So what is Google E-E-A-T? Put simply the new E-E-A-T acronym stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Google recently announced the inclusion of "experience" as a key component of its quality rater guidelines for evaluating a page of content for "experience, expertise, and authoritativeness," all an indicator for Trust, which completes the EEAT or Double EAT family, explained Google on its developer blog.
So what is Google E-E-A-T? Put simply the new E-E-A-T acronym stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google just added the leading E for experience to the "EAT family."
Why add Experience to the EAT Family?
This is really "a natural progression of EAT" explains Lane Houk in his new white paper on the topic of E-E-A-T. In its release on the developer's blog, Google said to "better assess our results, E-A-T is gaining an E: experience. Does content also demonstrate that it was produced with some degree of experience, such as with the actual use of a product, having actually visited a place or communicating what a person experienced? There are some situations where really what you value most is content produced by someone who has first-hand, life experience on the topic at hand."
Houk did make an interesting point, "The algorithms running at Google are using incredibly advanced AI and yet many of the recent changes reflected in the updates are, in fact, aimed at combating the use of AI and software in the “art” or “science” of SEO and content marketing."
Experience, meaning direct contact with or practical observation, will certainly lend itself to a greater level of expertise, thus authority and trust, around a topic or subject matter. This addition to the EEAT family is appropriate. Experience can be documented, vetted and verified. Can it be faked? Certainly. People lie about their education all the time on job applications. That doesn't make it right and it certainly puts one at risk of being found to be a fraud. There will always be people who look for shortcuts, especially if it involves money. Avoid the trap. Build real knowledge and experience. Establish authority and watch your trust grow.
Google Goes Deeper into "Who" When it comes to EEAT
Who is responsible for the main content on a (web) page? That is the crux of the question posed to a quality rater for Google when evaluating a page for quality. The elements of EEAT are the guide for the rater. But, before you can evaluate for EEAT, you have to identify "WHO." That's the first task for the rater.
As you can see from a quick read of the quality rater guide, the question of "who" is driving the task of identifying the "author" of the content on any given page. If a quality rater is tasked with this when evaluating a page, do you think Googlebot and the algorithm are identifying "who" data points whenever and wherever possible? That's a rhetorical question...
Demonstrating E-E-A-T in your content and on your website
As Houk writes, you can't shortcut expert content; at least very much. He demonstrated how to use a new tool called On-Page.ai to do quality research around a keyword/topic and use the intelligence the tool provides to level up your content. You do have to look at your job as an author (or agency) in this era as a trainer explains Houk. You have to train Googlebot/the algorithm. If you can do this (and you can), then why wouldn't you? Why would you leave things confusing? Houk explains the best practices to building an authorship profile in this white paper while also releasing the replay of the November Masterclass from the Marketing Center of Excellence. This replay also dives deeper into the topic of authorship. Houk said, "I use it [on-page.ai] all the time and used it to frame out this article, then again to really dial it in contextually. This article scored a perfect 100 when I was finally done but I did spend about 2 hours start to finish. I started at zero quite literally. You can read the original article here which includes practical strategies to demonstrating EEAT in your content: https://themarketingcoe.com/news/google-eeat-8-strategies-for-demonstrating-experience-establishing-trust/
About the Author
Lane Houk is a US Army veteran and a recognized expert in the marketing agency industry. He is the Managing Partner of both Signal Genesys and Quantum Agency. He is also the founder of The Marketing Center of Excellence and the MCOE Podcast. Lane has specific authority and expertise for multi-location enterprises in the Google Ecosystem and is a Level 7 Local Guide. He is a frequent speaker at agency events on topics like Search Engine Optimization, Local/Maps Optimization for Businesses, WordPress development, and how to scale a digital marketing agency. As the Managing Partner of Quantum Agency, a white-label marketing agency, he leads a cross-functional marketing team that delivers quality white-label marketing solutions for other digital agencies. Lane is also the co-founder of a proprietary web presence platform called Signal Genesys, a white-label marketing platform for agencies.
