Today, brick-and-mortar stores have transformed into digital shops. The COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 accelerated the shift to online shopping. With such a shift among businesses comes the importance of ranking among Google searches. The more visible one’s business is on a Google search, the more chances it can generate sales. For a brand or business to rank in Google searches, it needs to adopt the Google EAT guidelines.
What is Google EAT?
Google EAT is a search quality guideline published in 2014. EAT stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. It is not an algorithm or a scoring factor on Google ranking. It is, however, an important factor in making a content land on the first page of a Google search result. Google EAT is the number one criteria for YMYL pages. YMYL means “Your Life, Your Money.” For Google, these are searches that affect people’s lives and finances. These are content that impacts a searcher’s decision on health, happiness, livelihood, and safety. Google has thousands of humans that manually review the quality of web pages based on YMYL. These quality analyses help improve Google’s algorithm.
How Does Google EAT Work?
Google search is a big piece of software that takes the words users type on Google to look for information on the world wide web. To determine the legitimacy and ranking power of a site, Google search measures the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of its online content.
- Expertise focuses on competency and in-depth knowledge of the content. When people search on Google, they either look for an answer to a question or a solution to their problem. So, content or website should address these queries by providing more accurate and useful information on target keywords. The data should be based on one experience and knowledge. Be like a doctor prescribing the right cure or medication for a patient’s sickness.
- Authoritativeness has to do with the content or website’s credentials. Such ranking comes from external signals like quality links from relevant forums, social channels, and websites. Referencing your content from leaders or experts of a certain field or topic can mean providing information that has authority and credibility.
- Trustworthiness focuses on the reliability and transparency of content. To rank well, content should earn the trust of Google and its users. To do so, content must be updated, relevant, and truthful. The website should not contain broken links, coding errors, incorrect information, or poor grammar. Make the website safe and secure website. An SSL certification puts a searcher’s mind at ease.
Google Eat is a continuous process. It means building the strongest content possible across the pages of a website. It doesn’t stop with mere linking to reputable websites and using target keywords. It means continuously educating the audience in making their lives as easy and meaningful as possible.
How to Use Google EAT to Increase Online Revenue
By following Google EAT guidelines, content or website has a higher chance of ranking in Google’s search results. Here are the most basic highlights of such guidelines:
Expertise
- The content must be free from factual errors. Most business websites contain different types of content. These include about pages, academic writings, advertising copies, emails, homepages, marketing copies, etc. It is important to proofread everything before publishing. A fine piece of content must be free from grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. The word choice should match the theme of a site. Factual errors on a piece of content can be a reflection of poor expertise and knowledge. Factual errors don’t only cover a piece of content. They also include broken links and slow-loading pages that affect the users’ experience. A digital marketing agency Hong Kong improves a business website earnings by fixing technical errors and improving the content of its website.
- The content must be original and relevant. An original and relevant content delights, engages, and supports the target audience. It is best to create unique content answering the audience’s queries. These should contain complete information for the audience not to seek information elsewhere. Today, video marketing Hong Kong is now one of the most important strategies to rank in Google. Video content delights and engages the audience with media-rich information. They get 80% more conversions than images and text. Try using Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn Stories, or Twitter Fleets to share a brand’s message, and add product tags to support the audience with a better buying experience.
- The content must be written by someone who knows or researches the topic well. Expertise is gained through formal and informal education. Formal expertise means gaining knowledge through certifications, training, or years of studies. While informal expertise can be obtained through hands-on experience. The easiest way to create an expert’s content is to have an industry leader, influencer, or subject matter expert write the content. While a challenging option is to write about topics where you excel. To build an expert’s reputation, you must do research and relay information objectively on your content. After providing expert tips, it will now be easy o pitch how a product or service can solve the needs of the consumers.
Authoritativeness
- The content must still give substantial information even if pulled from other sources. Backlinking is an important process in gaining authority from Google. Backlinks are links that connect one website to another. The most common way to have backlinks is to use them as a reference for content. Yet, it doesn’t mean purely copy-pasting what is written. The key is to digest the information on a site and write it in simpler statements that can be understood by the target audience. Another
- The content should be optimized for mobile devices. Around 60% of people search for information using mobile devices. This makes it important to produce mobile-friendly content or content that readers can digest on the go. Short titles containing 5 words have higher click-through rates on mobile. Chunk your content into smaller sections by using bullets, images, lists, short paragraphs, subheads, or white spaces. Stick to simple layouts to stand out on small screens.
Trustworthiness
- The content should be well-presented and well-organized. A well-presented and well-organized content makes it easier for readers to absorb information. They are more likely to continue reading the content if they find the information relevant. It is best to narrate a story in chronological order. To avoid confusion among readers, start by explaining simple ideas before going onto the complex ones. Or the problem should come first before giving a solution. The end result of trustworthy content is sales conversion. As Andrew Davis quoted: “Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.”
- The content should provide more substantial value than the other search results. A trustworthy content uses data, facts, and statistics to support the veracity of information it presents. To rank in Google search results, content must stay ahead by providing the latest information and trends. A key to adding a substantial value in content is listing accurate contact information about the brand, marketing speaker Hong Kong, website, or writer. It is the biggest proof of existence that can build the reader’s trust. By providing contact details, Google knows that the site can give comfort to customers to easily get support in their buying experience.