Can You Add EEAT to your Website to Boost Google Rankings?

EEAT, the acronym for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust, is a widely considered Google ranking factor. Many website professionals keep close track of elements considered ranking factors and try to incorporate them into the front and back ends of websites they create and manage. Some of these elements are technical, like schema markup and SSL certificates, and are easy to include. EEAT, however, is a little more tricky. Earlier this week, a Google representative made confusing statements about EEAT as a ranking factor. So, if you want to be clear on how to add EEAT to your website and how it can indirectly influence page rankings, read on.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Real World Experience

EEAT is a cornerstone of my website-building and content-creation business. With decades of experience in marketing communications and sales, I am convinced that trust is required to close sales. I’m so sure of this that the focus of my company website is building trust. So, when I read the recent statements about EEAT by Google’s John Mueller, I reexamined my approach and concluded that it aligns with his statement. EEAT is still very important to the user experience, closing sales, and Google rankings. The trick is how to incorporate EEAT into website content. That’s when I decided to write this blog post.

What Mueller Said

Search Engine Journal recently published an article in which Google’s John Mueller made statements regarding EEAT.   This one supports the importance of EEAT on page quality:

“EEAT is one of the ways that we look at page quality. EEAT is experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. And this is something that we tell the third-party quality raters to watch out for when they’re doing page quality evaluation.“

“It’s something that we take into account when we think the query or a set of pages is on a specific topic where it’s more critical, where we call them your money, your life pages. Where we think that the user actually needs to have something that they can rely on and some signs that they can rely on the content that is present.”

In the same article, he makes statements that call into question the impact of EEAT when people attempt to add it to website content.

“Sometimes SEOs come to us or mention that they’ve added EEAT to their web pages. That’s not how it works. Sorry, you can’t sprinkle some experiences on your web pages.”

The Purpose of Website Content

Content for a commercial website should exist for one purpose: to educate and inform website visitors about your company. That’s it. Your content should answer questions that customers and prospects have about you and what you sell.   Content should explain the features, advantages, and benefits of your company’s products and services. It should be done with clear, easy-to-understand text, engaging images and video, clean layouts, and intuitive navigation. It should also load fast. 

Your website should focus on user experience, not on search engine rankings. You should never create content because you think Google will like it. This includes adding things like EEAT solely because you think it may help your Google rankings. Content should always support the user experience. Anything else should be left off your company website.

EEAT and the User Experience

Elements of EEAT play a strong role in user experience. However, you should use elements of EEAT in your commercial website’s content.

Experience

Visitors to commercial websites are typically looking to learn more about your company and whether to consider buying what you sell. They are looking for your experience and expertise. In order to feel comfortable with buying something, they must feel confident in your company. And the best way to inspire confidence is by providing your experience and telling them about your expertise.

Experience copy should appear on your homepage, about pages, and in your blog posts. Make this copy a focal point so it stands out to your visitor. I include a special section in each of the blogs I write for clients dedicated to the owner’s experience on the topic. Additionally, an About the Author block that details experience should appear at the end of each blog. That reinforces why the author is qualified to write about the subject, instilling more confidence in your company with the reader.

Expertise

Expertise is often part of customer reviews. I like to sprinkle reviews on most web pages. Additionally, you can create an entire reviews page on your website and pipe reviews from Google and other sources onto it in real-time. The key is having enough reviews to make the page look robust, not anemic.

Authority

It is important to include content focusing on your company’s authority in your industry. For example, awards you’ve received for your work are a great way to establish your authority and give you credibility. Display awards prominently on your homepage. Or, when you’ve collected several, create a separate Awards page and include it in your About pages. Directories like Angi and the Better Business Bureau provide badges you can place in your website footer. Additionally, industry milestones, speaking engagements, and article publishing are all fine examples of authority-establishing content. Include them on your website as well.

Experience, expertise, and authority are all elements of EEAT that lead to trust and should be a big part of your content. Staying focused on technical and on-page SEO will create the best user experience. And with the best user experience, organic rankings will come in time. 

Why Trust Can’t Be Added to Website Content

Trust isn’t something you can add. It has to be earned. Trust grows based on individual engagement with your company. You earn trust by the combination of education and customer experience. That includes your website, social media, user-generated content, customer recommendations, and the personal experience your prospects have with you and your representatives. When all the stars align, trust is born. And when your prospects trust you and your company, they will buy from you—not before. 

Conclusion to Adding EEAT to Your Website

The user experience should be the biggest goal of your website. Your content should focus on providing information and answering a prospect’s questions. If you can do this, you will build trust and help close sales. Adding elements of EEAT to your website is an important part of your website’s user experience. You should add experience, expertise, and authority-establishing content throughout your web pages. However, trust cannot be added. It must be earned. You will close more sales if you create a website with a great user experience, promote your brand, and build solid customer relationships. SK Website Works builds websites with a great user experience. We include elements of EEAT throughout each website we build and help to create a trusting relationship between your company and your prospects. And that will help drive more sales.

SK Website Works is a website company that focuses on user experience. We build new websites and provide SEO services to keep websites running clean and Search Engines happy. Plus, we create content that establishes our client’s experience, expertise, and authority. That builds trust between your company and your prospects. And customers only buy from brands they trust. Call us to discuss what SK Website Works can do for you. 

Thanks for your time, but now we’ve gotta run. We have websites to build and audit, keywords to track, blogs to write, and photos to edit. Until next time, take care.