Improve Your Website E-A-T (EAT) and SEO by AVOIDING These 5 Mistakes

You have probably heard of Google's E-A-T. The concept has been around since 2014 and has become a vital SEO element. Unfortunately, it is a term that confuses many people. Read on to find out what E-A-T is, its importance, and the mistakes you should avoid if you want to improve your website’s E-A-T.

What is E-A-T?

E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness when it comes to content elements. Your content should include these elements to show your overall credibility to the Google search engine algorithms. If you want to go even more in-depth, you can check out Google’s Search Quality Evaluators Guidelines to see how Google explains E-A-T to their search quality raters.

Expertise

Your web presence needs to demonstrate that you are an expert in your field. You should create content that shows you are knowledgeable in your industry and subject matter and also engages and truly educates users in a superior way.

Authoritativeness

Unfortunately, it is not enough to simply show your expertise by bragging on your credentials and accolades. Your online reputation much illustrate that you are a top go-to company for any source of information in your industry. You can establish authority by engaging in industry relevant online communities, creating valuable content to which others link, and more.

Trustworthiness

You should have a trustworthy business, website, and content. Make sure your content is accurate, have a secure domain, proactively collect and respond to reviews, and have sufficient contact information to promote trustworthiness.

Why is E-A-T Important?

Google E-A-T is important for SEO because it can affect how your site ranks on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) for various keywords that your customers may be using to find vendors. For example, if Google finds that your site has a lot of spelling and grammar errors, the content is poorly researched or contains false information, you lack the authority to write on the topic, etc., then your content will not likely be ranked well.

If your rankings fall, you will receive less traffic from search engines and fewer conversions and sales. For this reason, you should ensure that your site meets the E-A-T requirements.

Mistakes to Avoid for Improved E-A-T

The following are five mistakes you should avoid in order to improve E-A-T.

1. Lack of Transparency of Authorship

It is critically important that both search engines, like Google, and visitors understand who is behind the content on your website. To prove that your worthy of credibility, be sure that authorship details and credentials are clearly shown for your articles. This is even more critical for businesses that fall into the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) category.

2. Poor or Elusive Customer Support

If your customer support is unreliable or hard to reach, you have got a significant problem. Quality customer support is a vital element for your customers to feel safe. Make sure it is clear where, when, and how customers can get support from your business. If you do not offer 24/7 customer support, be sure to indicate how the visitors can reach you if an emergency arises.

3. Failing to Address Bad Reviews

Online reviews help build your E-A-T and overall trustworthiness. If you have a consistent stream of positive reviews on relevant review sites, it shows that your organization is trustworthy. However, you should not only respond to the positive reviews but the bad reviews as well. Promptly responding to and addressing the bad reviews will boost your trustworthiness as you address customer concerns with professionalism and empathy.

4. Adding Meaningless or Out-of-Scope Content to Your Website

Content is king, but you should never fill your site with meaningless or off topic content. You should always write your content with your users in mind. If your users do not find the content engaging or relevant, your site will not get any attention.

Make sure you create content that meets the needs and interests of your target customers. Instead of boring your users with generic content, keep your content thorough and informative, yet easy to browse. Produce well-researched and unique content that your audience will both want to read and share your valuable information.

5. Paying for Backlinks

Getting links through unnatural means will only lead to failure. Google discourages any link-building schemes. Write user-friendly, authoritative, and high-quality content that will earn your site links naturally or through relevant outreach.

Do not fall into the trap of buying links from sketchy black hat link building services.

Assess your E-A-T and SEO

Now you know what common mistakes you should avoid if you want to improve your E-A-T. If you need help improving your E-A-T and boosting your visibility, Igniting Business’ SEO experts can help. Contact us today to schedule your initial consultation.

Tools for the Job

Perhaps you are a do-it-yourselfer and simply need a few recommendations to make your job easier. Two of our favorite SEO tools that can make assessing your SEO, E-A-T, and content easy are the following:

• BrightLocal – You can use BrightLocal to track your website’s local rankings, manage local citations, gather and respond to reviews, and more. Get a free trial of BrightLocal.
• Semrush – Semrush is a phenomenal, robust SEO tool that you can use to conduct in-depth keyword and topic research, audit your site’s SEO elements, perform backlink research and building, assess content quality, and more. Try out Semrush for free.

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