Maximizing E-E-A-T Strategies for Small Businesses

Did you know that 9 out of 10 business owners aren’t optimizing their sites according to Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines?

After selling my SEO agency, I’m here to set the record straight. Why does it matter? Simply put: E-E-A-T = Higher Rankings = More Leads = More Money. Let’s dive into how to make your site E-E-A-T-friendly!

So, what is E-E-A-T? It stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google introduced this concept in its Quality Rater Guidelines back in 2014. These guidelines help a group of individuals, known as “Quality Raters,” assess the quality of Google’s search results. This information also feeds into Google’s algorithm, helping it recognize quality and relevant content.

Understanding E-E-A-T is essential for any business owner. If your website doesn’t meet these criteria, it’s less likely to rank high on Google, and we all know higher rankings mean more money. Plus, focusing on E-E-A-T can position you as a leader in your industry.

To establish Trustworthiness with Google, start by demonstrating your Expertise, Experience, and Authoritativeness. You can improve your site today with some simple fixes. Here’s my full E-E-A-T checklist to get you started.

Google seems to be moving towards ranking people, not just content. They want to rank content written by experts. Think about it—would you rather read an article about football by John Elway or by someone who knows nothing about the sport?

You don’t have to be Bill Gates to get your content to rank; you just need to follow these steps. Write extensively about topics in your niche. The more content you produce, the more you establish topical relevance and authority, which equates to expertise. Google values direct, practical involvement with the topic, which AI-driven content can’t provide.

When creating content, consider ways to showcase your experience. For instance, you could shoot a video and then summarize it into an article.

Top-ranking websites often have a combination of great content, user engagement, and backlinks. Backlinks are links from one site to another and act like endorsements from other websites. The more backlinks you have from reputable sites, the higher your content will rank.

One proven strategy for building backlinks is guest blogging. If you want to learn more about this and other link-building techniques, there are plenty of articles you can find through a quick Google search. I’ll also cover link building in a future post, so stay tuned!

In closing, Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines guide you in creating high-quality content that resonates with your audience. Consistently producing great content will result in more leads from Google. That’s all for now—let’s go crush it!