Great content is a vital part of any journey towards better search engine rankings. The secret to achieving it? EAT.
Put away your knives and forks though – EAT is an acronym of Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness.
These are essential ingredients for a tasty slice of content. Just like an episode of Come Dine with Me, you’ll get bonus points for thoughtfully baking content from scratch with good quality ingredients – rather than oven-ready nonsense.
Expertise: What Google wants
When Google crawls text on your site, it’s looking for criteria that demonstrates the author has expertise in the topic. One method is to count the keywords and keyword synonyms as they appear in the text. Why?
Say you’re a baker, and you’re writing an article about bread, what words might you expect a baker to use? You might say: bread, baker, bakery, pastry, yeast, flour, knead, self raising, food hygiene – you get the idea.
Google Trends
Google also tracks whether the vocabulary in the article matches the queries people are typing into Google on your area of expertise. So, you could ask Google Trends what is trending around the search term “bread”. If you were a baker, that would allow you to write something people are asking Google about.
Typing “bread” into Google Trends, and specifying “bread: Food,” will give you related topics that are rising (pun intended!) in popularity:
- Breadbox – topic
- Nigella Lawson – Food writer
- Subway – Fastfood restaurant company
- Calorie – Topic
- Crust – Baking
These are the popular bread-related topics on Google Trends. If you’re a baker looking for visitors to your blog, writing about any of these popular search queries could see your blog traffic take an upward curve.
One very popular related query is: meatball and garlic bread tray bake – which has seen a 1,700% increase in search queries over the last 12 months.
Now there’s a tasty recipe idea for a blog!
Expertise: What people want
Remember you’re always writing for people too. If your car broke down, you’d go to a mechanic. If your windows needed cleaning, you’d ask someone who can climb ladders. If you need your blog updating, you should ask a blog writing company.
And, if you wanted to know how to make a meatball and garlic bread tray bake, you’d ask Google. As well as using the right keywords and phrases, you should always write with people in mind – showing your expertise by keeping content as helpful, informative and engaging as possible
Authoritativeness: What Google wants
Authoritativeness is a sign that, not only are you an expert in your field, but others consult you on your expertise too. There are a few ways Google can measure this from your online content.
If other websites link to your content, that would suggest they think your content is good. A good way to earn links to your content is on social media, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, TicTok, SnapChat, Reddit, and other blogs. Consider it the online equivalent of a good reference from a colleague.
Equally, who you link out to is important. Search Engine experts moz.com explain the benefits of external link building. Essentially, the Domain Authority of the content you link to and of the content that links to you is taken into account by Google.
As a baker, you might search the term “carbohydrates” because you want to write about a balanced diet. In doing so, you could link to an authority on the subject, such as the number one UK result on Google for the search query “Carbohydrates” – NHS England on why we need carbs in our diet.
For more general information about search term “nutrition”, you might refer to the World Health Organisation – number on Google for search term “nutrition.”
So, if you use good quality links as sources of information for your content, that demonstrates to the Search Engine that you are referencing those with domain authority because of their superior and quality content.
The same applies to the “quality” (the domain authority or number of followers) of the people who link to your content from social media and other sites.
If those domain authorities are earned organically (via SEO) this is also preferable to the people who only appear in the paid ads in the search engine results page (SERP).
Authoritativeness: What people want
You can see how the criteria Google uses runs parallel to human behaviour. If you need your car fixed, you want a mechanic who has been established a while, maybe a recommendation from a friend, or someone with good online reviews, and someone local. You hope they have qualifications and experience in fixing cars.
As well as looking at ways to show authority and quality to Google, you should make sure your content showcases your own authority and quality to potential customers. Blog posts are a great way to do this, providing how-to articles, answering frequently asked questions and discussing the latest trends in your sector. Over time, these resources can become a valuable source of back-links – a huge win-win for your site.
Trustworthiness: What Google wants
If you want to ask a business for help, you probably want one that’s been around a bit and has a good reputation.
Well, Google wants the same. Here is how Google measures trustworthiness.
The longer your site has been established, the better, because that demonstrates you’re expertise has been established longer. Equally though, there should be regular new content. This demonstrates to Google that your business is active, and that you can provide up-to-date information to your customers, which is more relevant.
It’s no good if your site is 10 years old, but hasn’t been updated for 5 years.
Reviews are another way Google measures trustworthiness, just like people. Review sites like Feefo let your customers leave reviews following an interaction with your customer service department. It can be a valuable piece of the puzzle in creating your online reputation.
Trustworthiness: What people want
People want trustworthiness from the businesses they buy from, and reviews help. We also look at the quality of a blog or website, the same way you might judge the tidiness of a shop you walk into.
Does the content on the site match the query I typed into Google? Does the site load quickly? Does it look good? Is it simple enough to navigate and find what I need? Are there any obvious errors such as a picture that doesn’t match the copy or spelling mistakes? Has someone I know used this website before and recommended it on social media or in person?
What Google wants and what people want are very similar, only both have slightly different ways of measuring that. The golden rule when writing is to write for people. The proof is in the pudding. You’ll know if you’ve cracked it if you have a low bounce rate because that means people stick around to read what you have to say. And that is delicious for any writer.
Ready to EAT?
If you want content that shows expertise, authority and trustworthiness, professional content writing services are a must. At Wrise, we create content that’s loved by search engines and people alike. Content that’s tailored to your business, values, selling points and your audience. Most importantly, it’s content that delivers results. Get a free, no obligation quote for your next project today!
