Google’s E-E-A-T framework, which stands for Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, plays a pivotal role in how Google’s search team assesses the quality and credibility of content on websites.
For WordPress sites, understanding and implementing E-E-A-T principles can significantly impact your visibility in Google’s search results.
In this article, I’ll delve into what E-E-A-T entails and offer practical tips on how you can enhance your WordPress site to align more closely with the content qualities that Google values highly.
Understanding Google’s E-E-A-T
The acronym E-A-T, standing for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, initially encompassed these three key elements. It’s important to note that E-A-T is not an official ranking factor but rather a crucial part of the guidelines used by Google’s human evaluators to assess the quality of search results. These guidelines are known as Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG).
The concept of E-A-T has been influencing the search engine optimization community since 2018, coinciding with Google’s release of an algorithm update referred to as the “Medic Update.” This update notably impacted health and wellness websites, leading professionals in these fields to pay close attention to E-A-T principles due to their perceived effect on search rankings. Google emphasizes the importance of reliable information, particularly in critical areas such as health and medical advice.
In 2022, Google further refined the QRG by incorporating “Experience” into the framework. This addition recognizes the value of content created by individuals with direct, personal experience in relevant topics. This enhancement underscores Google’s commitment to delivering high-quality and reliable search results, especially where the accuracy of information is paramount.
Definitions for E-E-A-T
Here’s an overview of how Google categorizes the four key terms in their E-E-A-T acronym.
Expertise: This pertains to the depth of knowledge and skill showcased by content creators. For instance, content on medical topics should ideally be authored by individuals or organizations with a medical background, reflecting their expertise.
Experience: This factor considers whether the writer has direct interaction with the subject, like using a product or visiting a location. It’s noteworthy that many online product reviews may be authored by people who haven’t actually used the product.
Authoritativeness: Does the content creator or their website serve as a reliable resource for the topic? Google evaluates this through various indicators, including backlinks from other esteemed websites, mentions in respected publications, and social engagement metrics like followers or active participation. For example, WordPress.org is expected to rank well for subjects about WordPress plugins due to its authority.
Trustworthiness: Arguably the most critical factor, trustworthiness involves transparency, accuracy, and reliability of the information. Websites demonstrating high trustworthiness usually offer clear information about their content creators, cite trustworthy sources, and provide well-supported, accurate data.
Google’s guidelines also feature a chart to illustrate how these terms interconnect, with trustworthiness being the cornerstone. The real question posed is whether combining expertise, experience, and authoritativeness results in a website you can rely on.
How to Improve the E-E-A-T of Your WordPress Sites
Enhancing your site’s E-E-A-T presents a unique set of challenges.
Firstly, it’s important to recognize that E-E-A-T is assessed through subjective guidelines by human reviewers, making it difficult to measure precisely.
Additionally, the significance of various criteria varies across different search contexts. For instance, while ‘Expertise’ is crucial for medical-related searches, ‘Experience’ holds greater weight in the context of restaurant reviews.”
However, there are some ways that you can improve your site’s overall E-E-A-T value. I’ll break these down according to each specific area:
Expertise
- Show Your Team: Your site should have an “About Us” page or an “Authors” page where you showcase all the writers on your site. Here’s the About Us page for PublishPress. We also have a “Blog Authors” page that is built with the PublishPress Authors plugin, using the Authors List feature.
- Content Quality: This is the most obvious advice I can give. Focus on creating high-quality content that demonstrates your expertise in your niche. You probably know things about your niche that no-one else does.
- Update Your Content: You should regularly check your articles and update information that is old and no longer accurate. Here at PublishPress we’re constantly updating old posts because they fall out-of-date due to new versions of WordPress.
- Authorship: You should clearly attribute content to specific authors or contributors, especially if they have relevant expertise or credentials in the topic area. This helps establish authoritativeness and builds trust with your audience. I would not recommend attributing your content to general authors such as “The KinshiPress Team” or “The KinshiPress Staff”. We use the PublishPress Authors plugin on our blog, and make sure to specify how much WordPress experience each author has.
Experience
- Talk About Your Experience: Try to include your unique, first-person experiences in your posts. For example, in our PublishPress posts, we often mention conversations with customers. When introducing a new feature, we’ll include specific quotes from customers explaining why they want that feature. I suggest using pronouns such as “I” or “we” rather than the more generic “they”.
- Use Emotion Words: Your posts can showcase experience focusing on answers to questions like this: “Is it worth it?”, “How does it feel?” or “What is it like?”
- Focus on Reviews and Testimonials: Get reviews on your product or testimonials for your services. For PublishPress, this means reviews on WordPress.org. For software products, this means reviews on G2 and Capterra. Your industry will have its own review opportunities.
Authoritativeness
- Credibility Signals: Incorporate elements on your website that signal credibility, such as customer testimonials, reviews, awards, certifications, and affiliations with reputable organizations.
- Backlink Profile: Work on building a strong backlink profile by obtaining links from other trustworthy and authoritative websites in your industry. This can improve your website’s authority in the eyes of Google. This is something that you can measure, using a SEO service such as SEMRush.
E-E-A-T Conclusion
It’s important to grasp the concept of E-E-A-T, as it plays a pivotal role in enhancing your website’s search engine visibility. By developing content that showcases your expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness, you can significantly boost your site’s presence in Google search outcomes, drawing more organic traffic. Consider crafting content that is thoroughly researched, authored by field experts, and supported by credible sources. Moreover, cultivating a robust backlink profile and upholding a favorable online reputation can also contribute positively to your site’s E-E-A-T rating, as perceived by Google’s evaluators.
