Check out my slides from the Turn Digital online conference on April 30, 2020 about increasing your website authority.

1. Turn Digi
Actionable Tips to Increase
the Authority of Your Website
Lily Ray
April 30th
@TurnDigi @lilyraynyc

2. Lily Ray
Director of SEO
@lilyraynyc

3. What does “website authority”
even mean?
@lilyraynyc

4. Third-Party
SEO Authority
Metrics
@TurnDigi
Domain Rating
Alexa Rank
Authority Score
Visibility Index
NetPromoter Score
@lilyraynyc
Domain Authority

5. None of these scores are
used by Google.
They are not ranking factors.
@lilyraynyc

6. So, what can we
use to gauge
website
authority?
@lilyraynyc

9. How is E-A-T measured?
@lilyraynyc

10. There are “millions of baby
algorithms that look for signals
in pages and content” that
work together to conceptualize
E-A-T and YMYL.
Sorry! There is no E-A-T or
YMYL score.
@lilyraynyc

11. There are “millions of baby
algorithms that look for signals
in pages and content” that
work together to conceptualize
E-A-T and YMYL.
Sorry! There is no E-A-T or
YMYL score.
@lilyraynyc

13. Signals that *might*
correlate with authority
@lilyraynyc

14. Methodology
@lilyraynyc

15. Leverage Real Experts
@lilyraynyc

16. Leveraging Experts
If you or your authors lack
expertise, collaborate with real
experts, or have them review or
contribute to your content.
Use their names throughout this
process, and link to the relevant
places they are mentioned online.
@lilyraynyc

17. Improve Content & Usability
@lilyraynyc

18. ● Jumplinks for easy navigation/UX, especially on mobile
● Nice aesthetic and easy to read
● Author and medical reviewer listed with links to their bios
● Evidence-based label with additional context on what that means
● The content is neutral and cites all sources
● Shows disclaimers & both sides of the story,
including controversies
● In-line clickable citations to sources with additional
context & fact-checking
@lilyraynyc

19. Use Structured Data
to Support E-A-T
@lilyraynyc

20. Using Schema to Support E-A-T
● Person
○ affiliation
○ alumniOf
○ award
○ brand
○ hasCredential
○ hasOccupation
○ honorificPrefix
○ honorificSuffix
○ jobTitle
○ sameAs
● Organization
○ address
○ duns
○ founder
○ foundingDate
○ hasCredential
○ knowsAbout
○ memberOf
○ parentOrganization
● Author
● reviewedBy
● Citation
● knowsAbout
● affiliation
Some Examples (many more where this came from):
@lilyraynyc

21. @lilyraynyc

22. Optimize Your Knowledge
Panel
@lilyraynyc

23. Get your brand and
your experts in the
Knowledge Graph.
● Get in the Knowledge Graph (read Jason Barnard’s SEJ article)
● Claim your Knowledge Panel
● Use structured data to disambiguate your entities
● Use Knowledge Graph API search to monitor your “relevance
score” (Carl Hendy tool)
● Use your Knowledge Graph URL and other places you are
mentioned in SameAs Schema
@lilyraynyc

24. Google is Paying Attention to Who The
Experts Are
@lilyraynyc

25. Include More Information in
Your About & Author Pages
@lilyraynyc

26. Don’t know what
information to include
about your authors?
Check out the available properties for
Person Schema.
Google helped create them.
@lilyraynyc

27. @lilyraynyc

28. Consider Your *External* Links
@lilyraynyc

29. “A [website] is known by
the company it keeps.”
- Aesop*
@lilyraynyc
*he didn’t actually say that

30. @lilyraynyc
Use your crawler of
choice to analyze
the domains you
link out to most.
Are they authoritative?
Do you trust them?
Do you want to be associated with them?

31. Bonus:
Coronavirus Response
@lilyraynyc

32. How do you want your
brand to be remembered
during this time?
@lilyraynyc

33. Your brand has a
unique opportunity to
improve its authority
(and reputation) in
light of coronavirus.
@lilyraynyc
● COVID-19 Schema
● COVID-19 announcement on GMB
● COVID-19 FAQ page (plus FAQ
schema)
● Google Merchant Center is free!
● Telehealth link on Google My Business
● Pivot your business strategy to
support the new reality
● Waive/reduce fees
● Donate to charity

34. @lilyraynyc
Thank you