What is EAT?

EAT applies to the quality of websites. EAT stands for Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness.

What is EAT?

EAT is an abbreviation of Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness, or knowledge, autonomy and reliability. Google uses quality guidelines to determine which search results rank higher than other results. It is important that web pages are reliable. But how is it tested whether a page is reliable? Google does this on the basis of three factors: Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness.

• Expertise: focuses mainly on the content;
• Authority: looks at the reputation of the website or person;
• Reliability: among other things looking at the factual correctness of information, contact options and references from external parties.

Because Google uses EAT to determine the quality of web pages, there is more focus on ‘better’ and ‘relevant’. This means that many SEO techniques do not have much more to offer. What matters now is the quality of the content. This also makes it more important to conduct keyword research in advance. Based on the relevant keywords, you then write the content that is better and relevant, in order to increase the quality.

EAT and YMYL websites

YMYL stands for Your Money of Your Life. According to Google, YMYL websites are websites that can mainly influence the health, finances or safety of visitors. For such websites, Google believes it is even more important that they meet the EAT criteria.

In May there was an important update, the Core update. The algorithm that evaluates the content in general has been changed here. The algorithm always focuses on the content, making it even more important to ensure the best possible content.

EAT tips

Do you want to ensure that your website ranks higher in Google? Then we have a number of tips regarding the three factors.

Expertise

• Keep your target audience in mind when creating the content. Make sure you know who your target audience is. Also try to avoid technical terms as much as possible or to explain them first.
• Always credit the author of the content so Google knows who wrote the content.
• Make sure you know what keywords people are searching for. For example, you can do this by simply asking around you what words they use when they are looking for what you offer.

Authority

• To get right back on the keywords, make sure you write content about the keywords.
• Your content must contain informative, reliable content.
• Make sure you write content for Google’s users, not for Google itself.

Reliability

• Ensure a secure website. Think of an SSL Certification.
• Make the website personal by adding an ‘about us’ page with photos.
• Try to be as transparent as possible to create trust.