E-E-A-T and the importance of content backed by experience

/ What is Google's E-E-A-T?

Even though E-E-A-T isn't a ranking factor for Google, it is, without a doubt, the "most talked about" concept in the search engine's Search Quality Rater Guidelines. This concept appears no fewer than 121 times in the document, and it amounts to a real statement of intent from Google about how it tries to assess website quality based on the experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust they convey to the user.

E-A-T isn't new, despite what many people think — Google added it to its guidelines back in 2014, and later added (2022) the E for Experience.

Experience

The E for "Experience" refers to first-hand, practical or personal involvement with the topic. It's the "having been there" or "having done it" that gives content a unique, authentic perspective. If, say, you search for "the best waves for surfing in the Basque Country," you want to hear from someone who's actually surfed them and can tell you their personal take on difficulty, quality, and so on.

Expertise

The E for "Expertise" refers to the technical, academic or professional training the content creator has on a particular subject. This indicator carries extra weight within E-E-A-T for searches on topics that specifically require that kind of expertise to speak with authority. To tell me where the best waves for surfing are, I don't need you to have a degree 😉

Authoritativeness

The A for "Authoritativeness" refers to the recognition the content creator has in their field, based on reputation and backing from external references, like links, mentions or citations. Sticking with the same example, you won't take information about where to go surfing the same way if it's coming from someone everyone talks about and looks up to in that sport.

Trustworthiness

The T, which we've translated as "Trustworthiness," is for me the pillar holding up the entire E-E-A-T. There are specific factors, like knowing who's behind a website, among others, but I think each of the letters ultimately comes down to trust, or veracity.

/ Where search engines are heading (with and without generative AI)

Take a second to think about it: would you trust information given by someone with a real name, who's a recognised authority in that field, with formal qualifications and extensive experience, over some other piece of content written by an SEO copywriter or journalist? That's exactly where search engines are heading (whether generative-AI-powered or not), and as SEOs we should really start taking E-E-A-T seriously.

Likewise, from my point of view, beyond how it might affect Google rankings, E-E-A-T should be our "North Star" when creating content, to convey trust to our customers and potential customers.

In an increasingly saturated digital environment, where AI-generated content is being produced at an unprecedented pace, our responsibility as SEOs to bring veracity, knowledge and humanity has never been more crucial.

Maybe for less sensitive topics that don't affect our health, finances or happiness, we don't care who's behind a piece of content. Any answer from ChatGPT or similar might even do the job. But when the answer we're looking for could change our life in any way, we want someone with real experience and knowledge behind that information. Google knows this, calls this kind of content YMYL (Your Money Your Life), and pays special attention to its E-E-A-T.

I find it worrying, for example, how easy it is to find "miracle diets" online that promise fast weight loss, written and endorsed by no specialist whatsoever. That's why the Link Affinity team and I decided to run a study on the veracity of content on the internet, where we found conclusions as striking as, for example, that 71% of Google content related to "health" created by general media outlets isn't backed by anyone at all, or is signed by people with no expertise whatsoever in that field. In the age of AI, as SEOs, journalists or content creators of any kind, I think it's about time we also worked toward a world with more truthful information.

You can download this study completely free.

/ How do you work on E-E-A-T?

If I had to answer that question briefly, I'd say the answer is "by adding the kind of value only an experienced human can add." When I write an article, I ask myself: am I giving an answer as reliable as any AI would give? If the answer is yes, I rewrite it until I manage to add that differentiating value I have from my years of experience doing SEO since 2002. Of course, if you check out my profile at the end of the article, you'll see my track record, and my content will gain more credibility.

But I don't just want to tell you about my own experience. I believe different points of view add a lot of richness. So I've reached out to a few agencies in the industry, asking them to share how they work on E-E-A-T for their clients and for themselves as digital marketing experts.

Laia Cardona, Marketing Strategist and SEO specialist at Cyberclick, for example, tells us how keeping information up to date is key. You can read the full article here.

Another agency that wanted to share how they work on E-E-A-T was Vivaconversion (a Link Affinity partner) — they share their recommendations here, courtesy of Vakho Mtchedlishvili, SEO Account Manager.