Published on March 17, 2021
Have you ever wondered how to hit that magic formula to master the Google ranking algorithm?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. After all, given that search algorithms get updated on a fairly regular basis, it’s only fair to feel confused. This is why being educated on Google’s preferences and trends is a must to stay ahead of competition.
Ask most experts about the key to search engine optimization and they’ll tell you to focus on creating meaningful content. Produce pages that offer value while hitting important keywords so that Google and other search engines will consider you as a reliable source of information.
But when you consider meaningful content, is there really a way to measure how effective it is for making your website perform well?
Try doing a little research about SEO and content marketing and you’ll end up bumping into the EAT principle quite a few times. According to this principle, if you want your website to rank higher on Google, you need to establish its expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
Measuring your content marketing strategies against these three qualities is a good place to start. These three factors are used by Google to identify how eligible a brand or a website is to be recommended by the search engine.
At the end of it all, Google wants to see who can be considered as the leaders in a specific niche or industry—and those leaders will be the most recommended pages on the Search Engine Page Results (SERPs).
In 2015, Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines made its way around the web. Originally, there was an information leak and Google wanted to keep things into the right context, so the entirety of the guidelines were released.
Through the 168 pages of these guidelines, everyone, especially webmasters and content marketers were enlightened on how Google identified what can be considered as low or high quality in a website.
Though originally it was a guide for the human rating team on the company, it ended up becoming beneficial for every person looking into SEO strategies for their businesses.
The concept of closely following a website’s expertise, authority, and trustworthiness is important for both consumer and provider, but it is more beneficial for some industries.
For instance, if you are someone looking into medicine dosages, health restrictions, and the like, Google would not want to direct you to an unreliable source, especially since untrustworthy webpages can influence you to do something harmful for your health.
If you think about it, being misled to a weaker information source will not only bring you inconvenience. The worst-case scenario may even lead you to long-term health problems.
For a better understanding of each of the three principles, let’s take a look at them closely, including some tips to showcase them in your content.
To be deemed as an expert, one must possess high levels of knowledge or skills in their chosen field. Google looks at this more at the content level, not at the website or brand level. Therefore, the content must be produced by someone considered as a Subject-Matter Expert.
However, this does not mean writing all the information on your niche will drive all the traffic to your site. What you need is strong communication skills, one that shows you know what you are talking about, while staying engaging and interesting to read.
For Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics, it would be best if someone with the qualifications, expertise, or formal education creates the content. For other “experienced-based” topics, the best content creator is someone who encountered or is going through the themes of the topic.
Though you want to establish your site as an expert, you also want to be seen as an authority by other experts in the same field. Authority weighs a lot on your reputation, so you can identify some signs if you are considered as one.
In line with this, you can do reputation research and see what real people think about your website. The process includes looking into references, reviews, and recommendations from experts about your website. Because of this, it is also important to note that authority is highly subjective, so achieving it can be a tedious process.
Now, one thing that can make or break your success is whether people see your brand or business as trustworthy. Trust involves the image you set to the public. How do they see you in terms of legitimacy, accuracy of content, and transparency to your audience?
If you touch on technical topics like health, news, and finance, website evaluators also look at who publishes the content on the site and whether they are trustworthy.
On the other hand, if you are an eCommerce business, you also want to prove you are worthy enough for a customer to entrust their credit card information with you and feel like you are honest with the products or services you are selling.
For most, if not all, website owners, the ultimate goal is to rank high on the SERPs for queries related to your niche and industry. One of the ways to reach that is by practicing the EAT Principle while producing content for your site.
By doing so, you show that you are approaching SEO and content marketing with a holistic approach and considering continuous improvement in the long run.
If you don’t know where to start, there’s no need to fret. You can work with Bliss Drive, a digital marketing team with SEO, content, and conversion services experts who can design the best strategies to help you conquer EAT!
Call us at 949-229-3454 now for a free consultation.
