Hello and welcome back to the Bean Media Productions blog! Google is always updating its search guidelines in order to deliver the best results it can to the searcher, and recently a new update for E-E-A-T dropped. Those updates mean changes in our job! Read on, and find out more with us.
What is E-E-A-T?
You may have heard of Google’s previous search rater guideline, E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). However, that is getting updated with a second E (Experience), to become E-E-A-T. Demonstrating your first-hand experience will become more important than ever with the update.
The updated language for the new search quality rater guideline regarding experience:
“Consider the extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic. Many types of pages are trustworthy and achieve their purpose well when created by people with a wealth of personal experience. For example, which would you trust: a product review from someone who has personally used the product or a “review” by someone who has not?”
Google’s Renewed Focus on Trust
Additionally, to the new “Experience” guideline, Google is also putting more focus on the “Trust” factor. Elevating it to being arguably the most important element. In the Venn diagram that is E-E-A-T, you see, trust is at the center of it all.
Trust is the single most important factor in E-E-A-T. You can have the most experience possible, an expert topic, and an authoritative site, but if it isn’t trustworthy, it does not matter. The other factors serve mostly to support trustworthiness.
How Google’s QRG Ranks E-E-A-T
There are multiple chapters on the quality rater guidelines that cover EEAT from its lowest version to the highest. Using the pdf file Google provides for Quality Rater Guidelines, let’s allow the search giant to give us their definitions.
Lowest E-E-A-T
Low E-E-A-T means that a page doesn’t have much trust in the topic they’re covering, they’re lacking authority, they’re not experts, nor do they have much experience. A page that has the lowest E-E-A-T score will likely never show up on the first few pages in Google’s results.
“If the E-E-A-T of a page is low enough, people cannot or should not use the Main Content of the page. If a page on YMYL topics is highly inexpert, it should be considered Untrustworthy and rated Lowest. Use the Lowest rating if the website and content creator have an extremely negative reputation, to the extent that many people would consider the webpage or website untrustworthy”
Lacking E-E-A-T
“Low-quality pages often lack an appropriate level of E-E-A-T for the topic or purpose of the page.”
Examples could include the content creator having little experience and expertise, not being an authoritative voice on the subject, or the page/website not being trustworthy for its purpose. Further down, Google also explains that a positive reputation alone cannot overcome the lack of E-E-A-T on the topic or purpose of the page.
High Level E-E-A-T
To achieve a high level of E-E-A-T, you need to demonstrate not only that you are trustworthy, but why you are and what makes you an authority on the subject. Another way to demonstrate high E-E-A-T is to show your experience.
“Pages with High E-E-A-T are trustworthy or very trustworthy. Experience is valuable for almost any topic. Social media posts and forum discussions are often High quality when they involve people sharing their experience. From writing symphonies to reviewing home appliances, first-hand experience can make a social media post or discussion page High quality.”
For example, this could include a travel blog reviewing some of the local restaurants for a post, or a consumer reviewing an appliance, and much more.
Highest/Very High E-E-A-T
To have the highest level of E-E-A-T, you must demonstrate you’re the expert voice on a topic and have the trust and experience to back up your assertion of authority.
“Very high E-E-A-T is a distinguishing factor for Highest quality pages. A website or content creator who is the uniquely authoritative, go-to source for a topic has very high E-E-A-T. A content creator with a wealth of experience may be considered to have very high E-E-A-T for topics where experience is the primary factor in trust. A very high level of expertise can justify a very high E-E-A-T assessment. Very high E-E-A-T websites and content creators are the most trusted sources on the internet for a particular topic.”
For example, this would include us writing about the changes and updates in Digital Marketing, especially SEO and Video Production. Another example could be an arborist-focused website talking about the dangers of invasive bugs and trees and the problems they pose. Or, a YouTuber talking about their niches on the internet, such as PBS SpaceTime covering updates in astronomy and the James Webb Space Telescope.
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