E-A-T Explained: Putting Expertise, Authority & Trust at the Heart of Your SEO Strategy

Expertise, Authority and Trust has become a familiar phrase to those looking to get ahead in SEO via superior content.

In this post I outline 3 quick questions to ask that will help to establish and amplify the expertise, authority and trust of your onsite content.

With this kind of discipline built into your content strategy, not only will you be crafting the content Google wants to reward, but you’ll be engaging your online audiences much more effectively  too.

Let’s begin!

1. Does your content establish you as an authority in your industry?

There are many formal and informal ways to be seen as an authority in the eyes of Google.

Habitually using references, quotes and adding substance to your onsite content with original insights and exclusive data helps across many industries but regardless of sector, it’s always possible to ask the question – how can the trustworthiness of this content be amplified?

This might include making sure that your content is always up-to date and relevant as  possible and responsive to breaking news and the latest insights, but brands should also consider those timeless content pieces that users will always come back for.

Understanding of visitor intent is critical – if you know what matters most to your audiences, what they search for and how, you’ll be better equipped to create content that not only provides the ‘correct’ answer, but content that is backed up by evidence and credentials too.

Find out what your users love reading about, make sure the keywords you are using corresponds with your users’ and make sure these completely highlight the nature of your business.

2. Have you given a reason for other sites to link to your content?

Backlinks remain crucial in SEO for indexation and discovery – but they’re also one way of measuring if other sites regard your content highly or not.

This ties back to the theme of confidence – is your website a place other sites have been able to find useful information leading them to share it with others? Is your expertise recognised by other brands within your niche?

If you create genuinely linkable, useful content then at least a proportion of your backlinks will be organically generated – more if you take a PR-based approach to purposefully outreaching and promoting your content.

In terms of these links, the more authoritative the site, the more impactful the link can be.

At ICS-digital we closely monitor the performance of the content we produce for clients – and the quality and relevance of links are key.

3. Are you focusing enough on user experience?

A positive user experience seeks to look after the user’s needs, making sure that there is (as much as possible) a frictionless visitor journey that provides easy and efficient access to the information searched for.

Of course, brands want your customers to keep coming back to and an easily navigable and accessible website is the key to that.

Beyond the immediate goal of sales, enquiries and engagement, a positive user experience can also indicate to search engines that your site is worthy of top rankings.

In short, it’s not enough to have the best content or products at the best price if site speed, performance and structure push visitors away.

A trusted site is one that provides what users need in an efficient, stable and  accessible way – and we anticipate that Google will reward the reliable sites that get this right in 2021.

 Summing Up

Much has been written about how to quantify and assess expertise, quality and trust – but by asking the three quick questions detailed in this short post, internal teams and external contributors can be kept on the right track.

Demonstrating credentials, using unique data and making sure there are clear reasons for your content to exist is a good starting point – and sometimes that’s as much about removing unnecessary content that dilutes your authority as it is about adding fresh copy.

Similarly, understanding how intrinsic links are to how Google  finds and assesses sites is key – and proactive efforts should be made to ensure that content is not only useful, but linkable. If there’s a newsworthy hook – even better.

Finally, ensuring that the wider user experience is factored in means that the relevant, easily understood content you create is actually positioned to capture the attention of audiences, and get the full benefit of any links earned.