a website or blog to improve this evaluation? Let's see it below.
Tips to improve Google EAT evaluation
As we have seen, EAT does not have the same impact on the SEO of a website about film or marketing as it does on psychology and human rights. But this does not exclude that both should take it into account when establishing their search engine positioning strategy. And to facilitate that process, we bring several recommendations that you can follow:
General advice
- If youfocus the contents of your website on topics related to your sector, you will have more chances that Google will see you as a site to be taken into account. For example, OCCAM is a digital marketing agency and in our blog we deal with topics related to our field. It would be a mistake to publish articles about vitamins or education because we are not specialised in those areas.
Advice related to expertise
- Look for experts and show that they are experts. Surround yourself with a team of experts or knowledgeable people in the field so that their content is relevant to readers. And not only that: make sure you inform on your website who the authors of the posts are, as well as justify their knowledge on those topics with short biographies.
Tips related to authority
- Get more mentions (Link Building): To be a reference website, it is necessary that other pages mention you and include links to your content. One idea to achieve this is to find topics in your field that are hardly available on the Internet to occupy that space.
- Try to be present in Wikipedia. As we have mentioned before, Google EAT evaluators use this digital encyclopaedia to consider the authority of a page according to its achievements. However, this is only a recommendation and we understand that not all websites, blogs or companies can appear in Wikipedia.
Tips related to trust
- Transmit reliable and contrasted information. Make sure that your content is of quality and has no errors by consulting different sources.
- Add more links: in addition to including reliable information, you have to show that it is reliable by including links to your sources (better if they are primary).
- Update your content. Show that you are an expert in a subject by modifying your content according to the latest news in your sector. Avoid your articles becoming outdated, especially those that are better positioned in search engines.
- Include as many contact details as possible: in addition to an email address, you can add the icons of your social networks and team, a physical address, a contact form, a telephone number, etc. Collect good reviews.
- Collect good reviews- encourage your most loyal readers to write positive reviews so that Google trusts you.
