Is it a ranking factor in Google search?

Expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (EAT) are important to Google. This is indisputable.

In fact, EAT is an important element of how Google views web content. It is mentioned 135 times on Google’s 167 pages. Search Quality Assessor’s Guide.

But is it an algorithmic ranking factor?

Let’s take a look at this.

Statement: eating as a ranking factor

I like to start every evaluation with a Google search. If you are Joe or Jane SEO looking for ammunition to support your idea that you are going to sell to your boss or explain something to your customers, then this is what you have to do.

If you search Google today for evidence that EAT is a ranking factor, you will find many convincing results that can provide reasons for your boss or customer:

EAT as a ranking factor evidence

I only link to the last article above, because the first one is hyperbolic and the second implies that EAT is a single factor with a measurable score.

We know this is not true.

Mary Haynes, On the other hand, is someone I respect very much in this industry.

As she tends to do, Haynes is responsible for analyzing and evaluating information, being careful not to rush to conclusions.

Haynes explained:

“Google does not assign a single EAT score to a website. On the contrary, Google has the idea of ​​using EAT for multiple algorithms.”

Rather than including one factor of their own, expertise, authority, and credibility will provide information for other ranking factors.

This makes them even more important to SEO professionals.

Haynes’s conclusions are mainly based on the 2019 title “How Google fights false information,” which states:

“Our ranking system does not identify the intent or factual accuracy of any given content. However, it is specifically used to identify sites with a high degree of expertise, authority, and credibility.”

She also participated in a conversation on Twitter, where Google employee Danny Sullivan said:

Evidence against EAT as a ranking factor

It is impossible to assign a single score to content that includes all EAT, even for Google, which said the same thing in the aforementioned white paper:

“Google cannot objectively assess the authenticity of a piece of content or the intention of its creator on a large scale. In addition, a large proportion of the content contains information that cannot be objectively verified as fact.

This is because it either lacks the necessary background, because it is delivered through an ideological lens that others may disagree with, or because it is constructed based on controversial data points. “

In addition, they explained:

“The system (Google News and search algorithms) does not make subjective judgments on the authenticity of web pages, but focuses on measurable signals that are related to how users and other websites evaluate the expertise and credibility of web pages on their topics. Or authority. Lid.”

Google has clarified how to use the search quality evaluator guidelines, and pointed out that it conducted more than 200,000 experiments with human evaluators in 2017 alone.

These evaluators evaluate the practicality and quality of each content based on its professional knowledge, authority, and credibility.

“The resulting ratings will not affect the ranking of any individual website, but they do help us benchmark the quality of the results, which in turn allows us to build algorithms to identify results that meet high-quality standards on a global scale. “Google said.

in short, Three characteristics of EAT It is an important signal to judge whether the content is credible.

Eat as a ranking factor: our judgment

What needs to be clear is that our judgment is a semantic problem to some extent, but not entirely.

There is no “EAT ranking factor” because there is no measurable EAT score or rating to drive your search ranking up or down.

After all, EAT is a concept, not a ranking factor.

But the EAT framework represents a very real signal that Google evaluates for ranking purposes.

EAT is an indispensable part of the search experience, and Google is keenly aware of its importance in modern information retrieval and dissemination.

Google is committed to improving the quality of search results by using expertise, authority, and trust to inform PageRank and other ranking factors.

This is especially true in situations where false information may cause actual harm to searchers, such as in politics and Your money, your life (YMYL) content.

Google uses EAT to determine the authenticity of all content.

This means that EAT must be included in every piece of content you produce—and it’s an ongoing process.

You can neither manipulate EAT (in any case and not for long), nor ignore it.

Google is committed to eliminating its index of harmful misinformation, which means that the importance of EAT will only continue to grow. Ignoring it can be dangerous.

Featured image: Paul Bobita