What is EAT in SEO and Why Does It Matter?
If you’re doing some activities in the digital marketing space, especially doing some SEO, then you might’ve heard of EAT before. First things first, it’s important that you don’t mistake EAT for the food which we eat every day…because you’d be surprised at how many people get confused with this!
Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. That’s the name of the game. There’s a lot of controversy around EAT and whether it’s a ranking factor or not, which is what we’re going to be breaking down and explaining in today’s article.
This article is brought to you by our digital marketing expert team who offer top quality search engine optimization services in Australia. If you want to see how our SEO agency in Australia can help your business grow, contact us now for a FULL SEO analysis and a FREE proposal.
What is EAT in SEO?
Let’s clarify one more time. Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. Those are the three factors which make up “EAT”; which we will explore in great detail further down.
EAT was first added to Google’s Search Quality Guidelines in 2013 as a way to enhance the experience of users. The main aim of EAT is to assess whether your content provides value to your audience, and therefore whether it should rank well or not.
Is Eat An Important Ranking Factor?
This may sound confusing, but whilst EAT isn’t a DIRECT ranking factor, it for sure can indirectly impact your search engine rankings. But how does that work?
Great question. Keywords for example are a direct ranking factor as they are the main factor which determine your target search results to rank for. EAT is not a direct ranking factor like keywords, however it still is a factor which determines the quality of your content, therefore it has an influence on a certain degree over your rankings.
The impact of EAT comes into play to save really high quality content from being buried and getting rid of terrible content which is just stuffed with keywords. In simple words, you can call EAT the “quality control” sector of SEO.
How Eat Is Assessed
We’ve already talked about of each word in E-A-T, but this section is aimed at exploring each factor in a little more depth, before we talk about the overall reasons why EAT matters and how you can improve it significantly.
Expertise
Evident in the word itself, this factor is aimed at assessing how much of an expert you actually are at what you’re talking about. This is more prominent especially for topics which are more specialized or YMYL (your money or your life – basically topics which can affect people’s lives), such as medicine, finance, law, and so on.
The expertise factor is focused on singular pieces of content rather than your whole website, which means that for a good score in the “E” factor you must make sure the author of each piece of content you post is actually a qualified expert in the field. Obviously, this factor has less of an impact with more general niches, however it still applies to most and should be considered.
Authoritativeness
Zooming out a little from specific pieces of content, authoritativeness asses your overall reputation in your topic. Are you the go to source if someone has a question in your niche? If so, then well done, you’ve received yourself a high rank in the “A” factor.
Reviews, referrals, and Wikipedia pages (which we will talk about further below) are great ways to increase your authoritativeness. Just like the real life, if other people talk about and recommend you, the likelihood of people coming to you increases significantly!
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is the accuracy of the information which you are providing, which applies to both YMYL and non-YMYL topics.
To improve this factor, you need to clarify who is responsible for the content on your website (basically the author). The best way to do this is to provide contact details and information about the person responsible.
You can also cite other trustworthy sources to improve your trustworthiness. As well as this, make sure that your content is 100% accurate and will not confuse readers or send them in the wrong direction.
How To Improve Your Eat
Before we move on, this is a quick reminder that this article is brought to your by the Enhance Marketing digital marketing expert team. Our SEO agency in Australia is based on providing value to businesses, through quality content as well as top quality search engine optimization services in Australia. Get your free SEO and digital asset audit now!
Increase Links
Think of it this way. One of the ways EAT is assessed is measured through your credibility and amount of expertise within the topic. What better way to improve this than linking your content to other reliable and high quality sources?
By doing this you’re basically borrowing and benefiting from others’ credit, and of course this may sound unfair, however if you also provide valuable and quality content other creators would be more than happy to give you links.
Back up statements, facts, statistics, and most importantly, any conclusions with using links from other quality sources.
Up To Date Content
For your content to be reliable and accurate, it must also be up to date. This applies regardless of your topic and industry, since change is something that happens in every industry. The last thing you want to do is to mislead your audience with false or outdated information, which is why we recommend that you regularly review, edit, and update your content (applicable for both YMYL and non-YMYL industries).
Build A Solid Online Reputation
Any digital marketing expert will know that even regardless of EAT, having a good online reputation will serve you in many great ways. Here are four ways to build or improve your online reputation effectively.
Increase Your Reviews
Always ask clients and customers for reviews after they’ve purchased a product or service of yours. You can also ask for reviews on your content if viewers found it helpful. Always follow up 1-2 times for a review, however make sure that you do this with reasonable time gaps to avoid becoming a “hassle” for users.
Create Accurate And Factual Content
Always double check the facts, making sure everything is 100% accurate for users, especially if you’re a YMYL content creator.
Make The Author’s Visible
Make the credentials of the author of your content visible and make them stand out. A much grater amount of trust is established when it’s obvious that the author of your content is an expert in the area.
Get A Wikipedia Page
Whilst this may not be immediately achievable for many businesses, a long term goal can be to get a Wikipedia page of your own, which can greatly improve your EAT from every aspect, especially the “A” and “T” factors.
Make Contact Details Visible
As we also mentioned before, a great way to increase your EAT is by making the contact details visible on your website and content pages. Try to include the contact information in as many places as possible, even if it’s a small widget at the end of each page.
Whilst it may seem insignificant, it’s all the small factors like this which help build a good EAT score over time.
Increase Mentions
A long term tip which is ongoing, and you can always apply is to increase the number of mentions you have across the web. This is similar to increasing links.
Increasing your mentions across the online world is just like getting referrals and word of mouth in real life, which we know the great impact of by now.
Reviews and referrals are great, but another way to get your name mentioned is by collaborating with other authorable individuals in your sector. Even getting your named mentioned in an article by an industry expert is enough to have positive impact on your EAT score, not to mention the other benefits of spreading your name!
For example, if we collaborate with another digital marketing expert or another SEO agency in Australia who’s authorable on the web, this will most definitely positively impact our EAT, even if they mention the name “Enhance Marketing” in a piece of content.
Work With The Top Digital Marketing Expert Team
Last but not least, we recommend that you work with a team who can handle all the hassles of EAT, SEO, and even other digital marketing strategies!
This is where our team at Enhance Marketing can offer you a hand. With over 20+ years of experience, we take a dedicated and efficiency driven approach to our search engine optimization services in Australia.
Contact us now to see how our SEO agency in Australia can help you boost your EAT and make your website achieve maximum visibility on the web!
