Google’s E.A.T Update and What This Means for Your SEO

Author: 9And9 Digisoft

Google’s mission to direct web users to high quality informative online content has been highlighted by an algorithm update which has seen a range of websites and e-commerce sites demoted in search page rankings, often seriously. This development has taken many businesses by surprise and there is confusion about how this algorithm works and how to work with it.

What Does E.A.T. Stand For?

Google’s E.A.T. algorithm has been given that name because of the three key things it prioritizes. They are:

  • Expertise. How knowledgeable are you (or any contributing writers to your site) about the subject matter related to your business?
  • Authoritativeness. How credible is your business in your industry or niche?
  • Trustworthiness. Can readers trust the content you publish and trust you with their business?

Importance of Content in the EAT update:

The content, of course, needs to fulfil specific E-A-T criteria. Below are the Google’s guidelines stating that "high-quality pages have the following characteristics," where "MC" stands for "main content":

  • High level of Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
  • A satisfying amount of high-quality MC, including a descriptive or helpful title satisfying website information and/or information about who is responsible for the website.
  • If the page is primarily for shopping or includes financial transactions, then it should have satisfying customer service information.
  • Positive website reputation for a website that is responsible for the MC on the page. Positive reputation of the creator of the MC, if different from that of the website.

Conversely, the guidelines state that "if a page has one or more of the following characteristics," where "SC" stands for "Supplementary Content," it gets a low quality rating:

  • An inadequate level of Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
  • The quality of the MC is low.
  • There is an unsatisfying amount of MC for the purpose of the page.
  • The title of the MC is exaggerated or shocking.
  • The Ads or SC distracts from the MC.
  • There is an unsatisfying amount of website information or information about the creator of the MC for the purpose of the page (no good reason for anonymity).
  • A mildly negative reputation for a website or creator of the MC, based on extensive reputation research.

Update Existing Website Content:

When you take time to create really great content on your website, whether that be a blog article or web page, you should try to set time aside each quarter to go back through some of your highest performing blog articles and web pages to refresh that content. By updating your existing content you are providing additional value to your website visitors, as well as, helping yourself by getting more eyeballs to that content through organic search results.

Once you have identified your top performing website content for that quarter and you have the web pages you are going to spend time refreshing, follow the steps below in order to get the most out of your time refreshing your website content:

  1. Re-read each web page to reacquaint yourself with the content. Yes, you can skim it as long as you were the original author.
  2. Once you finished reading a web page take some time to think about whether or not there has been any new information released about the topic that you wrote about. You may have even put out new content on the subject since you last published the article, or better yet, maybe you are running some sort of contest or there is a big event coming up that’s related to the content. Gather all of that information together.
  3. Go back through the content and add in any new information wherever relevant OR simply go to the bottom of the content and write "UPDATE" in big bold letters. Then put any new information you have on the subject right there.
  4. Repeat for the rest of the web pages that you are updating.

Benefits include:

  • Increased website traffic
  • Increased time spent on those web pages
  • Repeat traffic to existing web pages
  • A second opportunity to go viral

Hence, It’s crucial that you produce high-quality, targeted content. If you aren’t, it’s about time you started. It’ll make all the difference to your digital performance.