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What is Google E-E-A-T?

Have you ever considered how Google ranks and displays websites? One key factor is the E-E-A-T principle. This acronym holds significant power over the future of websites, determining their visibility in the vast online landscape. But what exactly does E-E-A-T entail, and why does it matter? 

With the rise of AI-generated content, simply spinning up authority sites and bombarding them with links might not cut it anymore, at least not as a long-term strategy. Google E-E-A-T is a framework that Google uses to evaluate the quality of content on websites. E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. This is a part of Google’s search quality rater guidelines, a handbook that Google uses to weigh the quality and credibility of a website’s content. 

Join us as we discuss the importance of this concept, exploring its profound impact on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Here’s everything you need to know.

Understanding Google’s Quality Standards

Google published its search quality evaluator guidelines back in 2013, making them accessible to all marketers. These standards demonstrate how Google assesses web pages and ranks content from high to low quality. So, what do Google’s quality standards mean for us marketers who handle SEO? The overall goal of this is to help ensure that the page is created to help users. Here are a few examples of what a high-quality “user-centered” web page should look like:

  • Sharing information about a specific topic.
  • Sharing personal/social information.
  • Sharing photos, videos, and other media.
  • Expressing opinions or points of view.
  • Entertaining users.
  • Selling products or services.

Adhering to Google’s quality standards is crucial for enhancing user experience. Your site and content should have a user-focused purpose that provides real benefits. Now, let’s explore the extra “E” in ‘E-E-A-T,’ which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, and the new addition: Experience.

What is E-E-A-T?

As discussed, E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It’s a framework used by Google’s algorithms to evaluate the quality and credibility of your company’s online information. In a nutshell, if your website’s user experience is subpar and doesn’t seem to be a trustworthy source, Google may view your site as unreliable and limit your ability to rank — even if you’re following all other “best practice” SEO guidance. 

Topics that require high E-E-A-T include medical advice, journalism/news stories, and financial, legal, and tax advice. A common misconception is that E-E-A-T is a direct ranking factor. It isn’t. Instead, it indirectly affects the algorithm because search quality raters evaluate sites for it.

Let’s break down each component for a closer look at what each entails:

Experience: This dimension assesses the depth and breadth of a website’s experience within its niche. It considers factors such as the website’s longevity, the frequency of updates, and the richness of user interactions.

Expertise: Expertise revolves around the proficiency and knowledge demonstrated by content creators. Google seeks content that showcases a deep understanding of the subject matter, providing users with valuable insights and solutions.

Authoritativeness: Authoritativeness measures the reputation of the content creator and the website hosting the content. It considers factors like backlinks, mentions from other reputable sources, and the overall prestige of the website within its niche.

Trustworthiness: Trustworthiness assesses the reliability and integrity of the content. It looks at factors such as transparency, citing credible sources, and maintaining high accuracy and truthfulness.

Why Does E-E-A-T Matter for SEO?

Google’s primary goal is to provide users with the most valuable and reliable information in response to their queries. By evaluating content based on this set of criteria, Google can prioritize high-quality content while filtering out low-quality or misleading information. Here’s how it influences SEO:

  1. Higher Rankings: Websites that demonstrate expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness are more likely to rank higher in search results. This is because Google perceives them as reliable information sources worth showcasing to users.
  2. Enhanced Visibility: When your website meets Google’s E-E-A-T criteria, it’s more likely to be featured in Google’s Knowledge Graph, Knowledge Panels, and other prominent search features. This increased visibility can drive more organic traffic to your site.
  3. Credibility and Reputation: Building and maintaining E-E-A-T improves your search rankings and helps enhance your brand’s credibility and reputation. Users are more likely to trust and engage with content from sources they perceive as authoritative and trustworthy.
  4. Long-Term Sustainability: E-E-A-T is not a short-term SEO tactic; it’s a long-term strategy for sustainable growth. By consistently producing high-quality content that aligns with E-E-A-T principles, you can establish your website as a reputable authority in your industry.

How to Improve E-E-A-T for Your Website

Now that we grasp the significance of E-E-A-T for SEO let’s delve into strategies to enhance it for your site:

  1. Invest in Content Quality: Focus on creating comprehensive, well-researched, and authoritative content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience.
  2. Showcase Expertise: Highlight the expertise of your content by showcasing their credentials, certifications, and relevant experience. Establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry can significantly boost your E-E-A-T.
  3. Build Authoritative Backlinks: Earn backlinks from reputable websites within your niche. This helps improve your website’s authority and signals that other trusted sources vouch for your content to Google.
  4. Prioritize User Experience: A user-friendly website design, fast loading times, and clear navigation contribute to a positive user experience, which in turn helps enhance trustworthiness.
  5. Be Transparent and Credible: Disclose your sources, provide accurate information, and avoid misleading or deceptive practices. Transparency and honesty are essential for helping build trust with your audience.

Last Thoughts

Google’s E-E-A-T principle helps shape search engine rankings and affects user trust and engagement. You can enhance your credibility and long-term success in the digital landscape by prioritizing experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness in your content creation and SEO strategies.

It’s crucial to have a sound digital marketing strategy in place. Understanding your audience and their needs can attract more traffic and drive conversions. It’s important to remember that quality content is not a one-time effort but an ongoing research, refinement, and optimization process.

As a Google Partner, Onimod Global has the experience to help you with your SEO, social media marketing and advertising, and content creation needs. Whether you have questions about creating quality content or want to learn more about our services, we are here to help.

Contact us today to speak with our digital marketing team and learn how we can help you achieve your 2024 digital marketing goals.

Audience Context: Why It Matters

Your content is most likely catered to audience personas, as it should be. All marketers rely on an outlined demographic of the audience you have targeted as potential customers. However, there is no way for a persona to account for your audience context – what is a real person experiencing at the exact moment they see your content?

In a perfect world, 100% of your content would be catered specifically to every potential customer. Thankfully, there are tools we can use to get a better idea of the customer’s headspace to match up with the audience context.

Keyword Planners

Often times keyword planners are used as a crutch to plug in a few key topics and phrases, and overload on content to increase your organic traffic. We advise to rather think of keyword planners as tools to help understand the specific language your readers are using. Focus on the phrases that pose as questions, and answer those questions in your content to give immediate value to your readers.

Google Trends

Once you have your group of keywords and key phrases, enter them into Google Trends to see what else you can learn about people using those search terms. This step will help you to match up your content to fit your audience context. Look into geographic locations, and the time of day, month, or year people access information and searches increase.

Popular Content

Try googling the question you are trying to answer in your content, and see what else is currently out there. Use this to see if you can do a better job explaining the question at hand or fill in missing gaps of information.

 

Now step one is complete. You know what challenges your potential customers are facing. Now for step 2, which is understanding how your customers feel about their challenges and utilize effective emotional writing to strike a chord with this audience.

Show Audience Context, Don’t Tell

The most simple mistake to make when writing emotional content to engage your audience is telling them that you’re doing it. Don’t tell the reader how they feel. Instead, imagine how they would prefer to feel and give them that. Audience context is all about resonating with the reader without exposing your intention.

Resonate, Don’t Exploit

When it comes to audience context, you should evoke, not exploit, emotion in people. It’s quite simple to exploit intense emotions of fear, anger, agitation in our audiences in order to sell. We advise against this strategy and encourage you to instead show the reader you understand their emotions and maybe even share them.

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4 Reasons Why Your Blog Traffic is Poor

Driving traffic to a blog is much easier said than done. The internet is filled with millions of blogs and it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd. There are many potential reasons behind the struggles of your blog traffic. Whether it’s bad SEO, inconsistency, or boring content, it’s never too late to “resurrect” your blog and turn things around. From our blogging experiences at Onimod Global, we have came up with four major reasons listed below as to why your blog traffic may be struggling at the moment.

1. SEO is Lacking:
Ensuring that your blog posts are as highly optimized as possible for relevant search queries must be a top priority. It’s important to point out that a strong SEO presence doesn’t just happen overnight, it takes time and effort. Some facets of your blog to pay the most attention to regarding SEO are the URL title, meta descriptions, key words, headlines of articles, etc. Downloading an SEO plugin for your blog will also help. “Yoast SEO” for instance is by far the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress and should be utilized by all users.

2. Low Emphasis on Social Media:
In addition to focusing on SEO, sharing blog content on multiple social media platforms will most likely be the most effective way to drive traffic. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Google Plus, and other social mediums should all be utilized. The hardest aspect of sharing content on social media is gaining a respectable and loyal following. If your blog is in its early stages and seeking initial traffic, try requesting friends and family members to share your posts through their social media accounts. You never know who will come across your blog and become a fan of your content.

3. Inconsistent Posting:
The last thing viewers/readers want to see is inconsistency or inactivity when it comes to blog posting.  If you want readers to keep coming back and become “regulars” you need to be consistent with your blog. Consistent and frequent posting can also be a factor when it comes to SEO. The more content you put out there online, the better chance you have of ranking on search engines. Ultimately, not sticking to a consistent posting schedule will most likely result in one thing – a decrease in viewership.

4. Headlines and Content lack Engagement:
It’s not hard to figure out that in order for a blog to become successful and drive traffic, the headlines and overall content must be engaging. Headlines should always be designed to grab attention because it is the first impression that potential readers will have of your blog. Your content could be stellar, but if headlines are bad people will have zero interest in clicking on your posts. Regarding content, if you want readers to keep coming back and even start to share posts, your content must be compelling. The famous saying “content is king” is extremely accurate when it comes to blog posting. At the end of the day, if your blog content sucks readers will have no interest in coming back.

Contact Us: For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!