Is your website ranking fluctuating? Have you recently experienced a major dip in your traffic?
These changes could possibly be due to:
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
E-A-T!
In 2018, E-A-T emerged as one of the biggest algorithm shifts seen by Google in a year. The search engine giant laid emphasis on E-A-T, which captured the attention of content marketers.
Why are we highlighting it now?
For a very simple reason— Usually, after an algo update, most SEO writers rush to follow it but later forget or deprioritise it. But that’s not us. We remember and follow through.
E-A-T is not overnight magic. You have to nurture your website and build its expertise, authority and trustworthiness.
It’s a set of standards that you must constantly follow to rank at the top in SERP.
And that’s why we are here. We, at Hurix Digital aim to make a constant effort for a page to rank better.
Before we move on, let’s first understand what can safeguard your website from any major changes in Algo.
Hear it from Google’s Danny Sullivan-
Want to do better with a broad change? Have great content. Yeah, the same boring answer. But if you want a better idea of what we consider great content, read our raters guidelines. That’s like almost 200 pages of things to consider: https://t.co/pO3AHxFVrV
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018
Better content means a higher ranking. So, first things first—
Make sure your content is strong, relevant, enriched with high-quality information. This will help you rank better in the search engine.
Here are some tips for you to follow
1. Create Original Content
In every aspect of SEO, Content is the King. Original content still reigns supreme in terms of ranking high on Google. Danny Sullivan has touted fresh and high-quality content for years now. It is an important practice to maintain or improve rankings.
When you publish fresh, informative & high-quality content, you exhibit all 3 aspects- Expert, Authority and Trust. In other words—
- Informative content exhibits Expert knowledge.
- Fresh & real example content exhibits Authority & reputation of your brand.
- Unique content gives a first-hand experience to your users & builds Trust.
All of the above will prompt users to revisit your site.
Google calculates the E-A-T score of a website by evaluating every post. If most of your content is duplicated or rehashed from another website, chances are that you may get badly hit by an algorithm update.
Related Read: The Secret SAUCE for Creating Great Content
Even if you rephrase your content very well, it doesn’t make it unique. Google can identify these types of plagiarism very quickly & easily.
The wise thing to do is to remove any rewritten content from your website. It can cause more harm than good.
2. Give Author Byline
Being a writer, wouldn’t you love this? Rather, wouldn’t you want your name in the byline?
Definitely yes!
As a reader would you trust the website more if an article has a byline? Probably.
Google wants to know the person who is providing information to the audience. Displaying the author’s name tends to give a real picture to the users. It builds trust in the eyes of the reader. And Trust is the last but not the least of the components of E-A-T.
So wherever possible, include a byline. You can include a short bio at the beginning or bottom of the page. You can also add links to other articles written by the same author.
It is also better to provide contact information or customer support details for the users. It helps in building user experience.
Related Reads: How Do You Blend User Experience in SEO Writing?
Lack of author’s information could lead to a lack of trust which would be detrimental to your E-A-T score.
3. Increase Quality Backlinks
It is very evident that Google loves backlinks. You know why?
Because-
Google’s Mission Statement
When you build backlinks from related niche sites, Google rewards you for being in sync with their mission. Make sure you are a part of it. Backlinking also tells Google your site is a well-used source for a particular topic making it an Authority on it. You will also be recognised as an Expert on the topic.
Get links from a relevant and high-quality website. Getting backlinks from an irrelevant and low authority site adds no value. This can also adversely affect your E-A-T score.
4. Invest in Personal Branding
Start-ups or small brands may have websites that are not fully developed as compared to bigger brands. In such a case, smaller brands have to work towards gaining audience trust.
One of the best ways to do this is to enhance the “About Us” page. Try to give factual information to build the trust of the audience. If your company was featured in any publication, then create a separate page dedicated to ‘Media Coverage’. This improves the brand image. Here a content master, like Hurix Digital, plays a major role in providing clear information to attract readers.
Additionally, have a good testimonial page. Put all the customer reviews to boost trustworthiness among the audience.
5. HTTPS
The ‘T’ in E-A-T stands for ‘Trust’. And using HTTPS improves trust.
Trust factor simply doesn’t refer to the genuineness of the content, but also the website security.
Now Chrome is marking all HTTP pages as not secure. So, any website without Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) will see a lower E-A-T rating than those who do have SSL in place. It is a strong indication that Google would push for websites with HTTPS. So, ensure you have an SSL certificate for your website.
Investing in technical security will boost your E-A-T score.
6. Social Media
Many website owners think social media doesn’t help in improving E-A-T score. But it very much does!
Being active on social media and sharing knowledgeable content with a large number of the audience can create Trust amongst users. It helps you garner a good reputation for your platform.
Better social media content, higher engagement than your competitors will eventually help you in E-A-T rating. But, make sure you engage the consumer with quality posts. Your posts should make readers come to your page and read your content.
7. Scan Low EAT Articles
Having low E-A-T even on one page can have a negative effect on the reputation of the overall site.
Articles with a low E-A-T rating are usually those with low traffic. You can go to Webmaster and scan for such articles. If any of your pages is not fetching good traffic, you can work on that page, or in the worst case, remove them.
If your website caters to niche brands or services, ensure the content is curated by an expert. A page with good content & quality information will tend to have a high E-A-T.
Also, giving a personal touch by adding your own experiences to the content can do a good job of improving your E-A-T rating.
Key Takeaways-
- Create high-quality content
- Publish original content
- Talk about personal experience
- Do quality research
- Hire an expert for quality information
- Add author byline
- Work on pages with low E-A-T
- Backlink your articles
- Secure your website with HTTPS
- Be active on social media
Conclusion
We believe that this article helped you to understand how to focus on improving your E-A-T. Don’t make these strategies as a one-time thing, you have to constantly work on these factors for your page to rank better in the future.
