What Does E.A.T. stand for?
As it turns out, E.A.T. isn’t only our favorite thing to do. In fact, the Google-created acronym introduced in 2018 stands for Expert, Authority, and Trust. Essentially, it is the set of standards that the search engine references when it comes to ranking “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) webpages. In this post, we’ll review each of the pieces of the E.A.T. pie and all about YMYL and how it affects SEO.
Breaking Down E.A.T.
While it may seem you can solely focus on one of the three pillars of E.A.T., it’s important to use all three when it comes to content creation and SEO.Â
First, expertise refers to having a high level of knowledge or skill in a particular field. It is evaluated at the content level. For instance, if a financial advising company were to post suggestions for financial health on their website’s blog, that falls under YMYL, which we’ll cover later.
Third, trust concerns the legitimacy, transparency, and accuracy of website content. Sites that contain sufficient contact information, cite trustworthy sources, and provide accurate information will be considered trustworthy. That being said, it’s important to remember that, similar to authoritativeness, trust is also relative. So, we may be trustworthy when it comes to SEO and development, we’re not for fitness routines.
Your Money or Your Life
When it comes to Google search, Google tries to be as certain as possible when it comes to serving content and information that’s relevant and correct. Therefore, pages that, “could potentially impact the future happiness, health, or wealth of users” must be from authoritative, trustworthy experts in the field. In short, Google evaluates the quality of pages, both under and outside of the YMYL umbrella.
In Conclusion
Ultimately, when it comes to SEO, Google looks for high quality main content (MC). Furthermore, E.A.T. is important for all queries, but especially for sites that contain YMYL topics.
Resources & Further Reading
Booth, I. (2019, June 4). Google EAT: How to Create Content That Google Wants. Moz. https://moz.com/blog/google-e-a-t.
Grant, G. (2021, April 3). What is E-A-T? Why is E-A-T Important for SEO? SEO Company | SEO Services. https://www.seoinc.com/seo-blog/what-is-e-a-t/.
Hardwick, J. (2020, October 9). What is E-A-T? Why It’s Important for SEO. SEO Blog by Ahrefs. https://ahrefs.com/blog/eat-seo/.