SEO: what is Experience, Authority and Trustworthiness (EAT) for and what is it for?

If you follow the latest SEO trends regularly, you may have noticed the acronym EAT. Google first introduced the concept in 2015, but despite initial interest, it faded amid other popular topics.

While these guidelines were designed for your team of human reviewers to judge the quality in search results, they also provided very comprehensive information on how content quality is measured.

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What is EAT in SEO

In SEO EAT means Experience , Authority and Trustworthiness.

After this, many sites in the YMYL sector fell in the SERP rankings, and since then, there has been more awareness about the factors that encompass the term EAT, due to its great importance to rank in Google.

Sites Margin

The EAT criteria are much more important for YMYL (Your Money Your Life) sites. These types of pages are the ones that can influence the welfare, health, financial stability or safety of users.

The main objective is to offer relevant and quality results to people looking for information on the Internet. In this digital age, the lives of Internet users are greatly affected and influenced by the information available online.

This means that if there is misleading or fraudulent content on the web, many innocent people will also fall victim to it.

YMYL sites are the websites that contain:

• Medical information.
• Legal information.
• Financial information.
• Safety information.
• Shopping information.
• Information that influences your current or future life.

When quality raters evaluate YMYL sites, they follow a strict set of standards to rate them. Therefore, these must satisfy both Google's search algorithms and page quality evaluators. This barrier can be broken by crafting the best content. If it is accurate, reliable and relevant, the quality of the page will consequently be much higher. Among the set of standards that the evaluators verify, we will find an essential factor that is the acronym EAT.

Criteria that make up the EAT

Experience, the key to success

The content developer of a website must have experience on the topics that are discussed. Exhibiting expert knowledge in your field. According to Google search guidelines, there are two main types of experts:

• Those with formal experience. Here we are talking about people who consider themselves professionals and have experience or verified accreditations. This is particularly important for websites in the medical, financial and legal sectors, as the information provided could seriously harm the user if it is inaccurate.
• Those who report a daily experience. Describes individuals who demonstrate knowledge based on their life experiences. Google defines it this way: "If the person creating the content has the type and amount of life experience to become an" expert "on the subject, we will value that" everyday experience "and will not penalize the person / website / website for not having 'formal experience', 'education or training in the field in question'.

Authority as an empowering element

Some of the definitions of authority would be: «capable of being reliable, true» or being «considered as the best of a market niche and difficult to improve». Compared to experience, authority is more competitive. An industry may have many experts, but only the best can be considered an authority. When is an authority level considered high?

• When other websites and content creators in your niche cite your content.
• When people mention your name or brand on topics relevant to your industry on Facebook, Twitter or other social networks.
• When your corporation's search volume is high. A brand search is any query that contains the name of your business. This is an indicator of authority because people are specifically looking for something, and they wouldn't unless there is a considerable level of online reputation.

Trustworthiness, an essential parameter.

Trust influences the integrity of the content, the website and the business. For this we must include:

• A secure website.
• Easy access for the user.
• Contact information.
• A page that relates the "About" (About us).
• Photos of team members.
• Links to credible websites.
• Links that point to authoritative sites.
• A privacy notice and terms and conditions of service.

Good practices in your EAT strategy

The EAT method is mainly based on a set of actions, which allow offering the customer a qualitative experience. Quality that Google will value in its fair measure to reward your efforts. So, here are some tips to get your SEO back on track in this area.

• Publish quality content written by a professional, free of spelling errors, well reasoned and above all structured.
• Regularly update your posts that are already online. Enrich the pages that deserve it, renew the information and make sure that the links continue to work.
• Introduce the author of the content. Add his name, of course, but also a short biography, which legitimizes his authority to speak on a certain topic.
• Promote your team by dedicating a presentation page to it. An initiative that restores trust and humanizes the relationship with your brand.
• Show your successes. If you have obtained a certification or won an award in your field of activity, say so! These are additional markers to establish authority in your niche. Google, like your customers, will love it!