E-A-T: The ultimate strategy to writing the best content for Google

Search Engine Optimization has become a core of online marketing and brand promotions. Being able to create branded content that sufficiently answers user queries on Google accurately enough is essential to attracting organic traffic to your own brand or website. And with most industries, ranging from online shopping to affiliate marketing, SEO is the secret behind the success of some brands over others. 

But as many marketers might tell you, SEO is not exactly a science - there isn’t any one formula that helps your content rank better than competitors, and with Google releasing frequent updates to better its algorithm, the definition of good content might keep changing. 

However, there is one concept that has been discussed by SEO specialists plenty of times. And that’s E-A-T. Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, are supposedly the principles that allow SEO specialists to create content that will be consistently rewarded by Google and its ranking algorithm. But that doesn’t mean that E-A-T is an actual ranking factor.

It simply means that websites and blogs that keep these three principles in mind when writing their own content may end up creating higher quality content, which then has a better probability of ranking higher than others. 

What exactly is E-A-T?

Here’s a run down of the E-A-T principle that content creators on Google must keep in mind when writing content for the SERP:

* Expertise - How knowledgeable is the content writer or owner about this niche of content?


* Authoritativeness - How much authority does the author or the website have about this niche of content published?


* Trustworthiness - Can the content written by the author or website be trusted?


While E-A-T might not be a single ranking factor, there is evidence to suggest that there are other numerous ranking factors that together judge the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of a website and its content. E-A-T seems to play a pivotal role in determining the overall quality of a website or a page.

Is E-A-T more important for YMYL websites?

There is a certain group of websites called the YMYL or “Your Money or Your Life” websites. These websites generally deal with content that either affects the long-term health or wealth of the users, which means that these websites are under even more scrutiny from Google. Some of the examples of these YMYL websites are news websites, legal advisory websites, finance-related sites, or websites with medical advice. Further, affiliate marketing sites that compare and review several products, especially products that involve regular use of money, such as insurance policy guides or comparison guides of betting sites and apps, also come under the purview of YMYL sites.

Since the stakes are higher with such websites, its content needs the principles of E-A-T more than ever. If users are to trust in the knowledge of these websites and use that knowledge to make decisions that affect their health of finances, Google pays even more attention to the trustworthiness of the websites. 

How can you improve the E-A-T of your website?

There is no one answer on how to improve the overall E-A-T of your content. However, SEO specialists have come up with a few probable strategies to achieve a high E-A-T for your content. One of these is the reputation of the author. If the author of the website has a reputation of being an expert in a particular field, that content is also regarded as reliable and trustworthy. 

Another way of increasing the expertise of your content is to write longer articles or pages. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Google rewards longer articles more often than shorter answers. That’s because if one article writes 3000 words worth of relevant information about a particular topic, that website is exhibiting its expertise in the field. However, content creators must be careful to stick to relevant main content and not write fluff content to increase the word limit of their articles.