What is EEAT: The Definitive Guide to Google’s Updated Quality Standards

As one of the largest companies in the world and the most popular search engine, Google is constantly making updates to its algorithms, quality guidelines, and processes to maintain the high standards they hold for the web pages that rank on its search engine. One of Google’s most important recent updates has been a change to its quality standards, also known as EEAT.

Previously known as EAT, the addition of an extra “E” to the acronym marks a shift in the way that Google assesses web page content. While this shift doesn’t currently change Google’s page rankings, it does shed light on how Google may rank web pages in the near future.

So what is EEAT and why is the additional “E” important for your website? What does it mean for your search quality ranking and how can it help you increase your site’s ranking? Luckily, ClickReady is here to answer any questions you may have about EEAT.

What is EEAT?

EEAT is an acronym that stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust. Each of these factors are used by Google to judge the quality of a webpage and its author. While the acronym was previously known as EAT, Google recently added experience as an important factor when judging a web page’s content.

Experience

The newest addition to the EEAT acronym, experience shows Google that your company has the first-hand knowledge needed to be an expert on a given topic. When looking for experience, Google’s quality raters will judge if your content demonstrates that your company is proficient in your industry. For example, when discussing the side effects of anti-anxiety medications, a qualified psychiatrist with 20 years of work history and several awards would be considered much more experienced than a college student majoring in business or economics. Google takes these factors into account when assessing your website.

Expertise

Similar to experience, expertise demonstrates that the author of a website’s content has the appropriate qualifications and knowledge to provide accurate, informative, and helpful information. Let’s say that NASA writes an article on a new planet that it recently discovered, then another company writes a separate article on the same topic. An employee at NASA would have much more expertise on this topic than someone who stargazes recreationally. That’s because a person’s expertise is a combination of their experience, knowledge, and qualifications. A writer’s expertise can help determine if their article is the best choice for readers wanting to learn more about a specific topic.

Authoritativeness

Authoritativeness helps measure how often people go to a specific website as a source of information on any given topic. Content that shows its author’s experience and expertise usually receives a fair amount of backlinks and traffic that add to its authoritativeness. Websites that include content on similar topics are often seen as far more authoritative on a subject compared to websites with little traffic, few backlinks, and no related content.

Trust

Trust is the most important factor in EEAT since each of the other three factors (experience, expertise, and authoritativeness) work to build up the trust that readers have for a website. The purpose of Google’s search visibility ratings has always been to establish how Google can order page rankings to showcase the most reliable and trustworthy pages on the Internet. Websites that don’t demonstrate experience, expertise, and authoritativeness are usually considered untrustworthy, while websites that exemplify EEAT principles are often relevant to a reader’s search.

How is EEAT determined?

Now that you’ve learned the basics of EEAT, you may be wondering how Google determines your EEAT ranking. A page’s EEAT ranking is determined by Google’s search raters, a team of people from all over the world who analyze and rank websites into four different levels. These levels are:

• Lowest EEAT
• Lacking EEAT
• High EEAT
• Very high EEAT

Google’s search raters rank your page’s EEAT level by checking it for the four factors found in the EEAT acronym: Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust.

First, they’ll judge the author’s experience. Does the author have a reasonable level of experience in related fields or industries? Next, they’ll check for expertise. Does the author clearly illustrate their qualifications to give expert opinions on the given subject? Then, they’ll examine the site’s authority on the subject. Does the site have a lot of traffic, backlinks, and related articles? Finally, they’ll evaluate the site’s trustworthiness. Does the company have an adequate amount of experience, expertise, and authoritativeness to be considered a trustworthy and helpful source for readers? After checking for all of these factors, Google’s search raters will give your page an EEAT level based on your score.

Why does Google care about EEAT?

You may be wondering why Google cares about your website’s level of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Google has always tried to highlight helpful content on its search engine. They want to reward websites that provide users with informative and accurate content while protecting users from inaccurate, unhelpful, or even harmful websites.

Google implemented its original EAT principles to determine how its search engine rankings were accomplishing this goal. While the new EEAT policy doesn’t affect your search ranking yet, Google will learn from this process and eventually update its search rankings based on the results. That’s why it’s so important to understand and implement EEAT principles on your website as soon as possible.

Another reason that Google is prioritizing EEAT is the increase in AI-generated content. While AI writing tools are helpful for quickly releasing content, AI-generated content is often inaccurate, outdated, or even harmful. If a user is searching for medical information, then it’s important to share up-to-date and accessible content since inaccurate content could harm the user. Since AI writing tools aren’t advanced enough to demonstrate things like experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, Google is likely using EEAT to combat the rise of AI-generated content on their search engine.

Frequently Asked Questions About EEAT