The acronym E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It’s Google’s framework for evaluating the quality of a website’s content, and Google uses teams of people around the world as “Quality Raters”. Practical E-E-A-T is my way of helping you put it into practice.
So E-E-A-T is the backbone of any manual analysis of a webpage. I’ve spoken at length about E-E-A-T elsewhere, so this article is my quick guide to preparing and creating a website and then of course every web page to try and be better quality.
For reference, you can see the official full 181-page general guidelines (PDF – 25th January 2025) or the 36-page overview (PDF – November 2023)
1. Experience (First-hand knowledge)
Whatever you’re talking about on your website, you’ve done it, right?
I’ve been doing SEO for over 25 years and I’ve known about E-E-A-T and Google’s Quality Raters Guidelines for something like 10 years. When I read the original E-A-T definition and Quality Raters guidelines, I realised that I was certainly already performing a lot of the best practice in my content and SEO anyway.
Anyway, with all this SEO and E-E-A-T experience behind me, I can recant tales of how I made sure that my news articles back in 2007 were comprehensive and quality compared to the competition, or that I’ve been conducting thorough keyword research to advise my clients on the right topical authority to focus on.
Having done SEO for 25 years that experience should be obvious in my writing.
The same goes for you in your line of work, whether you do cybersecurity, fintech, photography, or design; you need to convey your experience in your webpages.
Experience Action
So thinking about Experience:
- Share your experience. It can be in any form, such as personal stories, case studies, or first-hand accounts related to your topic.
- If it’s applicable, you can demonstrate your practical skills through videos, tutorials, or in your portfolio.
- If you are selling a product or service, show your audience how you’ve used your own product or service, and the positive effects it provides.
Weave your experience into everything you do on your website, from stating your organisation’s founder story, to badges showing that you’ve been in business or served the community for 25 years! Show off your experience. The more of it you have, the more valuable you are.
2. Expertise (Deep Knowledge)
Now doing something for 25 years is great, but have you constantly learned and evolved during that time? If you’re still doing what you did 25 years ago, that’s OK, but you’ve added a new skill every year since, haven’t you?
Just as with experience, you need to show off your expertise. How long you’ve done something is more powerful when coupled with how well you do something. That’s a winning combination and will always give you the edge,
So demonstrate your expertise, I say show off, but you simply need to be very clear about the depth of your expertise.
Expertise Action
Thinking back on your years of expertise, you need to:
- Clearly showcase your qualifications and credentials (degrees, certifications, years of experience).
- Produce in-depth, well-researched content that demonstrates a thorough understanding of your subject.
- Cite reputable sources and back up your claims with evidence.
- If you have a specialist website that affects people’s health, wealth, safety, or happiness, be extra careful. Medical advice should only come from medical experts, just as financial advice needs to only be from financial; professionals.
This last point is absolutely critical because the concept of Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) is a big part of the Quality Raters’ Guidelines. Inaccurate or misleading guidance in YMYL topics can have serious consequences for readers, so Google’s human evaluators are extra vigilant in these areas.
3. Authoritativeness (Recognition)
Who are you? Are you who you say you are? Does anyone in your industry know you? If the answer is yes to all these questions then that adds to your level of authoritativeness.
In SEO there are some real superstars who are very well known, such as Barry Schwartz, or Rand Fishkin. I tried to work with Rand many years ago when he was developing SEOMoz and he kindly referred me to Will Critchlow who was running Distilled at the time. These are all well known people, but what about me? I’ve been around as long but have gone down slightly different paths. So I am nowhere near as famous as these internationally recognised guys but I’m more than adequate for a local SEO consultant in Hampshire.
When I worked at my last agency we won awards in 2001 for Best Tech
Authoritative Action
With the notion of building your brand’s authoritativeness, consider the following:
- Build a strong online reputation by earning backlinks from reputable websites, use your digital PR outreach for this.
- Try to get mentioned in industry publications or recognised by experts in your field, again digital PR here.
- Cultivate a positive online presence for your brand through social media and other platforms.
- If other experts in your field reference your work, this increases your authority, so reach out and acknowledge when they do refer to you.
Remember that if you are an authority in your field, shout about. If you are not, then build up that authority.
4. Trustworthiness (The Reliability Issue)
So you’ve shown off your knowledge, clearly demonstrated your expertise, and indicated to everyone that you’re an authority in the subject now what?!
It’s time to prove further that you really are who you say you are. Everything you do here cements in place the fact that you’re experienced, an expert, and an authority, If you don’t pull of these little actions, then it just takes the shine off your veneer, so make sure you cover every base here, please…
Trustworthiness Action
You only get one shot, do not lose your chance to blow…
Sorry, I couldn’t resist that. Seriously though, you need to be as open as you can as an organisation, a business, a company, and make it abundantly clear about your legitimacy and the ease with which people can get in touch with you,
- Provide accurate and up-to-date information on you, your brand, and your organisation.
- Be transparent about your sources and any potential biases (e.g. I’m a marketing manger but with a heavy bias towards digital marketing).
- Implement strong security measures to protect user data such as HTTPS connections on your website and clear privacy policies.
- Display clear contact information and customer service channels so that real world enquiries can get in touch with you.
- Ensure that your website has a clear “about us” page, and again that it is easy to contact your business.
- If you sell products, ensure that you have clear return policies, and secure checkout.
A final point from me here; its not just about showing that you’re trustworthy, it’s about being trustworthy. If there’s one thing you can ever take from Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People, it’s that you must be sincere. It’s the root of all you are and what you project, and it’s very close to your attitude. Truly honest and sincere companies also benefit from positive press, so just be trustworthy, it will reap rewards.
Key Takeaways:
Right, let’s sum it all up in a convenient
- User First: Always always always prioritise the user experience. UX isn’t just what you see, it’s how the user feels too. Make it easy, keep them happy.
- Focus on Quality: Also prioritise creating high-quality, valuable content that meets user needs and matches user intent.
- Be Transparent: Clearly present your credentials and sources. Always reference where your information is from if you’ve borrowed any ideas, accreditation works both ways.
- Build Relationships: Engage with your audience and industry peers. You will see the benefit in all manner of seemingly less tangible ways, it’s “soft power”.
- Maintain Accuracy: Regularly review and update your content. Remember the ER in the SMARTER acronym – evaluate and re-evaluate? Have a culture of continuous improvement, practice kaizen.
By consistently applying these principles, you can strengthen your website’s E-E-A-T and improve its visibility in search results. Plus you’ll keep the evaluators happy too. In fact, by thinking like and behaving in a manner that helps them you are the evaluator of your own output. So be a quality inspector for your own web content, you’ll see great results when you do.
For all things practical E-E-A-T, be it a review of your digital assets, marketing, or website, call me on 01252 692 765 for a friendly chat about your next project.