E-A-T : Feed Google the Content It Needs

All the SEO experts are time and again challenged by the changes in the algorithm of Google. This time, Google has informed publishers to reexamine their quality raters guidelines for understanding what Google wants, and how publishers can boost the rating of their content on the most accessed search engine – Google. This caused a little bit of stir in the SEO industry, and many experts feel that it can lead to a new algorithm as well. This blog post will help to upgrade your knowledge about what you have till now read about E-A-T.

Understanding the Acronym – E-A-T

For a while, this acronym is floating around and has been in the lexicon of many SEOs. This is due to a major change in the algorithm of Google, which happened in August 2018 and was known as the medic update. It is because of this reason that this concept is on the radar of every SEO expert.

The acronym E-A-T refers to Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. This concept was generated to provide other party raters a common platform for scrutinizing results so that all that there is a unified way to do so instead of their personal opinions.

Defining Google’s Search Quality Guidelines 

It is indispensable that you adhere to the rules and examples provided in these guidelines. These ratings should not be altered by an individual’s opinion or their personal beliefs in terms of religious or political.

The concept of E-A-T was devised to nullify biased ratings, which are majorly based on one’s belief. Search Engine Guidelines for evaluating the quality were officially released by Google, and this gave a gist to the publishers that what is considered as high or low-quality content for the website from the perspective of Google.

Reason to Modify an Author’s E-A-T

Now, one needs to adjust the E-A-T factor of the page as well for the content generator according to the quality evaluators. This elucidates the reasons to create E-A-T for the author as well as for your website. The easiest way to do so is creating author boxes, with links to the authentic profile of the author in some other domain, and using organized details that inform the search engine all the indispensable details about the author, which is referred to as author markup schema. This process makes it convenient to link the author with other authentic sites as well as on other social media platforms.

Why One Cannot Consider E-A-T as a Ranking Factor

There is no solid foundation that exemplifies that it can be considered as a factor that can affect the ranking of a website or content. So, E-A-T cannot be considered as a direct algorithm of Google that can determine the ranking of a page. But, you should be cognizant of the fact that Google’s algorithm looks for signals, which are considered both on as well as off-site that, are interlinked with high-quality or low-quality E-A-T. In a nutshell, one can say that it has a unique role in the functioning of Google’s algorithm but is not directly responsible for it.

Role of Link and Authority 

Many factors are used to evaluate what the users want to read or see online, and one of such strong factor is links. If your web page is used by the other page in the form of links, this determines its authenticity. But keep in mind that this factor should not deceive you as this judgment can be editorially driven, and there is no evidence of actual authority metric.

Links play an integral role in communicating what page is the best and can be categorized as an expert, at the same time, it helps to bifurcate, which pages are considered authentic and authoritative by the users.

Insight into E-A-T as a Concept 

E-A-T is a concept devised to enlighten quality raters on how to evaluate the quality of a website. You no more need to cogitate that how the concept of E-A-T does translate to ranking; all you need to do is scroll ahead to decipher.

The Element of Expertise: People would read, like, or link your pages more if they discover your website and find it relevant enough or consider it as expert content. Also, users would share or promulgate your content only when they find it genuine, which would accelerate the trustworthiness factor.

Understanding What Elements We Can Optimize 

One cannot optimize expertise as it is an individual’s opinion. It is subjective, and apart from the Page Rank factor, there is no such metric of expertise. Also, authority is not considered as a ranking factor, it is also a concept like expertise, and the same is true in the case of trustworthiness, in no way, one can optimize it. You just need to create a reliable and authentic content to make Google your site via the links of your site being promulgated by other sites.

In a nutshell, these elements are just perceptions of your content and cannot be optimized like inserting or optimizing the alt text for images.

The Link Between Author’s Bio and the Ranking Factor of Google 

In previous sections, we have elucidated the gameplay of Google and the way it can rank your content. SEO experts have concluded the integral role played by the author’s bio. They came to this conclusion only after the perusal of Quality Raters Guidelines (QRG). Hence, it would be correct to point out that self-devised and build biographies are not considered as a ranking factor.

As an SEO expert, one is aware of the fact that Quality Raters Guidelines, in no way, elucidates the functioning of Google’s algorithm, and it is important to set a standardized way to let other parties give ratings that are not affected by personal beliefs. This element can be used to lay a trajectory to enhance one’s site.

Conclusion 

Many proofs demonstrate that E-A-T, in no way, can be considered as a ranking factor, metric, or algorithm. It is only a concept, which utilized by quality raters. Also, it is imperative to make it clear that the algorithm of Google is not concealed in the QRG. This element can be used to evaluate the quality of one’s site, but to think of it as a ranking factor won’t do any good to your website.

So, it’s time to debunk the myths surrounded by the concept of E-A-T and its role. And if you want to make your website rank, then you need to put more focus on the recent algorithm changes announced by Google, such as BERT, and to understand this algorithm change, you can also read our other blog post as well to know more about this algorithm change in detail.