How Does Google Evaluate Your E-A-T Ranking Score?
Marco Reuter
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Search engines are the arbiters of online content. As such, they have an obligation to ensure that websites only produce high-quality and informative content to be consumed by online visitors and viewers. Brands can and should use their online content to exhibit high levels of expertise, authoritativeness, and trust on various topics of interest to their visitors. Although it’s not technically an algorithmic ranking factor, Google E-A-T does hold a lot of merit for websites that want to increase their visibility and web traffic.
Here are a few important variables that can positively impact your Google E-A-T ranking score.
Quality of the Website Content
Google crawls through thousands of websites to find the most relevant content that matches the intent and exact wording of user search queries. High-quality content appears in the top-ranking positions. These are articles and posts that either contain the exact or similar words used in the search query or that directly answer a question that was posed.
In addition to assessing the relevance of specific content, Google also considers the overall authoritativeness and reputation of the publisher and author of the content.
Backlinks from Reputable Sources
Updating and checking the backlinks are working properly is a key component of excellent search engine optimization practices. The quality of the backlinks used throughout your content signifies the trustworthiness of your website to Google. This can help improve your rankings because Google views your website as a credible source of information regarding the specific subject matter in question. It also means your website or article may get cited on other websites that provide similar information.
Anchored Text of Backlinks
Google E-A-T standards indicate that anchor text is a viable ranking signal for the linked pages to which they’re attached. Anchor text consists of the characters and words that appear on a content page and hyperlink to another webpage that provides more information on the specific subject matter. Typically, anchor text is hyperlinked and appears in blue font with an underline that turns purple when clicked on, but you can customize the colour of the text to match your website design.
Author Credibility
Author credibility is determined by the credentials of the author of the content piece. Google E-A-T uses a series of algorithmic ranking factors to determine the credibility of an author on any given topic. The author’s reputation and their various credentials are examined to determine their ability to speak or write with authority on the subject at hand.
Authors who publish content in a variety of fields can be awarded numerous reputation scores that bump up the credibility factor. It’s important to note that the author’s reputation score has nothing to do with the publisher because the former doesn’t necessarily directly work for the latter.
Duplicate content that appears multiple times across the website or throughout other online resources can lower the author’s reputation score, so it’s important to keep all content fresh and unique. Factors that contribute to the author’s reputation score include:
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Popular Author Name and Online Mentions
Content written by authors who have amassed a large online readership and following is a lot more likely to rank higher on various search engines such as Google. This type of content is typically written by authors who have established themselves as well-known and reputable experts within their industries. Hence, Google views them as a credible source of information and will ensure that their content is visible for relevant search queries.
Author awareness and reputation are huge ranking factors that are usually determined by the number of mentions and search queries they receive by name. Name mentions, particularly on various social networks, are important search signals that indicate a specific author has a lot of credibility in a specific field of interest.
Co-Occurrence of the Author Name
When crawling websites for search-related information, Google reviews a wide range of content from text to video and audio. Any mention of an author’s name across on- and off-page content can help increase their online credibility. Google indexes this content according to the context of the mention and the subject matter. Every time an author’s name appears in a specific content, their credibility rating could be positively or negatively influenced depending on the context. If the author’s name appears on multiple reputable websites, sources, and citations, then this boosts their credibility and in turn, the rankability of their content.
Since Google launched the MUM update, this includes all text, video, image, and audio content that’s written by the same author.
Mentioning Authors by Name in the About Us Page
Including all content writers and authors by name on the About Us page of your website is another important potential ranking factor. Not only does this mention on an official platform give the authors credibility, but it also presents your website and brand in a positive light if you have credible and talented staff writers appearing on your website.
Author Appears on Social Platforms
Authors who have a strong social media presence can amass vast legions of loyal followers. Using their platforms and widespread online outreach, these authors can share your website content and link to it, which helps increase your website traffic. In turn, this raises brand awareness and gets more people talking about your website and sharing your content.
As you can see, social media is an effective form of?Google E-A-T optimization?for your website because it’s an environment that encourages user engagement and provides your brand with the tools to track your progress.