Why Google’s E-A-T Rating Matters and How to Improve It

Noa Eshed — December 18, 2019

E-A-T rating is one significant aspect of Google’s continuing attempts to “make” businesses, brands, and content creators of all kinds create useful content by focusing on quality. Because quality can be subjective, the search engine company uses Quality Rater Guidelines to make the content better for actual human users, instead of search engines (those guidelines are super underrated if you ask me – I’m willing to guess most people don’t know they’re public domain).

So, the emphasis is on:

Expertise
Authority
Trustworthiness

Why is this important?

Basically, Google’s mantra goes like this:

Highest quality sites and pages have a very high level of expertise OR are highly authoritative OR highly trustworthy

In other words, if you’re looking to score a quick win, you’re outta’ luck. Going by E-A-T’s framework means taking time to build and nurture as it implies a gradual growth of a positive/relevant online presence in the most natural way. So, focusing on these three pillars is the smart thing to do if you want your pages to rank high for the most relevant search queries in your industry.

How do you create E-A-T content?

When it comes to page quality rating, the main thing is to understand the true purpose of the page. Hence, having a beneficial purpose for any type of website means providing valuable information on a specific topic. In turn, it means your hypothetical E-A-T rating will boost your chances of ranking well.

Now we come to the interesting stuff: what makes you an expert and authority on a particular subject, and trustworthy at that?

Expertise refers to being knowledgeable AND communicating effectively – knowing what’s what while engaging your audience through optimal delivery. To create expert content, you need to perform keyword research to figure out what your audience is looking for, and then try to understand their intent. It’s crucial to find that sweet spot: not too simple and not overly comprehensive. As always, make your content easily digestible through the magic of formatting and visual/aural aids.

Authority relates to being a source of information for relevant topics in your industry. Naturally, that largely includes linking or more precisely, building domain authority through links from equally high-ranking E-A-T websites. Besides that, simple mentions and consistent social shares are also signs of increasing authority.

Trustworthiness is a bit trickier as it includes a number of things. Some, like having positive reviews for your business or lack of any form of negativity attached are fairly obvious. Others, like having a clear privacy policy and ToS or proper implementation of HTTPS, are not. Everything matters, from a physical location attached to the business to linking out to other authority sites.

Quick tips on how to improve your E-A-T ranking

If you’re in the habit of sharing information, here’s what you can do to incrementally grow in the eyes of Google:

Have an author and bio included – Google wants to know who is behind the wall of text so it can “check” it has the necessary expertise and grade content accordingly.
Build your personal brand – while it won’t hurt you per se, it will place other authors with a positive reputation ahead of you. Use storytelling to connect with your audience, interact with it on social media, and always post on trusted platforms to earn third-party endorsements.
Trim or tweak low E-A-T content – now this can actually hurt you in terms of your website’s overall score. In cases where you can’t attribute your page(s) to an expert/authority, it’s best to just cut them

Pro tip: add your personal touch (experience, events, stories, etc) to show you’re an expert on yourself (and it works like a charm).

That would be a quick rundown of the E-A-T ranking. It’s a holistic approach, an ongoing process of fine-tuning your content so that the right pages rank well. Do it right and others will have a tough time taking you down from the top search results.

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