EAT stands for “Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness” presented in Google’s “Search Quality Evaluation Guidelines”.
Although it is often mentioned in recent SEO talks, there are some places where it is difficult to work on as a concrete measure.
After knowing the way of thinking about EAT, I will introduce an example of concrete measures.
EAT 3 indicators
EAT is one of the indicators that is expected to be used to provide users with satisfactory search results.
The important thing is the content of “whether it matches the searched keyword”, so think of it as an auxiliary index to get more accurate and reliable information in the search results.
What is Expertise?
It refers to whether the site or content has knowledge, experience, or skills that are familiar with the topic or industry. If you are a doctor, you have expertise in illness, and if you are a salesperson, you have expertise in products.
What is Authoritativeness?
It refers to how well a site or content is recognized in the topic or industry. Some of them are well-known awards in the industry, some are recognized by prominent people, and so on.
What is Trustworthiness?
It refers to whether the site or content is credible. If it has a good reputation with many people, it can be considered reliable.
Guessing algorithm
As a premise, EAT is a concept within the search quality evaluation guideline, and there is no algorithm that creates an index for EAT itself. (Commented by Google Gary Illyes at “Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2019”)
However, as a result of many algorithms, there is a possibility that EAT will be important search results (search results that rank high-credit sites). I have.
Relationship between YMYL and EAT
The YMYL area tends to give search results that place particular importance on EAT.
Since the YMYL area is a genre that can affect a person’s life, it has been adjusted to display more reliable information in search results.
Can EAT be a countermeasure?
As mentioned above, there is no individual score for EAT, so it is not something like “this way you can take measures”.
However, it would be easier to think of countermeasures if you consider the index such as “Do you trust the user when you visit your site for the first time?” Let me give you some examples.
* This is just an example of a method that “improves the credibility of users”. Please note that countermeasures are not absolutely effective.
1) Provide good service
The first major premise is to provide good service. It is of utmost importance to have good service and satisfy users. Unlike a decade ago, it’s very difficult to get a good rating from search results alone without providing good service.
2) Get a good reputation
Get good service and get a good reputation. It is necessary to take measures such as actively asking users to evaluate and review the service. One thing to keep in mind is that cheating like Yarase to “get a good reputation” will greatly damage your reputation when the fraud is discovered. Even in large companies, there are many cases in which Yarase and Stema are discovered and burned, and their reputation is lost. Let’s face the user seriously and gain a reputation.
3) Clarify the information and purpose of the site
Surprisingly, what is not done on many sites is the description of site information and the purpose of the site. I came to the site for the first time by describing in detail “what is the purpose of this site”, “what kind of company (person) is operating it”, “what kind of operation method is being operated”, etc. It is possible to ask the user to judge whether or not they can be trusted. It’s easy to compose site information when you think about how to show users that “we operate the site like this and can be trusted”.
4) Clarify the origin of information such as author information
It is also important to clearly indicate the origin of the article or the content you are providing. For example, it’s easy to imagine that an article with proper author information is more trusted than an anonymous article that you don’t know who wrote it. It is also important that the author is a credible person. You can trust an article written by a well-known person in the industry rather than an article written by a person with a name you don’t know at all. In addition, a link from the author’s site will undoubtedly tell a third party that it was “written by that person” (not just the name).
EAT is not something that should be done specifically, and it is difficult to measure the effect. However, the basis of the idea is ” how to get the user to trust “, so let’s think about how to get the user to trust and start from what you can do little by little.
