If you want to rank, then you might as well get used to the fact that Google’s guidelines are specific, and they want them followed. But how do you make sure you’re doing what you’re supposed to? You will virtually have to E-A-T your way to success. In life that might seem like an improbable task, but in Google’s universe, it is what gets the job done. Expertise, authority, and trustworthiness is what will win the day.
1. Expertise – Google likes expertise that reveals itself on a high level. Expertise comes in all type of forms and shapes. You can have a great deal of knowledge on hunting, sports, boating, mathematics, developing software, raising children etc. The list is endless.
2. Authority – This is another element that site owners cannot fake. Becoming an authority is about finding a niche, in your field, that is neither broad nor narrow. Too narrow and you don’t have enough topics to write about. Define your niche too broad and it may be impossible to express your main topic. Many authorities have found their niche by experimenting with user personas.
3. Trustworthiness – Can people trust the information that your sites provide? This is especially critical if the information pertains to something financial or medical. This would apply to any e-commerce website as well. Your brand’s reputation, website testimonials, experience, notable awards, security, and social media footprint are several elements to consider.
How Search Engines Evaluate Expertise
Several ways that search engines evaluate expertise include reading level, content relevance, ad density, page speed, and through language analysis factors. Keyword stuffing and vanilla content is also a critical component of evaluating expertise. Keyword stuffing is so passé, it’s almost not worth mentioning, but it still happens. Vanilla content is that which fails to stand out from content on other pages.
How Search Engines Evaluate Authority
Google takes into consideration both page and domain authority. Page authority only measures the strength of an individual page; domain authority measure the strength of an entire array of subdomains.
Google evaluates website authority by the quality and number of a page’s backlinks, quality and uniqueness of content, length of content, page optimization, loading speed, overall improvements for HTML, proof of a social media footprint, on page SEO, traffic and bounce rate (as well as other factors that they don’t mention).
How Search Engines Evaluate Trust Worthiness
Search algorithms must first consider content, then analyze it and other features on a page to determine how relevant a topic is to a page. The algorithm then adds the page to its index. Today’s algorithms are sophisticated in being able to analyze the language of a page, its structure, and how completely the page addresses a particular topic. Inbound links and PageRank, created by Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are still two of the most important signals used to assess search. Search engines still regard links as scholarly papers.
Google’s algorithm, as significant piece of it, bases its oversight on the concept of PageRank. (Note: we’re talking here about the PageRank algorithm, the recent update of which rattled some folks in the SEO sector who thought it was dead). The system evaluates which pages are the most important through the amount of links a page receives. PageRank works on the assumption that a page that has high value links pointing to it will benefit from those links. Pages receive rank based on the number and quality of links pointing to them.
One of the best ways to make sure your site measures up to Google guidelines is to work with experts on the inside or outside of your company who know the ropes and who live, eat, and breathe SEO. Meeting Google’s guidelines will be a continual job. Your mission is put the things in place that will constantly make it a better place for the world to navigate your website.