The rise and usage of AI in today’s search landscape makes Google E-E-A-T more important than ever. Establishing your brand as an authoritative source within your industry is key to building trust with search engines and potential customers. In this article, we have answered the following questions about creating content with authoritativeness in mind:
1. What is E-E-A-T?
E-E-A-T is Google’s framework for ranking website content.
2. How does E-E-A-T impact content?
It’s one of the most important factors in how Google understands your site’s content, determines its value, and decides where to place it in search results.
3. Does E-E-A-T help with ranking in AI overviews?
Factors for being included in the AI section of results is heavily dependent on showing that your site is a source of thoughtful, helpful, and trustworthy information.
Content has reigned as king for a long time. It’s the cornerstone of high-performing sites ranking well in search engine result pages. E-E-A-T is Google’s framework for ranking website content. It’s one of the most important factors in how Google understands your site’s content, determines its value, and decides where to place it in search results. Every aspect of website optimization begins and ends with the quality of content you produce. This is what makes Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (or EEAT) crucial. Creating resources following this train of thought is effective for tech and B2B companies in particular, due to longer sales cycles and lead nurturing. Each part of the acronym represents a set of guiding principles to follow when writing copy for landing pages, blog posts, whitepapers, and other helpful content pieces (even emails):
Experience Google wants to see your industry knowledge and first-hand experience at the forefront. Show that you are a subject matter expert (SME) by including personal industry experiences or author biographies that reference your experience.
Expertise To show Google your subject matter expertise, you need to deeply explore ideas and concepts within your writing. Aim to produce detailed, long-form content. Additionally, citing official sources for any facts included is extremely important.
Authoritativeness Take your current site status into consideration. Is it known as a reliable source of information? Do you have a go-to blog that consistently provides valuable insights and updates? Google wants to see that others rely on you for knowledge. Collaborate with other industry experts for guest blogging opportunities and mentions to build up your site’s authority.
Trustworthiness Linking to valuable sources is key to building trust. Google emphasizes providing factual, up-to-date information. Make sure you do not reference or link to sites that promote unproven solutions.
As AI becomes more prevalent in how users search for and evaluate information, meeting the standards of the E-E-A-T framework has become crucial. This is because it serves as a general way to view your website's content value, in accordance with Google's ever-changing algorithm. The popularity and usage of AI is a significant part of that evolving landscape. Ranking for AI overviews has become paramount. Factors for being included in the AI section of results is heavily dependent on showing that your site is a source of thoughtful, helpful, and trustworthy information. Therefore creating solution-focused blog posts, product pages, service pages, and other resource pages is key to being considered.
Focus on Updating Older Content Pieces Content can become outdated quickly depending on your industry. For example, if you are a tech company, the emergence of new ideas or solutions may affect the accuracy of past articles on your site. This presents an opportunity to re-evaluate past articles to make sure they adhere to the E-E-A-T score, while including updated information. This is particularly helpful to ensure that you don’t lose any valuable backlinks to the content piece, due to the information being outdated.
Create new Content that Follows the Framework Any new resources that you produce need to be evaluated to ensure compliance with the E-E-A-T framework. Keep the key components in mind:
As the search world continues to evolve, providing value through content will continue to reign supreme. It’s important to stay on top of learning the best ways to optimize past and new content pieces, to ensure your site keeps up with the competitive digital landscape. AI makes brands rethink how to create user-focused content with E-E-A-T in mind. Site resources featured in AI overviews enhance brand recognition, value, and overall engagement. Ultimately, this drives brand recall, which impacts lead generation. The more potential customers recall your site as a trustworthy go-to source, the more likely they are to engage with your brand and eventually convert. It typically takes several actions before a conversion is completed, so the more quality content you produce, the better. Consistency and E-E-A-T go hand-in-hand to create content that ranks in AI overviews.
We’re here to help guide you through the process of creating high-performing content. Check out our last blog on how AI impacts SEO, or get in touch with us to learn more about content optimization.