What is EEAT and Its Importance in SEO?

In the world of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), E-E-A-T plays a crucial role in determining the quality and credibility of web pages. 

Then what is E-E-A-T and what is its importance in SEO? Let's delve deeper into each aspect of E-E-A-T to grasp its importance in SEO.

What is E-E-A-T in SEO?

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust. Which serve as the fundamental pillars when assessing the quality of a webpage.

And among those, Trust emerges as the foremost criterion in determining the reliability, accuracy, honesty, and overall safety of a webpage for its users. Trust, in essence, encompasses the metrics that evaluate the credibility and dependability of the information presented.

What is Experience in E-E-A-T?

The concept of Experience in E-E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) encompasses the depth of firsthand or life experience possessed by the content creator, specifically related to the topic at hand. Experience goes beyond mere knowledge and proficiency. it embodies the ability to provide information while ensuring an optimal user experience.

Furthermore, Experience also the effort to deliver information in a manner that enhances the user experience. It recognizes the importance of presenting information in a user-friendly and engaging way, making it accessible to a wide range of audiences. Content creators should strive to deliver their expertise in a manner that is clear, concise, and easy to comprehend, ensuring that users can navigate and absorb the information effortlessly.

What Is Expertise?

Expertise, as a component of E-E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), entails evaluating the content creator's depth of knowledge and skill pertaining to a specific topic. 

When assessing expertise, A credible source should possess a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter, demonstrating a solid foundation of factual information, concepts, and principles. Their expertise should extend beyond surface-level knowledge, delving into the nuances and complexities associated with the topic.

What Is Authoritativeness?

Authoritativeness in E-E-A-T involves assessing the extent to which the content creator or website is recognized as a go-to source for the topic at hand. 

A go-to source is typically established through a combination of factors such as expertise, credibility, and a track record of consistently providing accurate and valuable information. This recognition may come from industry experts, professional organizations, or a large and engaged audience.

What is Trust?

Trust is considered the extent to which the page is accurate, honest, safe, and reliable. Trust, within the E-E-A-T framework, stands as the most critical member of the family. It holds paramount importance since pages lacking trustworthiness will have low E-E-A-T, regardless of the level of experience, expertise, or authoritativeness they may appear to possess.

Why E-E-A-T is Important?

Google uses quality raters to define the webpage quality. The quality rater is a real human and represents a real user to rate the page and the quality of a website.

And when they rate the webpage they used the quality rater guidelines which are used E-E-A-T as a measurement factor.

The measurement of quality rater is a sliding scale (slider) to assign how good a page in E-E-A-T. The slider looks like this.

Content Evaluation Standard Based on E-E-A-T

Content evaluation based on Google standards are lowest, lacking, high, and very high. Here are the details:

Lowest E-E-A-T

Google utilizes various signals, including the Main Content (MC) of a page, to assess these aspects and determine the trustworthiness of the information presented. 

Here, Google determines that the content of the page cannot be trusted.

Lacking E-E-A-T

There were some criteria of lacking in E-E-A-T, including:

1. Inadequate Experience

Content creator lacks firsthand experience relevant to the topic.

Example: A restaurant review written by someone who has never dined at the restaurant.

2. Insufficient Expertise

Content creator lacks the necessary knowledge or skill in the subject matter.

Example: An article about skydiving written by someone with no expertise or experience in the sport.

3. Lack of Authoritativeness or Trustworthiness

Website or content creator is not considered a reliable or authoritative source for the topic.

Example: Providing tax form downloads on a cooking website, lacking the authority and trustworthiness required for tax-related information.

High E-E-A-T

Content that has a high score means that it has information that can be trusted. Given that the quality of this content is related to experience, Google prioritizes content that comes from direct experience.

For example, content written by a food critic will be more credible and present distinct information than content written by an amateur blog writer. 

Highest E-E-A-T

Above "high" is "very high". The highest score is given to pages that present the highest quality content among other competitors.

This score can be obtained if the content creator has a unique authority value. Usually, pages with this quality are often used as the main source of information

It can be concluded that websites that are rich in experience and expertise have the potential to get the highest scores in certain niches.

How to Check E-E-A-T

Checking an E-E-A-T means check the whole elements of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and also trustworthiness.

Checking an Experience for Webpages

• User Experience - Use a pagespeed.
• Mobile Responsiveness - Use mobile-friendly test.
• Experienced Author - Go to the author page of a website and check the author’s background.

Checking an Expertise of a Webpage

Expertise of the website could be checked in each content by a visual check. It could be more strict in YMYL content, for example in the medical niche should be reviewed or written by a doctor.

Or in some cases, google used consensus to check whether the information is accurate.

Checking Authoritative from a Webpage

To check the authoritativeness of the website it also uses visual check. You can check your sitemap.xml whether there is irrelevant content to your niche category or not.

For some of the YMYL niches, Google would prioritize the official sites. For example, a hospital site in a medical keyword and a government site in a passport or visa keyword.

Checking Trust of Webpages

An important part of page quality rating is understanding the reputation of the website

• Customer Reviews as Reputation Information
• Search for Reputation Information about a Website
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  • [<cmlabs.co= -site:cmlabs.co]
  • [cmlabs reviews -site:cmlabs.co]
  • [<cmlabs.co= reviews -site:cmlabs.co]
• Reputation for content creator

The Implementation of E-E-A-T

The most basic of E-E-A-T is by making a fundamental of website that should be cleared, those are:

• A clear about page disclosing the beneficiaries of the website.
• Privacy, terms & conditions, and Merchant Policies in footer.
• Clear Physical Location and Contact in footer.
• Clearly disclosing the authors of informational content.
• Internal links to and from relevant pages.

By making those basic standard of a website, we could pass the E-E-A-T and make the fundamentals cleared, And some of those also can be included in the schema markup to make sure that Google is easier to understand. 

For example, we could make a clear about page by setting the page's schema type as "AboutPage". Then assign the AboutPage with a main Entity.

• If the website is run by an individual, use “Person schema”.
• If the website is operated by a brand, use “Organization schema”.

Or to demonstrate E-E-A-T, readers need to understand that the author(s), contributor(s), editor(s), and reviewer(s) have the required experience and expertise. 

This is why each contributor should have their own profile page, detailing their professional experience and qualifications. We could also use a scheme for it, here you go:

Conclusion

E-E-A-T is the basic qualification of a website from Google criteria, but those qualifications are the most important thing that should exist in a website. With the improvement in E-E-A-T criteria, our website should be more trusted from Google and user point of view.

To deepen your understanding of SEO and learn how to make your website perform better, join the next cmlabs class and let’s discuss deeper about SEO with us.