Why Google’s E-A-T Principle Might Just Gobble Up Your SEO Strategy

Oh, how we wish that simply setting up an e-commerce platform was the source to success, but unfortunately, success in the online sphere consists of more than just existing. As more of the world moves online post-pandemic, getting lost within an algorithmic sea has become all so common amongst marketers who want to see their site rank highly.

As organic ranking continues to add new feats, it’s time to get that SEO game into gear. Optimising your content is the key to success and will make you significantly more visible on Google than your competitors. 

Read on to find out the ins and outs of search engine optimisation and learn more about Google’s E-A-T principle that could see you make it to the top of that organic search board.

Does SEO Work?

Search engine optimisation also known as SEO is the key to your algorithmic success on google. Described by 50% of marketing experts to be the most effective component of a campaign, it’s no surprise that new e-commerce competitors are desperate to get it intact.

(Image Source: Marketing Charts)

Good SEO consists of multiple actions and strategies that perfect your content for algorithmic success. Whether that is optimising your copy to improving site usability, there are many SEO sneaks and tweaks you can utilise in your strategy for organically optimised victory!

The best way to detangle SEO strategy is to classify it into two categories. On-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page SEO covers anything that you can tweak within your own content and website experience to improve your ranking. This could be your copywriting, keyword presence and site layout.

On the other side, we have off-page SEO. This refers to anything away from your website URL that could still influence your ranking score. This mainly refers to links and mentions on other sites and across the social platforms, but can still be significant if you’re looking to increase those rankings tenfold.

SEO strategy is key for optimisation, but who actually decides how well you are performing? Well, that person or should we say digital giant, is Google. Google compiles all of these factors from your on and off-page SEO and uses it to rank you amongst your competitors during organic search strings.

Read on to learn about Google’s tough cookie to crack algorithm and the quick steps you could follow to see success.

What Is Google E-A-T?

Google E-A-T is not an algorithm but rather a principle that all smart marketers should be following if they want to see SEO success. 

(Image Source: Devrix)

Standing for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, Google’s E-A-T strategy is a great guideline to follow when creating your SEO tactics and especially important if you want to stay at the top of that organic search string.

When analysing your URL Google looks for the expertise on the subject or niche your site contains, the authoritativeness of the content itself and of course whether what it says can be trusted by a large audience. While E-A-T isn’t a ranking factor itself, Google’s algorithm is particularly favourable to optimisation of these three key principles.

Using these guidelines, Google is able to rank your site and provide it with a domain authority rating that sends it further up the search string. That is why we see e-commerce giants and niche leaders appear at the top of our search results as they tend to have larger followings and professional authority over smaller budgets and new alternatives.

The question is, can these guidelines serve your strategy or swallow it? 

Can It Gobble Up Your SEO Strategy?

The answer is mostly no, but in some cases yes. While it is always good practice to incorporate the E-A-T guidelines within your SEO strategy, the E-A-T principle does favour those sites that are established with larger funding and a vast SEO budget. 

These sites will always prove to be more authoritative than the little guy, but it doesn’t mean that utilising the E-A-T principles within your own strategy won’t send you further up. 

Ranking at the top of your niche isn’t an easy process, and Google’s algorithms continue to make it harder amongst new e-commerce competition. 

With more competitors than ever before, gaining content authority is tricky amongst so many similar sites, products and strategies. 

Post-Pandemic SEO

As all marketers know, constructing an SEO strategy post-pandemic has become somewhat of a task as e-commerce continues to grow online as a result of Covid-19. 

As Google searches continue to evolve and keyword rankings become pandemic focused, post-pandemic SEO has centred around the new optimised buzz words for authoritative content and a rise in evergreen content.

In order to follow the E-A-T principle, e-commerce sellers have had to become an expert on the pandemic and keep on top of audience behaviour and trending searches in order to keep ranking highly.

(Image Source: Brookings)

As you can see here, worldwide Google searches across the pandemic changed significantly, seeing a vast increase in the word ‘Covid-19’ itself alongside the keyword of ‘online’ for all manners of service industries.

Smart marketers took this opportunity to revamp their page content, keyword use, and meta descriptions in order to optimise their content and capitalise on the pandemic. 

Keep reading to find out more about how you can play into Google’s E-A-T principle post-pandemic and switch up your own SEO game.

How To Improve Your SEO For E-A-T Success

If you’re ready to shake up your site and inflict some SEO optimisation on your post-pandemic content, we are here to help. Here are some of the easy yet actionable steps you can take to further optimise your content for E-A-T authority.

Review & Retarget 

The first step towards a successful SEO strategy is actually taking a step back. It’s time to review your current success and of course what isn’t doing as well. See where you rank under your niche’s most popular search strings and review your audience behaviour and demographic trends.

(Image Source: Google Trends)

Using tools such as keyword trending tools such as Google Trends and analytic tools such as Finteza to track audience and visitor behaviour is a great way to stay on top of SEO trends and move further up the search string.

Knowing your demographic and most importantly knowing what is popular within it will improve your content writing and keyword targeting skills. Using keywords and phrases that rank highly amongst your audience will make you more likely to show up within an organic search and appear as a trusted authority figure within the niche.

Build Up Those Backlinks

While on-page content could seem like a route to success, you’d be surprised at just how powerful off-page SEO can be in determining your ranking score. When determining your domain authority, Google takes into account not only your website but also mentions of your brand and of course backlinks amongst other sites. 

The more you put your name out there, the better your score will be. 

We suggest that you start widening both your advertising and outreach efforts in order to create more backlinks to your content. Securing guest post opportunities and well-placed PPC ads are a great place to start.

Revamp Your Reputation

While SEO may focus predominantly on keyword placement and content strategy, your brand reputation is also important if you want to adhere to E-A-T’s authoritative and trustworthy principles.

Start establishing valuable connections between yourself and other competitors in the field. You may be battling against them, but connecting and partnering with other professionals in the industry is a one-way ticket to success.

Gaining mentions, backlinks and positive public relations with experts in your niche is a great way to build trustworthiness amongst your demographic and in turn your domain authority for ultimate E-A-T success.

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