Story-Based Question
You’re running a health and wellness blog. Your latest article, “Top 10 Natural Remedies for Better Sleep,” isn’t ranking well despite being packed with great tips. A fellow blogger suggests improving your “E-A-T” to boost visibility. Puzzled, you wonder—what exactly is Google’s E-A-T, and how does it affect your blog’s SEO?
Exact Answer
Google’s E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It is a set of guidelines used to evaluate the quality of content and its creator, which impacts rankings, especially for topics that affect users’ health, finances, or safety.
Explanation
E-A-T is part of Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, ensuring users see accurate and reliable information. While not a direct ranking factor, it plays a major role in how Google evaluates content relevance and quality, especially for Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics—subjects like health, finance, or legal advice.
Expertise refers to the knowledge of the content creator. If you’re writing about health remedies, demonstrating credentials or experience in that field strengthens your content.
Authoritativeness assesses your reputation. Are others in your niche linking to your content? Are you recognized as a reliable source?
Trustworthiness ensures the content and website feel secure and credible, like displaying a privacy policy, HTTPS, or citing reliable sources.
Without strong E-A-T, your site might struggle to rank for competitive keywords because Google won’t trust its content for critical subjects. For your wellness blog, including expert reviews or linking to scientific studies can help establish credibility.
Example
For your article on natural sleep remedies:
- Expertise: Introduce yourself as the author and your background in wellness (e.g., certifications in herbal medicine).
- Authoritativeness: Cite reputable sources like medical journals or interviews with sleep specialists to support your claims.
- Trustworthiness: Include an “About Us” page detailing your mission, and ensure your site has a clear privacy policy and HTTPS for secure browsing.
Update your content regularly with new findings or expert input to maintain authority and relevance. Over time, these improvements will boost your rankings and help readers trust your advice.