The acronym “EAT” refers to a bundle of three ranking factors used to determine the quality of content on a site: expertise, authority, and trust.
Included in Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines, EAT is also cited among the most significant ranking variables in the widely-respected SEO Periodic Table published by Search Engine Land.
LearnMore
1. Expertise, Authority, and Trust (EAT)
Various experts have echoed this position.
Google’s Public Search Liaison Danny Sullivan tweeted, “We...use a variety of signals as a proxy to tell if content seems to match E-A-T as humans would assess it.”
LearnMore
1. Expertise, Authority, and Trust (EAT)
Here’s a brief overview of each factor:
Expertise - Expertise refers to the accuracy, timeliness, and depth of content.
Hiring established experts, regularly auditing your site, and including author bios are all examples of ways to boost expertise.
LearnMore
1. Expertise, Authority, and Trust (EAT)
Authority - Generally speaking, authority refers to the quality and quantity of citations to content, typically in the form of links and social media shares.
The centrality of authority highlights the relevance of content promotion in 2022.
Trust - Trust typically refers to the overall perception
of your brand and
website.
LearnMore
1. Expertise, Authority, and Trust (EAT)
Brand authority, past adherence to quality standards, and references from high-tier domains all likely come into play.
Google’s BERT (2019) and MUM (2021) updates reflect Google’s commitment to providing users with highly relevant content based on limited keyword information.
LearnMore
1. Expertise, Authority, and Trust (EAT)
Companies that focus on maximizing EAT factors will find themselves best placed to meet Google’s content quality criteria.
LearnMore
2. Desktop Page Experience and Core Web Vitals
Google’s “page experience update” is one of the biggest algorithm changes of 2021 and is expected to have lasting ramifications well into and after 2022.
Google announced that it would finish adding page experience ranking signals to desktop sites by February 2022.
LearnMore
2. Desktop Page Experience and Core Web Vitals
Google describes the update in the following way: “Page experience is a set of signals that measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page beyond its pure information value.”
In addition to several other factors, the update targets three aspects of user experience, collectively
called
LearnMore
2. Desktop Page Experience and Core Web Vitals
“Core Web Vitals”: largest contentful paint, first input delay, and cumulative layout shift.
Ensuring that these on-site elements are accounted for will mean that user experience is optimized beyond EAT-based ranking criteria.
LearnMore
3. Link Building and Citations
Link building is still a key ranking factor and one of Google’s oldest and most foundational ways of establishing a site’s reputation.
The counterparts of links for local businesses are citations.
Link building is an essential part of any SEO strategy, and there are no signs that this will change going into
2022.
LearnMore
3. Link Building and Citations
Three factors are relevant when taking an active approach to link-building (which will typically take the form of outreach):
Quality - Links from high-quality, trusted sites carry much greater weight than low-quality alternatives.
Quantity - Generally speaking, the more links you can acquire, the better.
LearnMore
3. Link Building and Citations
Anchor text - You should aim to build a diverse and relevant anchor text profile.
For citations in business directories, which are a key ranking factor for local businesses, the same principles apply.
LearnMore
4. Spam, Cloaking, Stuffing and Low-Quality Links
Google has renewed its efforts to discount sites that rely on “spammy” optimization strategies.
November 2021 saw a spam-related update.
And this has been preceded by several algorithm rollouts targeting low-quality content, like the June and July core updates.
LearnMore
4. Spam, Cloaking, Stuffing and Low-Quality Links
Deceptive SEO tactics are referred to as “toxins” and constitute questionable practices that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
There are five strategies that you should take particular care to avoid:
Cloaking - Showing content to search engines that is different from what users see.
LearnMore
4. Spam, Cloaking, Stuffing and Low-Quality Links
Keyword stuffing - Overloading your content with keywords.
Link schemes - Link schemes involve paying for links on third-party sites. Invariably, these sites are of a low quality.
Duplicate content - Don’t repost content that you do not have rights to.
LearnMore
4. Spam, Cloaking, Stuffing and Low-Quality Links
If you are using duplicate content, add the proper canonical tags.
Ad-heavy site design - User experience is primary.
Don’t overload your website with ads and promotional materials.
LearnMore
4. Spam, Cloaking, Stuffing and Low-Quality Links
Given the expected significance of EAT factors in 2022, poor quality content should also be considered as something to avoid as a priority.
LearnMore
5. Voice Search
Google’s emphasis on voice search comes on the heels of increased user activity in regards to IoT (Internet of Things) devices.
And while voice search hasn’t dominated in the way that many predicted several years ago, data from Adobe Analytics clearly shows that the use of voice-based interfaces is growing.
LearnMore
5. Voice Search
In September 2021, Google announced the release of its “latest research breakthrough,” which took the form of advanced voice technology LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications).
LaMDA is notable because it signifies Google’s efforts to further streamline search results based on changing user habits.
LearnMore
5. Voice Search
Structuring content to include featured snippets, targeting long-tail keywords (especially local terms), and optimizing for mobile are all ways of catering to the increasing number of voice searches.