These slides were presented at the SEMrush webinar "4 Hours of E-A-T | What is E-A-T and Why is It So Very Important?". Video replay and transcript are available at https://www.semrush.com/webinars/4-hours-of-e-a-t-or-what-is-e-a-t-and-why-is-it-so-very-important/
3. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
What are the Quality Rater
Guidelines?
▰ Google’s guide to sites they want to
rank well… and those they do not
▰ Enables Google to test algos before
pushing them live
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4. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Quick Facts About the Raters
▰ They CANNOT cause your site’s
rankings to drop
▰ BUT… if they rate your site poorly,
Google is working on algos to
match ratings
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5. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Quick Facts About the Raters
▰ 2017
▰ 200,00 experiments
▰ Resulted in 2400 updates
▰ 2018
▰ 654,680 experiments
▰ Resulted in 3234 updates
▰ 10,000+ raters
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7. “
Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
You can view the rater guidelines as
where we want the search algo to go.
They don’t tell you how the algorithm is
ranking results, but they fundamentally
show what the algorithm should do.
Ben Gomes, VP of Search, Google
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11. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Expertise
▰ Why should I trust the author of
this content?
▰ What makes this author
knowledgeable?
▰ How well known is this author?
▰ Who else promotes this author?
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15. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Trustworthiness
▰ Why should I trust this author?
▰ Why should I trust this website?
▰ Who else has vouched for, linked
to or otherwise supported this
author/website?
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18. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Improving E-A-T does not
necessarily increase rankings…
it depends, there’s many factors
at play.
Gary Illyes
Pubcon Oct 2019
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22. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
E-A-T & YMYL are concepts for
humans to “dumb down” the algo.
Gary Illyes
Pubcon Oct 2019
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23. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
You know what we value? It’s in the
Quality Rater Guidelines.
What is it? E-A-T.
We use it as our ground truth to figure
out what’s a good quality result for our
users.
Google Webmaster Summit Nov 2019
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24. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
New to Core Updates Blog
Post
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https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/08/core-updates.html
26. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Your Money Your Life
▰ Topics that impact happiness,
health, financial stability or safety
of users
▰ YMYL sites and pages are held to a
much higher standard
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27. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
YMYL Quick Look
▰ News & current events
▰ Civics, government & law
▰ Finance
▰ Shopping
▰ Health & Safety
▰ Groups of People
▰ “Other”
Do you…
▰ Sell anything?
▰ Products
▰ Services
▰ B2B
▰ B2C
You are YMYL
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28. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Your Money Your Life
Dealing in…
▰ Unproven medical claims?
▰ Debunked conspiracy theories?
▰ Anything that contradicts well-
established expert consensus?
You will have a VERY hard time ranking
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29. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Your Money Your Life
▰ E-A-T is crucial for all YMYL sites
▰ Google weights E-A-T factors much
higher for YMYL
▰ This includes links!
▰ Not as critical for non-YMYL
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30. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Increasing your E-A-T is
probably going to be a good thing
if you are in the YMYL space.
Gary Illyes
Pubcon Oct 2019
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32. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Important?
▰ E-A-T is relative to the market area
▰ Have similar E-A-T to your competitors
▰ Work to BE the “Big Brand”
▰ And again: YMYL? Absolutely
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35. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
▰ Well researched content
▰ Reputable authors known for
accuracy and high quality
▰ Consensus on health and other
controversial topics
▰ Evergreen or current
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37. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Let’s Talk About Me
▰ Dual Biographies for all authors
▰ Condensed highlight version on
article
▰ Full length detailed bio on an
individual bio page
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38. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Dress to Impress
▰ Social media links
▰ Awards
▰ Quotes
▰ Accolades
▰ Showcase awesomeness!
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40. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Let’s Talk About Me
Use the same bio photo…
▰ Be recognizable wherever the
author is.
▰ May not know name, but know pic
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41. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Are You the Author?
▰ Active social media
▰ Engage with influencers
▰ Well placed collaborations or
contributions
▰ Personal or company website
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43. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Benefits of Popular Authors
▰ Traffic from their shares
▰ Traffic from author searches
▰ Earned links because the author is an
authority
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45. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Very popular authors will have
entities. It is not the author but
the entity.
Gary Illyes
Pubcon Oct 2019
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46. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Website “Me”
▰ About Us (especially non-brands)
▰ Be transparent!
▰ Show off your history
▰ Show off your team
▰ Show off your spotlight authors
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51. “
Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Use reputation research to find
what real users, as well as
experts, think about a website
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52. “
Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Look for reviews, references,
recommendations by experts,
news articles and other credible
information created/written by
individuals about the website.
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56. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Third Party Mentions
▰ Links not necessary (really)
▰ But links are algo signal for
E-A-T
▰ News stories
▰ Reviews
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57. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Third Party Mentions
▰ Any other mentions you can earn
▰ Sponsor a sports team
▰ Sponsor a community event
▰ Donations
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58. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Bonuses of Third Party
Mentions…
▰ Yay E-A-T
▰ Boost credibility
▰ Expand brand recognition
▰ Referrals
▰ “As seen in / on / at…”
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62. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Ratings and Reviews
▰ Everyone has negative reviews
▰ Overwhelmingly negative
reviews is the problem
▰ Respond to negative reviews with
facts not passion
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63. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Be the Source
Google wants to promote:
▰ Original reporting the provides info that
would not have been known without the
article
▰ BUT that also cites sources and original
reporting within
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65. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Would you…
▰ Trust the author of your most
popular article?
▰ Trust the content of your most
important article – the article you
want to rank the most?
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66. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Would you…
▰ Like what the leaders in your
industry say about your site?
▰ Like what the leaders in your
industry say about your prominent
authors?
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67. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Would you…
▰ Like the search results if you
searched for your brand / product
and “scam” or “fake”
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68. Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
Sources for More Quality
Rater Guidelines Goodness
▰ Google Quality Rater Guidelines
▰ My QRG Update Notes at
TheSEMPost.com
▰ Multiple Q&As where I interviewed
Gary Illyes from Google
▰ My notes/Tweets from attending
Google Webmaster Product
Summit
▰ From Google:
▰ How Google Search Works
▰ How Google Fights
Misinformation
▰ How our Quality Raters Make
Search Results Better
▰ Google Webmaster Office
Hours
▰ Googler Tweets
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