Page 13 - AeM_September_2020

RESEARCH
ANALYSIS
TRENDS

The importance of E-A-T in content creation

Google's goal is to provide searchers with high-quality Google places particular emphasis on E-A-T for sites
answers to every question they could possibly ask. To that are in those latter two categories, calling them
do this, it relies on a complex collection of rules and Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) categories. The
ranking factors. Some of these factors fall under the potential for harm from misinformation in YMYL
category of E-A-T, meaning Expertise, Authoritative- categories is greater, so the quality and accuracy of
ness and Trustworthiness. content it presents must be as high as possible.

These factors have always been important to Google Google uses E-A-T to determine how likely information
but became even more important when Google pushed is to be accurate. Information published by a
the Medic update in 2018. Since then, many brands researcher on an education-related domain, that
that lack E-A-T found that their web traffic fell off generally agrees with other cited experts is probably
significantly. trustworthy. Information published by an unknown
source on a recently purchased commercial domain
Why E-A-T matters
that contradicts trustworthy sources is less likely to be
accurate.
One of the best things about the web is that it gives
everyone a platform to share their views. One of the
worst things about the web is that since anyone can E-A-T is a simple series of metrics for determining if
create content, it's hard to be sure whether what you're content can be trusted. Websites that Google rates
reading is true. highly in terms of E-A-T are more likely to rank well in
the SERPs. E-A-T isn't the only factor, there are other
Exactly how important it is to verify the quality of factors, such as loading speed and, of course,
content depends on the niche. Bad advice about how to relevance. If E-A-T is lacking, however, a site's ranking
knit a sweater might waste a reader some time and the may suffer.
cost of the wool. Bad financial advice could cost
someone their retirement fund. Bad medical advice
could cost lives.

13 September 2020: Cybersecurity & Data Safety: perpetual awareness and innovation