E-A-T
The acronym EAT has emerged since the advent of SEO, and even though the term has been around for some time, it has been brought back into the spotlight since the major update to Google's algorithm in 2018. EAT stands for three pillars in Google's algorithm that ensure your website will rank high in search results. These pillars consist of Expertise, Authorityand Trustworthiness(Trust).
The high competition of websites has meant that you must have a good website to obtain organic traffic. By keeping the EAT pillars as the driving force for your site you will obtain and maintain a high ranking on Google faster. The update implemented by Google in the summer of 2018 had a significant impact. Initially, it primarily looked at the EAT of the website. This is still the case, only the EAT creators of the content are also assessed. With this, Google wants to see who is the author of a page's main content.
EAT for the Google Algorithm
So both author and website must implement EAT. To produce EAT-worthy content as an author, you can look at what the target audience is looking for. Provide what they are looking for, or even better. By doing keyword research, you learn to understand the intent of the searcher. There are a number of tips to make sure you implement EAT in the best way possible:
- Expertise: Posting references reinforces expertise on the topic. For authors, this is also important. A medical article written by a physician means a better plane of expertise.
- Authority: Authority is about how reviewers rate the quality of the content and broader site. This is both Google and broader reviews from reviewer websites. As an author, authority is about how many citations he/she has. The more often their work is cited the more authority the author has.
- Trust: The Web site needs several validation details to increase trustworthiness. These include an "About Us" page, customer service links and transactional security. Trust lies with the author again on citations and how well the content is written.
