Applying Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT) to improve your local SEO
In today's competitive market, most local business owners understand that simply having an attractive website is not enough to attract and retain customers. To succeed and stand out in a saturated marketplace, you’re going to need great content.
And if you’re serious about developing great website content, there are four words that describe the content that delivers exceptional value: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (also known as “EEAT”).
This E-E-A-T framework is crucial in bringing customers closer and establishing credibility for your local business. When creating content online, it is essential to focus on providing high-quality information that addresses the questions and needs of your target audience. A website or content creator with unique authority on a topic, significant experience or expertise is said to have very high E-E-A-T.
EEAT indicates what both Google and your potential customers are seeking - expert-level content that comprehensively answers all their inquiries. By incorporating EEAT principles into your online content strategy, you can effectively meet the expectations of search engines and provide valuable information to your audience. E-E-A-T marketing is a good way to hold your content accountable (aside from Google saying it’s important).
E-E-A-T, in essence, defines a website’s value.
Originality, Skill and Talent
E-E-A-T, first appeared as E-A-T in Google's Search Quality Guidelines in 2014 and has since gained significance, especially after the August 2018 Google Medic update. Recently, Google added the "Experience" parameter to further enhance the concept. Creating content that supports E-E-A-T can improve your chances of securing top positions in search engine results and staying resilient against future algorithm updates.
Ok, but what does it really mean for a local business in terms of their content creation? Google emphasises that creating E-E-A-T content requires effort, originality, skill, and talent. Incorporating this content on your website can yield various benefits, including higher search engine rankings, increased behavioural metrics, such as time on page and click-throughs, more social shares and backlinks, and even the possibility of being featured in snippets at the top of search results.
Let’s dive into each component in more detail.
Experience
The newest addition to the E-E-A-T guidelines is the element of experience, which highlights the importance of firsthand knowledge in a subject. According to the updated search quality rater guidelines, the content creator's personal experience is considered when evaluating the credibility of a page. Factors such as product reviews from individuals who have actually used the product are valued more than reviews from those who have not. Google rewards pages where authors have genuine experience with the topic they are writing about. For instance, a mobile phone sales review on a Google Business Profile, should come from someone who has bought the product from the relevant store. Recommendations on Bing for the best restaurants in Sutton should be from individuals who have visited them. Google Business Profile posting, local employees, customer photos are all examples of experience led content.
Expertise
You're an expert in your field. Now it's time to demonstrate your knowledge to your audience by creating expert-level content.
But what does that look like in real terms?
Let's take the example of a health food shop creating content to help potential clients. They want to ensure that their content revolves around their area of expertise. For instance, a vegan store might write a blog and create social media posts about which foods can help with protein intake instead of eating meat or dairy. This could include recipes, nutrition information and history of the food. By looking at data and information from users' search intent, you can precisely understand what your audience needs to know. Perhaps the customer also needs gluten free options, for example.
Similarly, a photographer could share video and written content on the most effective way to take professional looking selfies for your business social media posts. How? By leveraging their experience and expertise, they can provide clear instructions, even for someone with little technical experience, looking to improve their photography skills at home.
If you are creating content about a topic that isn't entirely within your area of expertise, conducting thorough research and supporting your work with highly credible sources is essential. Collaborating with trusted subject matter experts can also help elevate your content to the level of expertise required. For example Linked In now offers Expert Voice badges for key users to voice their opinion and knowledge in joint articles.
Service pages are also important to create content wise, don't leave potential customers guessing about your service areas. With dedicated pages for each town or city, visitors to your website can quickly determine if you cater to their needs. By showcasing your experience in their local area, you'll boost their confidence in your business and significantly increase the likelihood of enquiries.
The ultimate goal is for your audience to view you as a trusted expert in the field and rely on you and your product or service. This can be achieved by becoming the go-to resource in your niche, delivering accurate and high-quality content that meets users' needs.
Authoritativeness
Experience and expertise are only the starting point, you must also show authority in your business or market. To establish your local business’ authority, your work needs to be mentioned and linked to by reputable websites in your industry. For example news websites, social media mentions, guest blog posts, mentions on events updates and PR to name a few.
When other experts link to your content, it shows that your work is polished, trusted, and delivers on its promises. The more backlinks and mentions your content earns from other sites, the more authoritative it becomes. Backlinks act as votes of confidence, boosting your content's ranking in search engine results. When your content is referenced by trustworthy sources, it enhances your credibility and establishes you as an expert in your field. Therefore, consistently earning backlinks and mentions is crucial for building and maintaining content authority. Long term local SEO success requires authority.
Additionally, mentions of your brand or content in news articles or social media within your niche hold great value. Google considers these mentions as signals of credibility and relevance, even without direct website links. Influential news outlets and social media users mentioning your brand or content help establish your authority and expand your reach. These mentions increase visibility, attract organic traffic, and potential customers. While links are preferred, mentions in the news or on social media are still recognised as highly valuable to Google.
Trust
Being a trusted space is a great achievement. Experience, expertise, and authoritativeness contribute to a quality rater's assessment of trust. Trust is the most important aspect of E-E-A-T, as untrustworthy pages have low E-E-A-T regardless of the level of experience, expertise, or authority.
Trustworthy, high-quality content is accurate, up-to-date, and flows well from titles to the body. For a reliable site, fast load times and user-friendly navigation are a good start. If your content lacks credibility, it won't rank highly on Google.
Here are six quick tips to ensure your site is trustworthy:
1. Provide contact information for site ownership.
2. State the physical location (e.g. office or store address), which is especially important for local businesses anyway.
3. Make a Terms and Conditions page accessible for users.
4. Ensure the security of your website's domain (Note: Google values HTTPS implementation to protect users' data).
5. When providing expertise, cite sources when appropriate and remember to link to authoritative websites.
6. Include credentials on the page such as awards, testimonials, or endorsements.
Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) pages
YMYL pages are classified by topics that impact our legal, financial, medical, and safety. These are subjects that can seriously affect a person’s health, well-being, legal standing or finances. E-E-A-T is vital to Google’s YMYL pages. As high-stakes topics, it’s important they are rich in experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
Examples include:
Amazon: An online global retailer for sellers and consumers
Mumsnet: A source advising families through pregnancy and parenthood
The Cambridge Law Journal: A law journal of important developments in UK law.
WebMD: A trusted source for health and medical information and news updates.
The Financial Times: A well known news publication and source of business and finance information.
Why does all this matter? Because inaccurate or untrustworthy information can have serious consequences. Imagine relying on bad health advice from a medical website - the impact on your well-being could be devastating. That's why we prioritise high-quality, reliable content that matches your search queries and upholds E-E-A-T standards.
Sites that truly provide valuable information and solutions are more likely to meet these demands and gain Google's recognition. By showcasing their expertise and presenting engaging content, they help you make informed decisions. In today's digital landscape, demonstrating first-hand experience is more important than ever for achieving higher Google Search rankings.
AI Generated Content
Since the new “E” in E-E-A-T means “experience,” AI can’t always meet the quality threshold for certain types of content that require experience. Google is internally discussing this issue and has yet to arrive at a formal policy.
However, while Google has advised against publishing automatically generated AI content without human review, the appropriate use of AI or automation is not against their guidelines. Danny Sullivan from Google confirmed that AI-generated content is acceptable as long as it undergoes fact-checking and is reviewed by an editor.
Final thoughts
E-E-A-T is a valuable asset for any local business to invest in and pay attention to as they begin to define their web presence. The combination of an emotionally engaging experience, expertise & authority building resources, and trust through third party reviews is a winning formula for an effective content marketing strategy. If your local business wants to get ahead in its online presence, then E-E-A-T content will be one of your best investments. Investing in experience, expertise, authority and trust can truly make or break the success of any local business website.
So take some time to review your local business content with an E-E-A-T framework – you might be surprised by what strategies need adapting and revisiting. And if you come away with more questions than answers, don’t worry!
Who are you and what is this?
This post is one of many aimed at helping to support owners, managers and franchisees with growing their local business. It's been lovingly researched and written by the expert team behind LocalMark, a London UK-based local SEO service that helps connect UK trade, service & retail businesses with nearby customers. If you found this helpful and could benefit from more of the same, be sure to share, follow us on social media (links below) and sign up for our newsletter.
If you’re committed to creating great website content which meets E-E-A-T standards, check out how we can help you here.
Meet the author
From a long line of small business owners, local marketing expert James understands more than most the unique challenges they face every day. He’s been advising local business owners and their agencies on digital marketing since 2000, and established our local SEO service in 2021.
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