Is your website ranking fluctuating? Have you recently experienced a major dip in your traffic?

On August 1st, 2018, Google released a new algorithm update. Usually, SEO experts and content marketers take Google’s announcements about “big changes” with a grain of salt. We are all used to seeing updates that are just minor tweaks to the old algorithm. Such updates don’t have any considerable impact on digital marketing or search results, however, the E-A-T update is completely different.

These changes could be due to:

• Expertise
• Authoritativeness
• Trustworthiness

What is Google E-A-T Rating?

E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. During the last five years, we could see how social networks, referral platforms, and search engines emphasize quality, making it the main parameter for evaluating content. Getting high rankings is no longer an easy task. Now, it’s impossible to get a tangible change in search results overnight.

Expertise

You should be proficient in your area. The importance of expertise is caused by the abundance of fake news and misleading content of any kind that often lead to quite serious consequences. Thus, Google is trying to help users get correct information from people and companies that actually know what they are writing about. As a result, websites that don’t have any specific topic or switch subjects all the time, trying to improve ranking , get penalized.

Authority

Authority is exactly related to expertise because the higher your expertise level, the more authoritative you can be. The authority of a brand is determined by its position compared to other content creators in the same niche. 

Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness includes several parameters, such as transparency, security, and safety. Trustworthiness is very essential for Google. If Google sends its users to a website that’s not trustworthy, it will have a negative impact on the company and its reputation. Trustworthiness should be the main advantage for any websites that receive payments, such as subscription services or e-commerce stores.

Things You Should Do to Improve Your Google E-A-T Rating

1. Give Author Byline

According to Google, a key element of E-A-T evaluation is understanding who is responsible for content. Google wants to know the person who is providing information to the audience. Displaying the author’s name tends to give a real image to the users. It builds trust in the eyes of the reader. And Trust is the last but not the least of the components of E-A-T.

So wherever possible, include a byline. You can include a short bio at the beginning or bottom of the page. You can also add links to other articles written by the same author.

It is also better to provide contact information or customer support details for the users. It helps in building user experience.

2. Create Original Content

In every aspect of SEO, Content is the King. Original content still rules supreme in terms of ranking high on Google. 

• Informative content exhibits Expert knowledge.
• Fresh & practical example content exhibits Authority & reputation of your brand.
• Unique content gives a first-hand experience to your users & builds Trust.

Google calculates the E-A-T score of a website by evaluating each post. If most of your content is duplicate or rehashed from another website, chances are that you may get badly hit by an algorithm update.

Even if you rephrase your content very well, it doesn’t make it unique. Google can identify these types of plagiarism very quickly & easily.

3. Increase Quality Backlinks

It is very evident that Google loves backlinks. You know why? Because When you build backlinks from related niche sites, Google rewards you for being in sync with their mission. Make sure you are a part of it. Backlinking also tells Google your site is a well-used source for a special topic making it an Authority on it. You will also be recognised as an Expert on the topic.

Get links from a relevant and high-quality website. Getting backlinks from an irrelevant and low authority site adds no value. This can also adversely affect your E-A-T score.

4. HTTPS

The ‘T’ in E-A-T stands for ‘Trust’. And using HTTPS improves trust.

Trust factor simply doesn’t refer to the genuineness of the content, but also the website security.

Now Chrome is marking all HTTP pages as not secure. So, any website without Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) will see a lower E-A-T rating than those who do have SSL in place. It is a strong suggestion that Google would push for websites with HTTPS. So, ensure you have an SSL certificate for your website.

Investing in technical security will boost your E-A-T score. 

5. Invest Time in Personal Branding

Start-ups or small brands may have websites that are not fully developed as compared to higher brands. In such a case, smaller brands have to work towards getting audience trust.

One of the great ways to do this is to enhance the “About Us” page. Try to give exact information to build the trust of the audience. 

6. Social Media

Many website owners think social media doesn’t help in improving E-A-T score. But it very much does!

Being engaged on social media and sharing knowledgeable content with a large number of the audience can create Trust amongst users. It helps you garner a good reputation for your platform.

Better social media content, higher engagement than your competitors will eventually help you in E-A-T rating. However, make sure you engage the consumer with quality posts. Your posts should make readers come to your page and read your content.

7. Scan Low EAT Articles

Having low E-A-T even on one page can have a negative effect on the reputation of the overall site.

Articles having a low E-A-T rating are usually those with low traffic. You can go to Google Webmaster tool and scan for such articles. If any of your pages is not fetching good traffic, you can work on that page, or in the worst case, remove them.

If your website caters to niche brands or services, ensure the content is curated by an expert. A page with quality content & valid information will tend to have a high E-A-T.

Bottom Line

The E-A-T update to Google’s algorithm sets clear priorities for content writers and site owners. Tackling fake news and misleading information, Google makes sure that trustworthy websites with the content written by authoritative experts receive the highest rankings. Hence, you should put more effort into building a great reputation. Provide as much information about your brand and content creators as you can, make sure that your website is secure, and create high-quality content. If you provide valuable and relevant content, your E-A-T rating will increase, driving more traffic to your website.

Author Bio

Belinda Mathew is a passionate blogger and content writer for Designpluz Web Design Agency, mainly interested in Web Design, Branding, SEO and social media campaigns. She is an expert in providing recommendations for a new company website, wrote new content, Also Developed user guides, newsletters, and various online promotional pieces.