Google’s John Mueller answers whether the expertise of content writers matters to Google’s algorithm because it plays such an important role in quality assessment guidelines. John replied that he believed there was some indirect work done in terms of author expertise, but noted that this was a “fuzzy area”.
EAT and Google’s algorithm
It has been established that Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines are guidelines that standardize how third-party raters rate search results tested by Google.
The purpose of the Quality Rater Guidelines is to bring a degree of objectivity to the search results that are being assessed for usefulness.
John Mueller discusses author expertise
So instead of letting raters use their own judgments, Google provides them with usage guidelines to standardize their judgments.
Google recommends using the guidelines as a way for publishers and SEOs to objectively judge a site, which some believe means the factors described in the document are in the algorithm.
So if some of these factors that are highlighted as important in the quality assessment guidelines are also important in Google’s algorithm, then there is a problem.
EAT, which means professionalism, authority, and trustworthiness, is one of the factors that the SEO community cares about.
The author’s expertise and Google’s algorithm
This specific question has to do with the expertise of the content author.
The questioner asked:
“I have some questions about EAT.
In quality assessment guidelines, the expertise of authors is important.
So do you think this is important for real algorithms? “
John Mueller asked for clarification on what he meant.
The asker clarifies:
“I mean, EAT was just mentioned in the quality assessment guidelines.
But I wonder if real algorithms also care about EAT factors, such as the author’s expertise. “
An indirect approach to author expertise
John Mueller did not confirm that the algorithm has direct author expertise. He just said he thought there was indirect work to determine expertise.
John Mueller replied:
“I would assume some indirect work has been done to try and do something like that, yes.
I mean, we put it in guidelines so we can instruct quality testers to double-check these things, and if we think it’s important, then I’m going to assume… people who search for quality also struggle to understand that A more algorithmic way. “
EAT is not an algorithm score
John goes on to caution against considering EAT as a ranking factor or metric.
Mueller continued:
“But I don’t think there’s an EAT score where you have to get a ‘5’ or something like that.”
Content expertise
Mueller next returned to the topic of author expertise, saying it was more like trying to understand how content fits into the rest of the web.
Understanding how something fits into the context of the rest of the web is something Mueller has been talking about lately.
Mueller clarified:
“It’s more like trying to understand the context of what’s on the web.
This is a very…blurred area. “
Content expertise
It’s interesting how Mueller begins his answer by talking about knowing the expertise of the author indirectly, and then talking about the concept of expertise related to the content itself by referring to the context of understanding the content on the web.
How important is the author’s expertise?
Perhaps we should ask, what determines expertise, authorship, or what they publish?
For example, let’s consider the hypothetical case of a website full of medical misinformation posted by a doctor.
How important is a doctor’s expertise compared to the professionalism, authority, and credibility of the content itself?
In theory, expert writers should be able to write expert content.
But is it the author’s expertise proof or the quality of the content itself?
As John Mueller said, This is a very blurry area.
Citation
Is the author’s expertise important to Google’s algorithm?
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