How to create content for Google’s E-A-T

Google has proven that it’s committed to ensuring a good experience on the web. Search engine results pages (SERPs) have evolved to answer a user’s query without even having the user click through to a webpage. If they do click through, website performance is being measured. Pages must load quickly, be responsive, and be optimized for mobile. Guidance from Google has been consistent and clear about the importance of page and content quality.

E-A-T

E-A-T stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. In other words, how knowledgeable is the content author on the subject matter (expertise), how credible is the content along with the website publishing it (authoritativeness), and how trustworthy is the content as well as the website publishing it (trustworthiness). It’s important to note that E-A-T is not a ranking factor; however, the principles can be used to guide content creation and provide a framework for publishing the kinds of content Google prefers.

Expertise

Expertise can be established by ensuring your content is accurate and helpful. Content should be original and provide a comprehensive description of the topic. Ask yourself if this is the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, or if the piece offers interesting insights beyond the obvious.

Authority

Authority can be established through citing authoritative sources or inviting a well-known thought leader in your field to contribute content to your website. It is also helpful to include credentials for your content author to highlight their background and knowledge on the subject matter.

Trustworthiness

To establish trustworthiness, your website should have an About Us page, an updated Privacy Policy, and Terms and Conditions. Additionally, try to earn mentions on other well-known and trusted websites.

As Google continues to look for ways to improve search experience, they use trained quality raters and dedicated resources to identify page quality.

Global third-party quality raters use Google’s quality rater guidelines to evaluate web pages and provide Google with feedback. Among the 172 pages of insights on how page quality should be measured, listed under ‘the most important quality rating factors,’ you will find E-A-T.

Creating fresh content

Google likes fresh content with a new perspective. It likes content that is relevant, that answers users’ questions, and more importantly serves their needs. In creating new content, think about what your audience is looking for and how your content can help them. Along with working on expertise, authority and trustworthiness, make sure your content is well written and readable. Finally, remember that E-A-T should not replace other SEO initiatives – technical issues and website performance are still important.

Learn more about Google’s latest Core Web Vitals initiative and how we recommend moving forward, as well as best practices for two of the more recent algorithm and local search updates that Google rolled out in November.