Enhancing Small Business Credibility with Google’s E-E-A-T Principles

Did you know that 9 out of 10 business owners aren’t E-E-A-Ting? Yes, you heard that right. They’re not optimizing their websites according to Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines!

After selling my SEO agency, I’m here to make things clear. So, why does it matter? Simply put: E-E-A-T = Higher Rankings = More Leads = More $$$.

The concept of E-E-A-T was first introduced in Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines in 2014. These guidelines help Quality Raters assess the quality of search results, and they also inform Google’s algorithm about what constitutes high-quality, relevant content.

E-E-A-T stands for:

– Expertise
– Experience
– Authoritativeness
– Trustworthiness

As a business owner, it’s crucial to understand E-E-A-T. If your website lacks these qualities, it’s less likely to rank high on Google. And we all know that good rankings equal more money. Prioritizing E-E-A-T also establishes you and your brand as leaders in your industry.

I prefer to start with Trustworthiness when thinking about E-E-A-T. The best way to build Trustworthiness with Google is by showing Expertise, Experience, and Authoritativeness. You can make several easy improvements on your site today that will have a lasting impact. Here’s a comprehensive E-E-A-T checklist you can follow.

I believe Google is shifting towards ranking people, not just content. They want to rank material written by experts. For example, would you prefer an article about football by John Elway or someone less experienced?

You don’t need to be Bill Gates to get your content to rank. Here’s how to do it: start by writing extensively about topics in your niche. The more content you create, the more you build topical relevance and authority, which equals expertise.

Google values content created by people with direct, practical experience in the subject. This is your chance to stand out from AI-generated content, which can’t showcase real experience. One effective strategy is to create video content and then summarize it in an article.

When examining top-ranking websites, you’ll notice they all follow certain patterns, including strong backlinks. Backlinks, or inbound links, are links from one website to another and are seen by Google as votes of confidence. The more relevant backlinks you have, the better your content will rank.

Guest blogging is a tried-and-true method of link building. For more information, a quick Google search will yield thousands of articles on the topic. I’ll also dedicate a future piece to link building, so stay tuned!

In summary, Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines help you create quality content that resonates with your audience. Consistently producing such content will be rewarded by Google with more leads. That’s all for now!