To offer better user experience Google keeps on introducing new updates and some of them have a deeper impact on the overall SEO health of a blog or a site. One such update is the E-A-T algorithm update. In this blog we would learn about the key impact of E-A-T algorithm update on your blog and what are the best ways to stay safe from its negative impacts that can hurt your rankings:
What is E-A-T update?
In short, the E-A-T is an abbreviation for Expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Hence it includes multiple factors related to the content and other related elements of your website or blog that help visitors to determine your expertise/authoritativeness (like proof of formal qualification) or play a definitive role in building trust (like reviews).
What types of blogs are most affected by E-A-T updates?
The major impact of E-A-T updates is on the YMYL pages. YMYL or Your Money Your Life is a specific Google term that stands for the web pages with a potential impact on users’ finance, health or life quality.
Hence the E-A-T update has a major impact on the websites and blogs related to health & nutrition, medical supplies/content, wellness and other sites related to such or similar categories.
At the same time the data suggests that this update also have some impact on other sites that are not directly related to the above-mentioned sphere- like digital stores and business websites.
How to save your blog from the negative impact of EAT?
This is the most important concern of the bloggers. Depending upon the advice by the SEO experts and data-backed real-life cases; there are several ways in which you can remain on the safe side. We are mentioning 5 best ways to save your blog against the negative impact of E-A-T algorithms:
High-Quality content (accuracy, language, and presentation)
The very first thing is to make sure that your blog does not have a shallow content that contains blatant grammatical errors or a total lack of supporting data. It becomes double important when the content in the question is related to the crucial matters like medicine, finance, nutrition, health or personal wellness that can have a long-lasting impact on the overall life of the readers. It is equally important to research well over the content and provide a wholesome post that should answer the maximum queries of your readers and leave them satisfied.
For instance, while talking about solutions to the specific issue you should dive deep into the different aspects and offer a well-designed set of solutions backed by the verifiable data.
The presentation also matters a lot especially when we talk about mobile users. Balanced use of bullet points, lists, quotes, and datasets (graphs, charts, etc.) instantly encourage the users to trust your content and read the entire content. Some readers might also leave positive reviews and share the content on their social media.
On the other hand, the overflowing paragraphs, lack of charts and graphs, or using eye-stressing fonts can compel the visitors to quickly click the back button instead of reading the entire content.
Credible About Us Page
Another major factor is the authority of the site owner/blogger. So, be very careful while creating your about us page.
Along with mentioning all your relevant qualifications and achievements in the About Us page you should also use the specific elements/format types that can be considered as the hallmark of genuineness like :
· Scanned images of certificates, awards, and other documents
· The expertise of you and your key team members
· Relevant media mentions with URL and images (for print media)
· Genuine client reviews with verifiable data like name, images and contact info/websites
· Any felicitations by reputed organizations like Government bodies, etc.
Expertise of authors
Make sure that all your site authors should have a dedicated well-designed author page with detailed information highlighting their qualifications and credentials. It proves that not only the site owner and the administrative team holds expertise but even the authors sharing their thoughts and advice also possess high qualifications, and deep experience/expertise in their respective fields.
Also ensure that your theme is designed to automatically display the author information at the end of each article. Along with adding to the credibility of their posts, it will also encourage the reader to trust the genuineness of the content. Besides, there are good chances that interested readers may also post their queries in the comment sections regarding other issues related to the same subject.
The dedicated author page should ideally have:
· Personal blogs owned by the author
· Bestselling Books on the subject written by the author
· Participation in major industry events, seminars, and webinars along with verifiable information
· Major awards and accolades in the relevant subject field
· Other trust-building factors like special services rendered to organizations of distinct reputation
· Major voluntary or charitable works by the author in the same field
Reputation building strategies
You should also focus on building your reputation and displaying it on your blog. The Google specifically values what others have to say about you, your blog or your site. There are several tips that you can follow to build your reputation and get positive response mentioned on different platforms:
· It is highly advisable to get yourself mentioned by a press using wise but ethical practices. The best way is to keep an eye on various events where you can participate as a subject expert or offer your voluntary services.
· Ask for the balanced reviews from your satisfied clients and check the use of language/style. Do editorial changes (with client’s permission) to filter out the exaggerated language or unnecessary superlatives/adjectives without affecting the real matter. Reviews offer both direct and indirect benefits especially in the context of E-A-T
· Guest post: Post guest blogs on the high authority sites that are related to your area of expertise as it further establishes you as a trustable figure that is published on high authority sites.,
· Testimonials: make sure that you should have a profile and reviews on the high authority sites like owler, yelp, and similar unbiased reputation building sites.
· If you allow the guest posts, make sure that you should follow very high standards of approving each post to eliminate the possibilities of shallow content. If you allow the backlinks then you should ensure that each backlink (and there shouldn’t be more than 2 of them) should be justified and links to the relevant source.
Revising old content
At the same time it is equally important to make sure that your old content also meets the high standards. The best way to do is to follow a schedule of checking a particular number of old posts and editing them for the grammatical correctness and accuracy. If you come across any thin content then it is better to remove it completely but the content of high importance just needs to be edited.
One more thing to keep in mind is that some factual information in the content may need to be updated or corrected as it changes with time. Don’t forget to update such information while editing.
Conclusion
If you really wish to improve the ranking of your blog then it is high time you concentrate not only on the quality of the content but also on the authority and relevant expertise of the authors. To realize the tangible benefits, create a checklist based on this guide and revise your blog/website based on the same- before it is too late.