How to Optimize for Google’s E-E-A-T to Improve SEO

This search engine optimization (SEO) guide explains how to optimize for Google’s E-E-A-T to improve SEO.

Below, you’ll learn the best ways to optimize for E-E-A-T to help increase your website’s organic visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs) so you can gain increased rankings and traffic.

What Is E-E-A-T?

E-E-A-T is an acronym that stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness which is a set of website evaluation standards that comes from Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.

Why Is E-E-A-T Important?

E-E-A-T is important for Google’s ranking systems because those signals help the algorithms rank pages that come from trusted sources that demonstrate experience, expertise, and authority on a particular topic.

E-E-A-T signals are especially important for topics that affect people’s health, happiness, safety, or financial stability, also known as Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics.

If you want to rank high on Google for your target keywords and keep those positions for the long term, then you need to optimize your website and its content for E-E-A-T. If you neglect this aspect of SEO, then your content will never get the full rankings and traffic it deserves.

How to Optimize for E-E-A-T

To demonstrate E-E-A-T to Google’s ranking algorithms, you need to focus on three factors:

1. Creating high-quality content that shows your experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness on the topic.
2. Optimizing key on-page elements that demonstrate E-E-A-T to search engine crawlers.
3. Getting quality backlinks and mentions that confirm the popularity and trustworthiness of your content, the brand, and/or its authors.

When you focus on these qualities for each web page across your site, you’ll improve your E-E-A-T scores. This helps to instill a greater sense of credibility in your content that it’s safe, accurate, original, reliable, and worth ranking at the top of the search results.

Here’s how to optimize for each of these three factors:

1. Create High-Quality Content that Shows E-E-A-T

• Demonstrate expert knowledge and/or first-hand experience on the subject by sharing in-depth information, personal opinions, original photos, and self-produced videos.
• Demonstrate expert knowledge on the subject by sharing in-depth information. Cover all of the important subtopics necessary for the reader to fully understand the topic.
• Be specific in your language. Make every word count. Avoid superficial content. Don’t use generalizations or unnecessary wordiness to fill out a specific word count.
• Demonstrate first-hand experience on the subject by sharing personal opinions, original photos, and self-produced videos.
• Make sure all information is accurate and up to date.
• Don’t write long-winded introductions. Simply explain to the reader what information is conver on the page and then get right into it.
• Include 1-2 unique elements (at a bare minimum) that are not found in the top-ranking URLs for the target keyword. Example elements include tables, charts, infographics, videos, more list items, quotes by industry experts, a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section, etc.
• Include external links to authoritative sources to back up facts, statistics, and claims.
• Include internal links to topically relevant content to provide more context and value to the user.

2. Optimize On-Page Elements for E-E-A-T

• Include an author byline with a link to the author’s bio page.
• Include an image of the author.
• Include an author bio box at the bottom of the page that shares details about the author’s expertise in the industry. This element is a good substitute if a byline is not present on the page. You can also include both elements (a byline and author bio box); however, it’s purely optional.
• Include links to the author’s social media accounts on the author bio page and/or in the author bio box.
• Display the author’s credentials, qualifications, and awards as proof of expertise.
• Add Author Structured Data to the page to verify the author’s name, job title, and bio page URL. See Google’s Author Markup Best Practices for more details on the markup.
• Include the published date.
• Include the published time for news-related content. The time is optional for evergreen content.
• Include semantically-related words to the primary keyword topic to enhance the perceived depth of expertise.
• Provide a clear way for users to contact the site owner and learn more about the organization through hyperlinked Contact and About Us pages in both the header and footer navigation menus.
• Include the complete business name, address, and phone number in the visible footer of the website and on the Contact page.
• Add Local Business Structured Data to the footer section of the HTML code that includes the business name, address, phone number, image (logo), URL, and main contact email. See Google’s Local Business Structured Data for more details on the markup.

3. Get Quality Backlinks and Mentions for E-E-A-T

• Get backlinks and mentions from other authoritative and trustworthy sites in your niche.
• Use sources like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to generate high Domain Authority links from trusted online publications, newspapers, and blogs.
• Build the online reputation and authority for your authors around key topics by having them post relevant content on third-party sites and social media.
• Get positive reviews and ratings for your organization from reputable sources like G2, Yelp, Trip Advisor, etc.
• Create a verified Google Business Profile and Bing Places Listing for your business.
• Get your business listed on popular business directories while maintaining a consistent NAP (name, address, and phone number) across those sites.

Summary for Optimizing for Google’s E-E-A-T

As you discovered, E-E-A-T is a crucial factor for SEO success. Google’s aim is to rank pages in the search results that come from trusted sources that demonstrate experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness on a particular topic.

To optimize your website and its content for E-E-A-T signals, you need to focus on the three main factors shared in this guide: Creating high-quality content that shows your E-E-A-T on the topic, optimizing on-page elements that demonstrate E-E-A-T to search engine crawlers, and getting quality backlinks and mentions that confirm the popularity and trustworthiness of your content, the brand, and/or its authors.

By following the recommendations on this page, you can improve your chances of ranking higher on Google and other search engines to attract more organic traffic to your site.