E-A-T SEO: Explanation, SEO Relevance & Tips

1. What is Google E-E-A-T in SEO?
2. What is the difference between E-E-A-T and E-A-T?
3. What does YMYL mean in relation to E-E-A-T?
4. How important is E-E-A-T for non-YMYL topics?
5. What E-E-A-T factors are there?
6. are factors that do not have to be proven for each content piece anew. The work you put into improving these factors has a positive effect on all content you publish in the future.
7. pave the way for better rankings
8. Your readers should see right away
9. For many, the E-E-A-T approach seems dry at first sight, not least because the Google Quality Rater Guidelines seem long and complicated at first sight. Nevertheless, I recommend everyone to at least read through the section on E-E-A-T itself and take a look at some of the examples. The guidelines are an incredibly valuable document for all SEOs and content marketers, because they tell us exactly what Google expects from high-quality search results.

How does Google actually rate the quality of its search results? How does Google know if a new ranking system has had the desired effect? If you are concerned with these questions, you cannot avoid Google's E-E-A-T concept not before.

In this article, you will learn what this abbreviation stands for, where it comes from and what it means for SEO. And at the end we also give you a few tips on how you can make your content fit for E-E-A-T.

What is Google E-E-A-T in SEO?

E-E-A-T is a concept that is used in Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines as one of several evaluation criteria for search results. Specifically, E-E-A-T is about the quality of search results: Quality Raters, i.e. people who check the functionality of Google's search algorithm on Google's behalf, should use this concept to evaluate the quality of search results.

The acronym E-E-A-T stands for 'Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust', which is Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness. These factors play specific roles within the concept, but trustworthiness is at the center.

But why exactly is E-E-A-T important for SEOs? Very simple: The Quality Rater Guidelines give us an insight into what exactly Google sees as 'high-quality pages' and what results the Google algorithm should ideally deliver. For SEO, this means that we can specifically optimize our websites and content for better rankings if we meet all the conditions within the framework of E-E-A-T.

What is the difference between E-E-A-T and E-A-T?

Maybe you have already heard of this concept and are asking yourself now: Wait, wasn't it called E-A-T? Don't worry, you remember correctly: Until December 2022, E-E-A-T was still known as E-A-T.

The factor 'Experience' / Experience was only introduced after a comprehensive update of the Quality Rater Guidelines. What exactly this factor is about, we will look at in the next section. But we can assume that the introduction of this factor is based on the fact that the other E - Expertise - could not cover all search intentions.

What does YMYL mean in relation to E-E-A-T?

YMYL is another important concept for the quality assessment of search results and also comes from the Quality Rater Guidelines. The abbreviation YMYL stands for 'Your Money or your Life'. YMYL includes topics that should be evaluated particularly strictly by the quality evaluators according to the E-E-A-T approach.

The definition of YMYL was completely revised in July 2022. While the guidelines previously contained a list of specific topics, the concept is now more broadly defined: A topic is considered a YMYL topic when content about this topic can endanger the health, financial stability or safety of individuals, or the stability and safety of groups or the whole society.

That means that the potential harm of a topic determines how strictly it should be evaluated.

Not every topic is clearly a YMYL topic or clearly not a YMYL topic. The guidelines give some examples of different variations of this category.

(Source: Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines, Section 2.3)

If your own content falls into the YMYL category, it is particularly central to take into account all factors of E-E-A-T . This is the only way you can achieve high Google rankings for these types of sensitive topics.

How important is E-E-A-T for non-YMYL topics?

Even if YMYL topics are evaluated particularly strictly according to E-E-A-T, the E-E-A-T approach is still relevant for all other types of websites that want to rank pages on Google. The reason for this is that E-E-A-T is an expression of what Google sees as 'high quality' of search results.

Google logically wants to deliver as much as possible high-quality, helpful results. The guidelines are intended to evaluate the work of the Google algorithm. If we want to optimize our websites and content for the Google search, we can therefore orientate ourselves on the guidelines, no matter what kind of content we create.

What E-E-A-T factors are there?

E-E-A-T consists of four factors: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust.

Experience

⁠The first 'E' stands for Experience. This aspect was only added in December 2022. We can assume that this change resulted from a problem with search intentions for Your-Money-Or-Your-Life topics (especially health and financial topics): originally, according to the Quality Rater Guidelines, verifiable expertise / knowledge of the authors was a central factor for all YMYL content. If this expertise is missing, content should not rank.

The problem is that some search queries cannot be satisfied with answers from experts, but specifically need content that has been written by people with personal experience. These can be testimonials from people who have or had a certain disease. Or, as in Google's own example, reviews of a tax advisory software. The topic still falls under the umbrella 'YMYL', so the content must comply with stricter quality criteria, but expertise is not necessary as long as there is real personal experience.

Expertise

⁠The second 'E', Expertise, deals with verifiable specialist knowledge of the authors of a content. Expertise can mean, on the one hand, that an author has a certain education . This is particularly important for topics such as medicine or finance - again for YMYL topics. If you want to publish an article about cancer prevention, you should better bring a doctorate.

But also for potentially dangerous topics like repairs (which have now also become YMYL due to the potential for damage), caution is advised: In the Quality Rater Guidelines, Google itself gives the example that information on rewiring devices should come from a trained electrician and not from an amateur.

However, expertise is also a factor in non-YMYL topics: Quality Raters should think about how much specialist knowledge is necessary for satisfactory, trustworthy content in a field. This could mean, for example, that a result with garden tips from a person who has been writing a garden blog for years should be ranked higher than a result from someone who has no traceable connections with the topic on Google. With E-E-A-T, it's always about the information that Google can find or 'measure'. In addition, it is particularly apparent with such 'hobby experts' that expertise, experience and authority often overlap and can hardly be separated, which is why for non-YMYL topics in general verifiable everyday expertise is sufficient to rank content.

AuthoritativenessThe A in E-E-A-T stands for Authoritativeness or Authority. In general, this means that Google recognizes your website, your company or your authors as

Authority in the field of your content.What does it mean, Google 'recognizes you as an authority'? This means that Google also finds clues about your authority outside your own website. The most important elements here are entities and backlinks / mentions from influential sites. Entities are units that are semantically linked to each other. Google uses its so-called

Knowledge Graph, to establish connections between people, objects, concepts etc. This way, Google can know, for example, that the brand 'Milka' is relevant for the object 'chocolate'.Backlinks are one of the most central topics in SEO. What is important here is always the comparison with the direct competition: How many backlinks from websites with high domain authority do I have, how many do my competitors have? The right SEO tools are indispensable here.

Trust Last but not least: Trust / Confidence

(or also trustworthiness) forms the last letter of the acronym, but has been

the central concept, underpinned by the other three factors, since the updates to the Quality Rater Guidelines 2022. Before the update, this factor was still called 'Trustworthiness'. (Source:  Evergreen Media©)

⁠Google wants to deliver search results that its users can trust. This trust must be earned at different levels.On which levels must trust be earned?

The website itself is trustworthy:ideally no advertising

secure connection

secure payment processes for online shops

• a good page experience (and generally user experience)
• The company the website belongs to is trustworthy:
• positive Google reviews and reviews
• a positive mood towards the brand also outside the website

top-notch customer service

• a meaningful 'About Us' page
• ⁠Seals, awards and certificates
• The content on the website is trustworthy:
• serious source references
• clear indication of authors

Indication of the publication date (especially for topics for which up-to-dateness is important)

• Why is the E-E-A-T approach important for websites and companies
• ?
• Authority and trust

are factors that do not have to be proven for each content piece anew. The work you put into improving these factors has a positive effect on all content you publish in the future.

1. If you establish your brand as an authority in a niche

2. and give your visitors good reasons to trust your website and your brand, you are also doing brand building at the same time. After all, the factors that make a trustworthy website for Google do not exist in a vacuum.Good User Experience

3. , positive Google reviews, accurate content etc. make your brand look good in the minds of your visitors and increase the probability that they will become customers or buyers. According, kennst du indirekt zu einer höheren Conversion Rate führen.Wie beeinflusst E-E-A-T das Ranking von Webseiten in den Google-SuchergebnissenEven if the E-E-A-T approach has advantages that are not directly related to Google, it is still essential because it can

pave the way for better rankings

.However, it is important to understand that Google E-E-A-T is not a ranking factor for the Google search, and there is no measurable 'E-E-A-T' score either. The aim of the quality rating process is to check whether Google's algorithm actually delivers the best results for individual search queries. The algorithm can then be adapted to the results of the quality evaluation.So Google is continuously working to

improve the search algorithm

, so that Google can always more reliably deliver the best results for each search query.In other words: With the E-E-A-T rating concept, Google wants to ensure that pages with high quality and particularly helpful and relevant content receive higher rankings in organic search

, as such results satisfy Google's users - and this both increases the trust in the Google search and the likelihood that users will continue to use Google.The guidelines therefore show us which characteristics of search results are important to Google. We can use this knowledge to optimize our own websites and content. After all, our goal in search engine optimization is to convince Google that our own content is the best answer to relevant search queries. If you take this further, you even want your brand to become a platform or search engine in its own right.By following the E-E-A-T approach, we give the search engine exactly what it wants and increase our chances of top placements in the SERPs.

5 measures to implement the E-E-A-T approach on your own website

Position your authors as experts

Your readers should see right away

who wrote your content

. If you want to publish articles on topics in which neither you nor your authors have expert status, you should work with actual experts.The content doesn't have to be written by these experts themselves. With the right research and briefings by experts, even content creators lacking this expertise can create highly accurate content. Of course, it is also essential that this content be checked by actual experts before publication.

Most importantly, the experts you work with should be willing to stand by their name for this content. They can be listed as the sole author, co-author or 'consulting expert' - this is what Apotheken-Umschau for example, does.

Don't forget to position your author boxes easily findable. Ideally, author boxes should always contain a photo as well: This builds additional trust.

And even if you are publishing the type of YMYL content that falls into the 'Experience' category, it should quickly become apparent that the author actually has relevant, personal experience. This can also be solved through an author box. Alternatively, you can mention it in the introduction of the article or post.

Pay attention to your user experience

Google wants to deliver search results that satisfy its users. That's one of the reasons why the Quality Raters and the Quality Rater Guidelines exist - human input is essential to check and improve the functioning of the search algorithm.

That also means that the human perspective has to be at the forefront at all times. Of course, even outside of SEO you should deliver great User Experience, but if you want to be successful in optimizing for search engines, there is no way around it.

The same goes for optimizing for E-E-A-T: 'Trustworthiness' is the most important factor in this concept. A website with slow loading times, missing mobile optimization, and confusing layout definitely does not look trustworthy, and your visitors will return frustrated to Google - a clear sign to the algorithm that your site does not satisfy users.

Also, try to reduce annoying advertising and interstitials on your website as much as possible and deal with the topic of accessibility.

Demonstrate the trustworthiness of your content

One of the most important elements to demonstrate the accuracy and trustworthiness of your content is your handling of sources. For topics that do not fall under the YMYL umbrella, it is usually enough to label quotes, pictures and the like with the exact source. And of course, you should also link to other websites whenever you use an idea that you have directly taken over from someone else.

For example, if you use a concept from someone else in your niche, a link to the corresponding page belongs to good manners on the one hand, and on the other hand it shows your visitors that you are familiar with your niche.

And of course it also offers them an added value: If they are particularly interested in this topic, you help them to find more sources for it. And if you link to particularly well-known and / or trustworthy websites, this will make your own content look good in addition.

For YMYL topics (and topics that could potentially be YMYL topics), you have to be much stricter with your source statement, of course. A well-formatted source list at the end of the page, ideally with an indication of when this source was last accessed in the case of online sources, demonstrates to both the algorithm and your readers that conveying accurate information is important to you.

Keep your content up to date

Depending on the topic, up-to-dateness can play a big role in whether your content is accurate and trustworthy or not. Here, the topic of this article itself is a good example: After the update of the guidelines in December 2022, many have updated their pages about E-A-T, but have only replaced the acronym with the new 'E-E-A-T' without actually adding information about the changes.

So keep changes in your niche in mind and make sure that you deliver content to searchers that is as current as possible. Never forget that content can (and do) have an expiration date.

Show authority with every piece of content

The A in E-E-A-T, i.e. Authoritativeness / Authority, is a more website-wide factor than the two Es, and cannot be demonstrated as easily in individual content pieces as trustworthiness. A visitor who lands on your website for the first time can evaluate whether the UX is good, whether the authors seem to have the expertise, and whether the content seems accurate, but someone who doesn't spend a lot of time with a niche can't tell who's a top player and who's not.

For Google itself, of course, this is not a problem. Backlinks, mentions, entities, etc., I have already mentioned above. But there are also ways to demonstrate authority on the page level. Here are some examples:

1. Testimonials from satisfied customers can even be integrated on informative pages in such a way that they do not disturb but still catch the eye.
2. Call-to-action buttons or highlighted text sections can draw readers' attention to other activities of the brand on whose website they have landed: If you have a successful YouTube channel with X thousand subscribers, for example, a CTA with this information shows your readers your presence in your niche.Or perhaps an important person in your industry once praised your newsletter - you can use this as a
3. Pull-Quote for your newsletter CTA and subtly show that your brand is known.Also,
4. links to your own case studies, your own research, white papers or eBooks, which you have published, show your authority. If you have ever conducted interviews with industry experts, you can also sprinkle
5. quotes from these interviews: If people with such authority talk to you, that is always a good sign of your own status in the industry.Conclusion: E-E-A-T is indispensable for Google SEO

For many, the E-E-A-T approach seems dry at first sight, not least because the Google Quality Rater Guidelines seem long and complicated at first sight. Nevertheless, I recommend everyone to at least read through the section on E-E-A-T itself and take a look at some of the examples. The guidelines are an incredibly valuable document for all SEOs and content marketers, because they tell us exactly what Google expects from high-quality search results.

So if you deal with the E-E-A-T approach and take appropriate measures on your own website, you benefit from 'insider knowledge'. No one should miss out on this massive SEO advantage.

Wenn du dich mit dem E-E-A-T-Ansatz beschäftigst und entsprechende Maßnahmen auf deiner eigenen Website vornimmst, profitierst du also von „Insider-Wissen“. Diesen massiven SEO-Vorteil sollte sich niemand entgehen lassen.