EAT SEO: How to EAT Your Way to SEO Success

We’re talking about EAT SEO (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) and How to EAT Your Way to SEO Success, with Leann Chan, SEO Specialist.

View the slides:

 

EAT SEO: How to EAT Your Way to SEO Success

First, let’s learn a little about Leann:

• I’ve been in SEO for over 5 years.
• My academic background was in Accounting and Business Information Systems.
• When I’m not helping businesses with their organic potential, I’m usually researching my next destination and where to find the best plant-based eats.

 

Why EAT?

Google search quality raters use it

“Google contracts with over 10,000 search quality raters worldwide to evaluate its search results. Raters are given actual searches to conduct, drawn from real searches that happen on Google. They then rate the quality of pages that appear in the top results.”

Source: Search Engine Land

• Google employs humans to assess the quality of the search results.
• Quality raters use this set of guidelines to help them review whether a site meets the needs of those who perform searches.
• The guideline is 167 pages long and includes detailed directions on popups, content creator expertise and buckets EAT within “Page Quality”.

Why is having expertise, authority, and trust so significant? After all, they don’t determine a page’s rankings.

 

It puts you above your competition

• Helps define the value of your website.
• Determines the quality of your brand.
• Helps users know why they should choose you over your competition.

If another domain provides a better customer experience than yours, Google will promote them instead, resulting in lost rankings, traffic and revenue.

• Quality raters keep EAT in mind to judge how well a site or page provides what users need.
• They also look at the overall user experience and whether the content meets their standards.
• Consider EAT as the reason why users should choose your site over your competition.
• Ultimately, EAT could still have a direct impact on how well Google receives, and ultimately ranks your website.

Accountant example – If your accountant lacks expertise, authority and trust, you’re likely to look around for an alternative.

Google users are the same as are all consumers. When users find a domain or page that lacks expertise, authority and trust, they’ll look for an alternative.

Google is training the algorithm to look at these measurements and using them as signals to determine whether they should trust a domain or web page to satisfy their user’s needs.

Put simply, if Google finds another domain or page provides a better customer experience than your own, Google will promote them instead. 

This means lost revenue.

 

Your Money Your Life (YMYL)

YMYL pages are those that have topics on medical advice, legal advice, financial advice.

• Anything that can affect someone’s happiness, health, and wealth.
• High-ranking YMYL websites will show high EAT signals.
• The safer a user feels browsing your content, the more likely it satisfies their needs.

Google has since expanded the list of affected industries to include eCommerce sites.

• Historically, certain industries are expected to deliver a higher level of content and user experience.
• Google uses the Your Money Your Life (YMYL) acronym to categorise these industries and their related search terms.
• These pages typically show a high level of EAT.
• Sites that are genuinely offering helpful advice or a solution to a problem will always meet these needs more readily than sites trying to game Google.

Examples:

• A business that requests credit card info
• A publisher of financial product reviews
• A personal trainer offering fitness advice
• An organisation offering legal advice and services
• A medical health tool that matches symptoms with an illness

 

What is EAT?

Lettuce start with the definition of EAT

Expertise

“Expert skill or knowledge in a particular field.” – Oxford English Dictionary

• Deeper knowledge about the product or service you provide is expected
• Consumers will also compare your expertise with your competition
• The level of insight you have on any subject can help you stand out

Websites are scrutinised in the same way by Google.

Authoritativeness

“Able to be trusted as being accurate or true; reliable.” – Oxford English Dictionary

• Expertise is to knowledge or skill level as;
• Authority is to how well you stand apart from the competition
• Searchers look for an authority to give them answers they can trust

Google also looks for authority signals and authoritative content.

Trustworthiness

“The ability to be relied on as honest or truthful.” – Oxford English Dictionary

• Defined by the credibility of your brand and its web content
• Producing content is one thing, being TrustED is another
• If it sounds too good to be true, humans will automatically lose trust

If you fail to establish trust, or if you lose one’s trust, it’s hard to re-establish it.

 

EAT SEO: 5 Ways to EAT Your Way to the Top

Add author names & bios in editorial content

• Include your name, credentials and short bio 
• Link to relevant pieces of work where appropriate
• Establish authority as a subject matter expert

Manage your online reputation

• Optimise your social media profiles
• Engage with relevant influencers & audience
• Address public complaints in a timely fashion

Invest in website security

• Invest in an SSL certificate
• Display verifications proudly

Show you’re human

• Implement live chat
• Display contact details clearly
• Avoid stock images where possible

Write like an expert

• Match content to user intent
• Main content to be “front and centre”
• Supplementary content is targeted and relevant

 

An EAT Success Story

1. October 2018 – High-value keywords hit by October core algorithm update, long-tail grew but money keywords dropped drastically (below top 20)
2. January 2019 – EAT Strategy proposed – Phase 1 focus on Trust
   • About us area updated to include credentials and experience
   • Improved authorship
   • Boosted PR activity
   • Awards
   • Clearer contact information
3. March 2019 – Recovered lost rankings
4. April 2019 – Phase 2 of EAT strategy being implemented – focussing on expertise and authority
   • Adding expert call outs
   • Targeted content improvements
   • Authorship on money-making key category pages (not just articles)
   • Authors writing on other websites to build expertise
5. June 2019 – Core Algorithm Update
   • Massive increase in money terms
   • Position zero results
   • Outranking competitors

 

You Are What You EAT

Google’s Search Quality Raters use EAT signals to assess how much value your website provides to human users. These are taken from a set of guidelines which helps determine your brand or website’s Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.

Historically, these guidelines were only important for Your Money Your Life websites but this has since been expanded to include e-Commerce websites.

tl;dr

Show off your knowledge and experience. Tell users who’s BOSS by flaunting your credentials, your popularity and creating high-quality content.