What is Google EAT?

Unless you've just started with keyword optimization, you've probably heard of Google EAT. Slowly but surely this has become an important part of SEO. EAT stands for Expertise, Authorativeness (authority) and Trustworthiness (reliability). These terms are listed in the Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. Quite a mouthful, but it basically means that Google has created a guide for their staff with points to pay attention to when reviewing a website.

The guidelines indicate that Google considers these points to be important, among others:

• The purpose of the website
• EAT
• Quality of content and quantity.
• Information about the website or content creator.
• The reputation of the website.

Expertise

Are you qualified to write about certain pieces? Perhaps a difficult question, because when can you call yourself an expert? Google has also thought about this and it is not that you necessarily have to have taken a course to call yourself an expert.

The important points are as follows. Firstly, the content you write must match the search intent. In principle, this means that if we write a blog like this one about Google EAT, we will also talk about those points instead of, for example, what is ordered most for lunch at Google headquarters.

Another important point is that you have published several posts on the relevant topic. This is how you show Google that you are an expert. But why is writing content so important? In addition to building brand awareness, you show Google that your website is active, this is important for the rating of your website.

Authority

The authority of a website is determined in one way and that is the quality of the website's link profile. If you publish a lot of content, you will automatically get backlinks, but if you don't have the time and knowledge for that, there is always another way to build authority. You can do this by continuing link building.

This is not about the quantity of links, but rather about the quality of the links. So before you start, think about what you want to achieve from your website and what you are willing to do to achieve it.

Reliability

A simple way to check the reliability of a website is to see if they have an SSL certificate. You have probably already received the message that a website you want to visit is not private. You can see this by the lock in front of the URL in the search bar of your browser.

Other important points include an about-us page and contact details. This part also influences authority because the more websites are seen as reliable, the more important links from those sites become and help build a good link profile.

Is EAT considered a ranking factor?

Well this is actually a little bit tricky. Google EAT has no direct influence on your rankings. However, elements to determine the EAT are factors that influence the rankings.

EAT cannot actually be measured with a tool, but what we do know is that it is important because otherwise it would not be in their manual 137 times.

Anyway, it turns out that EAT is important for your SEO strategy, but how do you apply this and how do you increase your own EAT? Well you can read that in our next blog, so keep an eye on the website!