E-A-T Significance for SEO

SEO is becoming more significant in 2023. There are three factors Google looks at when deeming ranking significance. These go by the acronym E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness). Google has AI programs called crawlers (spiders, AI bots) that scan webpages and follow backlinks. They scan the entire code to a webpage and capture information that is stored in the content. They also scan the alt text, the words corresponding to an image that one can add to HTML code or more likely, use a website editor's features to add it in. Words associated with an image, content marketing, keyword research. All these factors play into the aforementioned E-A-T acronym.

Expertise is gained by having effective content with plenty of follow through links. Internal and external linking helps. Writing good content and even including citations can help you establishing expertise. Authoritativeness is typically gained by having backlinks. When another site links to your webpage, you establish authority on the topic. The more backlinks you have the better. For instance, I was recently contacted by a company that liked my content and we traded links. They linked my blog and I linked back to them in return. Having good testimonials can help you earn trust. Also, the more users interact with your content, the better. The more comments I receive on my blog, the more likely Google is to trust me. Another way one can earn trust is by having a good services page. Good services, testimonials and plenty of interactions all lead to you gaining Google's trust.

Expertise, authority and trust are the core factors that help you rank on the search engine. This model has been around since 2014. That was when Google first mentioned it in their search guidelines. The acronym E-A-T is used often when talking about SEO.