- Website Ownership
- Overall Quality Rating
- Website Type
- Main Content Quality
- Reputation of Content Creators
- The Basic Principles of E-E-A-T
- Experience or Expertise
- Harmful Content
- Misleading Information
- No E-E-A-T
- List of Changes
- Improving E-E-A-T
- Conclusion
Google has revised its standards for search quality. The E-A-T concept for YMYL websites has a new letter E (Experience) as of the most recent version. The new recipe is E-E-A-T. It is an acronym for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. A greater emphasis on the content creator’s experience will be part of the new idea. Credibility is the idea’s fundamental tenet.
Website Ownership
The definition of a website owner has been added by Google. The definition in the previous version was “person, corporation, business, and foundation,” but in the new version, “organization” and “public institution” have taken the place of “foundation.” Additionally, a table identifying who wrote the page’s primary material has been included on the page. You can use this table to distinguish between website owners and content creators.
Overall Quality Rating
The rating of the page’s quality has changed. The newly announced updated QRG rating offers a three-step evaluation of page quality: 1) real intent; 2) potential harm; and 3) alignment of the page’s content with the YMYL theme.
Website Type
Sites’ requirements for page quality may vary. A new definition of a website has been developed, encompassing business or amateur websites, with transactions or without them. It is also considered how advertisements affect user experience. Keep in mind that the page’s quality is not impacted just by the presence or absence of advertisements. The page’s credibility is evaluated. Certain pages necessitate a great degree of trust.
Main Content Quality
The characteristics of page content evaluation have undergone changes. The emphasis in the new version is on the use of novel concepts and creative content. The amount of work required to produce high-quality content is defined by Google. The work may be direct (such as translating a poem) or geared toward making a page more useful. Automatically creating pages without supervision or manual curation is not considered an effort.
Reputation of Content Creators
Google has outlined guidelines for assessing the credibility of writers and content creators. According to the guidelines, biographical articles and internet debates about authors can be a useful source of reputational data. Reputation is enhanced by the availability of credentials, co-authorship, and citations. Reputation data can be obtained from influencers, professionals that create content, and even non-professionals.
The Basic Principles of E-E-A-T
The concept of experience (E) was introduced by Google, and the foundational value of trustworthiness has been emphasized. The idea of experience describes the content creator’s life experiences. An author’s level of understanding of a certain subject is referred to as expertise. The overall reputation of a website or content creator is referred to as authoritativeness. Trustworthiness determines the truthfulness and value of the information on the site. Depending on its nature, trustworthiness varies in degree.
To assess trustworthiness the following parameters are used:
- “About the page” information;
- third-party reviews/links;
- Actual data on the page.
Experience or Expertise
A new table has been introduced to distinguish experience from expertise. This table can be used to determine whether topics call for practical knowledge or firsthand experience (e.g. health conditions). Let’s consider the subject of completing tax forms. Experience includes a humorous tax-related video. Instructions on how to fill out tax forms are part of expertise.
Harmful Content
The new amendment introduced examples of harmful content. The following types of content are deemed harmful: incitement to violence, death threats, disclosure of private information, glorification of cruelty, etc. Non-harmful content includes stories about violence, violent movies, and educational content on violence.
Misleading Information
Instances of false information are given. This includes:
- willfully misleading information (lie about leader’s demise);
- harmful claims defying consensus among experts (lemons heal cancer);
- harmful theories (world leaders are reptiloids).
No E-E-A-T
Examples have been provided of not having appropriate E-E-A-T for the topic or purpose of the page. As an illustration, the content writer lacks knowledge regarding restaurant reviews, culinary authority, and shopping website credibility due to a lack of customer service information.
List of Changes
The rules have been modified in the ways listed below:
- Updated “Quality of Main Content” criteria for evaluating pages.
- Clarified “Reputation of Sites and Content Creators” criteria for assessing site ownership.
- Included instructions and explanations about forums, FAQs, etc.
Improving E-E-A-T
You should abide by the following recommendations to improve the E-E-A-T metrics:
- Brand analysis. It is important to look at the website’s homepage. The company’s essential beliefs, significant accomplishments, and professional accreditation are examined. Negative comments can damage brand reputation, thus the company’s reputation on social media is also examined.
- Content analysis. Website’s material should be evaluated for relevancy. It should be deleted if the information is unrelated. It is advised that content be updated and thoroughly researched.
- Content organization. Content structure needs to be developed. It is important to evaluate the website’s links to pages and the quality of the material on both. The material must adhere exactly to the needs of the audience.
- Promotion of off-site content. Customers might be asked to give reviews of your business’s goods or services, and you can link those reviews to your Google My Business profile. You can post reviews on your Facebook page. Feedback contributes to the reputation of the brand.
- Mobile device compatibility. Enables simple mobile device access to the website. Your website will rank higher in search results if it works well on mobile devices.
Conclusion
There are 176 pages in the revised Search Quality Assessment Guidelines. The search engine ranking of a website is influenced by the E-E-A-T algorithm. Unreliable pages have low ranking. The expertise, authoritativeness, and usefulness of articles need improvement. Additionally, the site’s structure has to be strengthened, and technological problems need to be fixed.
