Google E-E-A-T for Small Business

E-E-A-T sounds great as an acronym, but I like to think about it a bit backward, starting with Trustworthiness.

Step 1: Trustworthiness

The best way to establish Trustworthiness with Google is by establishing Expertise, Experience, and Authoritativeness (more on these later).

That said, you can fix several “no-brainer” things on your site TODAY that will have a lasting impact.

1. Physical Address: Display your physical address in the footer of your website and on the contact page of your website.
2. Phone Number: Display your phone number in the footer of your website and on the contact page of your website.
3. Domain Email Addresses: Feature a domain email address (@yourbusinessurl.com) in your footer and several different ones on your contact page.
4. Meet the Team Page: Have a page dedicated to your team with individual team members.
5. Author Page: You (as the writer of your content) should have an author page showcasing your chops.

These are just a few easy ones. ​Here’s my full E-E-A-T checklist.​ Go down the list and check the boxes.

Boom! That simple.

Step 2: Expertise

I believe Google is moving towards ranking people, not content.

What does that mean? They want to rank content written by experts (people).

Think about it: would you rather read an article about football by John Elway or me?!

No, you don’t have to be Bill Gates to get your content to rank.

Here’s how to do it.

1. Create an author page.
2. Include your bio on your author page.
3. Include all your accomplishments related to your niche on your author page.
4. Link all your articles back to your author page.

​You can check out and copy mine here.​

 

The final step of this process is a little harder.

You have to write about topics in your niche.

Write anything and everything you can regarding your niche.

The more content you author, the more you create topical relevance and authority.

Topical relevance and authority = expertise.

Step 3: Experience

In the context of Google’s use of the term ‘experience,’ it signifies direct, practical involvement with the particular topic that a piece of content addresses.

This is your chance to differentiate yourself from all the BS AI-driven content.

AI-driven content will NEVER be able to show legitimate experience.

I like to do this in a few ways.

When writing:

1. Mention specific experiences you’ve had and the lessons learned from them throughout your content.
2. Share real-life stories that relate to your niche.

In video:

1. Video doesn’t lie. You’ll be miles ahead of the competition if you can show a hands-on video.

Pro Tip: Shoot a video and then summarize the video into an article (I’ve previously talked about this).

At TGA, all of our landing pages had video:

 

Step 4: Authoritativeness

Looking at the top-ranking websites, you’ll see a pattern.

They all have:

1. Robust backlinks from niche sources.
2. Writers with robust online personas are recognized for their expertise in specific areas.
3. Content throughout the site that addresses all (or most) major subjects in the niche.

We’ve already touched on points 2 & 3 above, but what are backlinks?

Backlinks, also known as inbound links, are links from one website to a page on another website.

They are perceived as endorsement votes by Google, contributing to the website’s authority and improving its rank in search engine results.

The more votes you have from similar websites, the higher your content will rank.

One of the oldest link-building strategies is guest blogging.

Essentially:

1. You find an authoritative website in your niche.
2. You write an awesome piece of content authored by you.
3. You get the content published to their site with a link back to your site.

If you want to learn more about link building, do a quick Google search.

There will be thousands of articles (and too much to write in a 5-minute email).

Don’t worry; I’m dedicating a future LFG to link building. So be on the lookout!