Google E-E-A-T Strategies for Small Business Expansion

Did you know that 9 out of 10 business owners aren’t E-E-A-Ting? Yes, you heard that right—they aren’t optimizing their sites for Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines. After selling my SEO agency, I want to clarify why this is important.

So, why should you care? Simply put, E-E-A-T equals higher rankings, more leads, and more money. I’m excited to show you how to E-E-A-T!

The concept of E-E-A-T was introduced in Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines in 2014. These guidelines help a group of people known as “Quality Raters” evaluate the quality of Google’s search results. They also guide Google’s algorithm in figuring out what good and relevant content is.

E-E-A-T stands for Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. If your website lacks these qualities, it’s less likely to rank high in Google search results. And we all know that better rankings mean more money.

Focusing on E-E-A-T helps you establish yourself and your brand as a leader in your field. It’s a win-win situation. I like to think about E-E-A-T starting with Trustworthiness, which you achieve through showing Expertise, Experience, and Authoritativeness. You can make some simple changes on your site today that will have a lasting impact. Just follow an E-E-A-T checklist.

Google is moving towards ranking content created by real experts. Would you rather read a football article by John Elway or someone unknown? This shows why it’s important to establish your expertise in your niche. The more content you produce about your niche, the more you build topical relevance and authority.

Experience, in Google’s terms, means having direct, hands-on involvement with the topic. This gives you an edge over AI-driven content, which can’t show real experience. You can demonstrate your experience through writing or video content. For example, you can shoot a video and then turn it into an article summary.

Looking at top-ranking websites, you’ll notice they all have great content, clear author expertise, and backlinks. So, what are backlinks? They are links from one website to another and are seen as endorsements by Google, helping to boost your rank. One effective way to get backlinks is through guest blogging.

If you want to learn more about link building, there are thousands of articles available with a quick Google search. I’ll also be dedicating a future post to this topic, so stay tuned.

In summary, Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines help you create high-quality content that resonates with your audience. If you consistently create great content, Google will reward you with more leads. That’s all for now!