Google's New Guidelines: Add Relevant Experience

Qualities of a Good Website

Before we get into E-E-A-T, we need to talk about the Guidelines. Google maintains a document called Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines that provides insights into what their rating team uses to spot-check websites to see if a website visitor would feel that the site provides expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. The collected data also helps inform updates to the algorithm by Google engineers.

The Original E-A-T

Let’s take a minute to review the original components of E-A-T.

Expertise

Your content should reflect your expertise in its subject matter. Communicate your knowledge in an engaging way that includes appropriate keywords and an understanding of search intent, keeping your target audience in mind. If you’re trying to appeal to a novice in your subject, avoid jargon and keep your content simple and clear.

Authority

Do you have inbound links from relevant websites? Has your business been on the news or mentioned by other sites as an authority? Is your content widely shared across social media? Are people searching for your brand name? Does your brand have a Wikipedia page? Work on answering “yes” to these questions to increase your authority.

Trustworthiness

Positive reviews, and your response to negative ones, can impact your site’s trustworthiness. Bad reviews = low quality in Google’s eyes. Build trust with a contact page on your website, add SSL to your site, link to your privacy policy in the footer, links to authority sites, and, if you’re using e-commerce, clear item specifications and return policies. Expertise, experience, and authority all help build trustworthiness.

Relevant Experience

The new “E” in E-E-A-T stands for experience. Does your website content demonstrate actual, firsthand experience? For example, if you’re seeking information about adoption, a law office that demonstrates experience in adoption is probably what you’re looking for. However, if you’re looking for information from a parent’s perspective, you’ll be more likely to find it in content from a parent who has been through the adoption process. Depending on the search intent, either of these sites has the experience to back up their content.

Show your experience on your About page with business information and bios of your staff. Include details that indicate experience, expertise, and qualifications. Content should reflect experience with trustworthy first-hand knowledge of the subject matter.

As with all content, it must be original and helpful to people. Writing content to satisfy search engines isn’t the way to go if you want to improve your search rankings. Satisfy your website visitors, which will, in turn, satisfy Google.

KP Kreative Can Help

Perform a review of your website with E-E-A-T in mind. If you need assistance, the experienced experts from KP Kreative can help. Contact us today for your SEO and digital marketing needs.