One of the most important aspects of running a website or eCommerce business in 2021 is boosting your search engine optimization or SEO. There are a lot of different ways to boost your SEO — creating content, incorporating keywords into your copy, and improving your user experience are just a few examples of SEO strategies that you can implement to make your website more visible on search engines. This is a vital part of getting more organic traffic and, therefore, more sales.
In this article, we’re going to discuss E-A-T, or expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. It’s a term that comes from Google’s Search Quality Rater’s Guidelines, and it can help you boost your SEO!
Need more help? Check out the SEO services offered by Loganix. We can help you with keyword research, content creation, and more.
What is E-A-T?
E-A-T, or expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, is an algorithm feature from Google — it’s something that the search engine has been paying a lot more attention to since 2018.
In short, search engines want to send their users to the most reliable and accurate websites possible. By showing off your E-A-T, you show Google that you’re a reliable source of accurate information, giving you a boost in the search rankings. Better rankings mean more visitors to your site and more conversions!
Let’s break down a few different ways that you can boost your E-A-T to improve your SEO.
How can you boost your E-A-T to improve your SEO?
Showing off your E-A-T can produce a lot of benefits for your website. For starters, showing off that you’re a reliable source of high-quality information tells your audience members that you are someone worth listening to and spending money with. But showcasing your E-A-T can improve your SEO, as well!
Let’s outline how you can boost your E-A-T and improve your SEO. We’ll discuss quality content, using author bylines, showing off awards, and more.
Publish quality content that demonstrates your expertise
Publishing website content that shows off your skills and knowledge is one of the most important parts of running a website — it can help you build trust with your audience, highlight your products and services, and ultimately get you more sales. Additionally, content creation is the perfect way to show off your E-A-T and boost your SEO in the process. This is why it’s so important for websites to have blogs or knowledge hubs!
There are practically endless types of content you can publish on your website that can demonstrate your expertise. Let’s break down a few examples.
Ultimate guides
Ultimate guides are just what they sound like — they’re guides that outline everything a reader would need to know about a particular topic. Guides like this are thorough, extensive, and answer a lot of reader questions — this makes them great for building your E-A-T and boosting your SEO!
Let’s take a look at an example for inspiration.
Finally, FreshBooks, an online accounting services company, publishes a lot of helpful, expert content on their website.
For example, in their guide to writing a winning invoice letter, they outline when you would need to write a letter, what to include in the body, formatting, and more. Ultimate guides like this are great for showing off a company’s expertise. The article is thorough, helpful, and addresses just about anything someone new to invoicing would want to know on the topic. By outlining the process of writing an invoice letter, FreshBooks is able to boost their E-A-T and SEO as a result. Overall, the article shows that FreshBooks knows how to help freelancers and small business owners, both of whom will regularly write invoices and who might eventually need the company’s services, making it great for building their authoritativeness in this area.
On your website, think about what subjects you know inside and out that are relevant to your industry. What types of questions do your target audience have, and which pain points can you solve for them? Writing on these subjects will give you a lot of opportunities to show off your knowledge in your field and help your potential clients and customers, thus boosting your E-A-T and SEO.
How-to guides
How-to guides are similar to ultimate guides but tend to just focus on a single topic or question specifically. These guides are great for answering customer and client questions or helping people just getting started in your field. By creating your own how-to guides, you can show that you are a knowledgeable source of information and boost your E-A-T.
Let’s take a look at an example of a business that has an excellent how-to guide for inspiration.
For instance, Looka, an online logo maker, regularly publishes website content that boosts their E-A-T. Let’s take a look at a specific example.
Their guide to coming up with a creative business name outlines how you can come up with a business name that can help set you on the path to success. If someone is struggling to come up with a business name, they can use this article for assistance. Looka discusses how to make your business name original, user-friendly, searchable, and catchy. They offer pointers on what makes a good business name, different types of business names to choose from, and even recommend their Business Name Generator! The content of the article shows that they know what they’re talking about when it comes to branding. It shows off their expertise and builds trust with the audience — this boosts their SEO and makes it more likely that website visitors will spend money on Looka services down the road.
Comparison pieces
Comparison pieces aim to help a reader make the best decision for their needs. These guides compare a variety of different types of a certain product or service, outlining their pros, cons, benefits, prices, and more in a single, easy-to-read article. If you can outline a variety of different types of a product or service and acknowledge that they all have their own benefits, people will come to view you as a source of high-quality, trustworthy, and knowledgeable information. This will help you boost your E-A-T and improve your SEO.
Original research
Original research is another great way to boost your E-A-T. If you do the research yourself, everyone has to go to you in order to find the original source! You can do some research on trends in your business, show off case studies of past work with your clients, or conduct surveys with other people in your field in order to give readers information on the state of your industry. Creating this type of content will show both readers and Google that you’re an expert, thus boosting your SEO.
Informational articles
Informational articles are a surefire way to boost your E-A-T. The topics you can write about are nearly endless — just make sure that it ties back to your industry! You can write about your perspective on something in the news, give a rundown of an industry event, or just offer your advice on a subject, for instance.
Let’s take a look at a business that has an excellent informational article well for inspiration.
My Canada Payday, a financial services provider, shows off their expertise by highlighting trends in their industry. Let’s break down their article on how more and more people are choosing to invest rather than save their money.
The article points out that investing is a much better way to build wealth than a savings account, as investing typically has better returns. My Canada Payday goes on to discuss robo-advisors, investing apps, and more. It shows that My Canada Payday is on top of the latest industry news and events — today, to save money, more and more people are shifting to investing over letting money sit in a savings account, as it’s a better wealth-building strategy. Including this helpful content boosts their E-A-T and can get them a boost in the search engine results pages (SERPs). People who like this article could also be interested in My Canada Payday’s other services, making it a good way for them to increase conversions, as well.
On your website, think about what trends in your industry you could cover in order to show that you’re an expert in your field. Which hot-button issues are people talking about? Is there something happening in the news that is affecting your industry or niche? Think about how you can offer expert advice on these topics and help your audience in the process. Doing so will boost your E-A-T and improve your SEO!
Give all of your website content a byline
Make sure that all of your website articles and blog posts are given a byline. This will show people and search engines that your content is written by an expert.
And make sure that your bylines include more than just a name. Short bios can highlight the different areas of expertise your writers have — this will help to show that your content creators are truly experts on the topics they’re writing about, which can then boost your SEO.
When writing your bios, you need to ensure that they are effective. Bios aren’t just a minimal piece of content — here are a few tips to keep in mind when constructing your author bios. Following them will help you boost your E-A-T.
- Write in the third person
- Include writing credentials and professional expertise
- Customize your writers’ bios for every website they write for
- Include information about where your writers can be found online, like other relevant websites and social media
Let’s take a look at an example of a business that implements this strategy well.
Moz, a digital marketing authority, has a byline strategy that shows off their expertise.
At the bottom of each article, they offer a short author biography. In the image above, you can see that Garrett French, the author of their article on targeted-impact link building, has two decades of experience on the subject matter at hand. By clicking on his name, a website visitor can also see French’s other bylines in addition to his social media accounts.
On your website, be sure to include an author bio at the end of your articles that outlines things like the writer’s qualifications, the topics they typically write about, and where else a reader can find their work. This will show visitors and search engines that your writers know what they’re talking about.
Create clear policies and make them easy to access
Another way that Google judges whether a site is legitimate and worth trusting is by looking for its policies, and whether users can easily access them. This means that you need to ensure that all of your website and business policies are easy to find on your site. Think privacy policies, payment policies, delivery and return policies, and the like.
Make sure that these are easy to find on your website. Consider attaching them to your menu and FAQ pages, for instance, in order to make sure they’re easy to find.
If you have qualifications or awards, shout about them
Do you have any industry-specific awards or qualifications? Don’t be shy — shout about them! By displaying them on your website, they can provide concrete proof that you’re great at what you do, thus boosting your E-A-T.
One good place to show off your awards is on your homepage. Placing them front and center like this will make it very clear to your website visitors right off the bat that you know what you’re doing and boost your E-A-T in the eyes of search engines. Place them on your product or service pages, too, if they’re relevant to a specific product or service that your business offers.
Let’s take a look at a few different websites that have implemented this strategy well to give you some inspiration.
Babcock Injury Lawyers, a trial attorney law firm based out of Louisiana, highlights their awards on their page for Ruston personal injury lawyers.
As you can see in the image above, they highlight their honors from US News’ list of best law firms, the Trial Masters, and more. These accolades show that Babcock is well-respected in their field, thus boosting their E-A-T and SEO.
Be sure that you’re applying for industry awards regularly in order to gain recognition in your field. Once you get nominated or win these awards, share them on your social media posts, on your blog, and on relevant pages of your website. Doing so can show Google that you’re an industry expert, and the search engine will feel more confident about recommending your site.
Purple, an online mattress retailer, showcases their awards right on their homepage. In the image above, you can see that Purple has won an award for #1 in customer satisfaction two years in a row. Think about how important awards are for a retailer whose focus is helping people get better sleep — better sleep is something that people take seriously! By showing off their award, Purple conveys to their website visitors that they have a high-quality business, thus proving their E-A-T. On your homepage, display your industry awards or nominations! If it’s one of the first things a website visitor sees, they’ll be more likely to trust you.
Don’t forget to manage your off-site reputation
Keep in mind that Google will also look at external sources of information in order to determine whether or not they can trust your business. So, you’ll want to put some time and effort into managing your reputation outside of your website.
There are a lot of different ways you can do this. Let’s break down just a few of them.
Guest blogging
Guest blogging is the act of writing an article for a website other than your own. If you or your team write for other websites in your industry, you can attract traffic back to your website and boost your reputation. Additionally, this can give you or your writers more bylines, which we have already established will boost your E-A-T.
Winning industry awards
If your website visitors can see that you’re highly regarded in your industry and winning awards, you’ll show that you’re a trustworthy business worth listening to. Search engines like Google will take note of this, as well! Search around for different industry awards that you can apply for, or reach out to your network to see if they know of anything. Apply for these awards and see if you get nominated — both nominations and awards will help you to boost your E-A-T.
Getting press mentions
Getting mentioned by reputable media outlets is a great way to show you’re an expert source — this will boost your E-A-T and SEO. Reach out to reputable media outlets or industry influencers. They could be willing to write about you, spreading the word that you produce good work. Mention these articles on your website or blog, as well. This will build trust among your followers.
Summary
Showing off your E-A-T is an extremely important part of running a website in 2021. It helps you boost your SEO and ultimately get more sales! In this article, we outlined why it can help your SEO, and provided you with different strategies that you can use in order to boost your E-A-T. We discussed creating quality content, writing guest posts, and more.
You better get to work!