Google has what the company calls search quality raters. These individuals look at search quality results and see how effective the average search is. They’re constantly testing Google to identify ways that they can improve it.

They use an expression called E-A-T. That stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. They use this concept as a way of judging a Google search’s quality.

It’s a webmaster’s job to modify a website so that Google’s search quality raters can apply the E-A-T concept to it. That might involve hiring link-building services to improve a website, doing local SEO, etc.

Let’s discuss the E-A-T concept in greater detail right now.

The Google Algorithm

Individuals who have worked for Google or who still work for it have mentioned E-A-T in regard to the Google algorithm. The actual composition of the algorithm is a closely-guarded secret.

If anyone trying to design a website could know every detail of the algorithm, they could essentially create the most perfect site. As it is, webmasters study the way Google works. They use that knowledge to extrapolate what to include and not include when creating a website.

They then watch as their site rises up the rankings or drops down. That’s how they know whether they’re satisfying the algorithm’s requirements or not.

Expertise

If you know that the Google algorithm looks at E-A-T and values this concept, a webmaster can presumably improve their site’s ranking by looking at these three elements in turn. Then, they can apply those concepts to their site and see how what they’ve created matches up.

A site’s expertise means how expertly the site deals with the basic concept or concepts behind it. To make sure your site has excellent expertise, a webmaster must provide information on the topic at hand that’s better than what similar sites provide.

Authoritativeness

Authoritativeness relates to expertise, but it’s not quite the same. The authoritativeness of your site explains how and why you’re the expert in that particular field.

Your expertise is demonstrated by the quality of the content that you feature on that site. Your authoritativeness explicitly explains why you’re the most qualified individual or company that can provide the information a visitor will find there.

Trustworthiness

Your site’s trustworthiness pertains to the value of the information that you have there. If you have directions on your website that explain how to do something, and someone tries to do what you describe by using those directions, your site is only trustworthy if those directions work.

In other words, if you hope to prove that you’re trustworthy, you must include only the most verifiable information. If you feature information that later proves inaccurate, or if you sell products that aren’t the highest quality, in the case of eCommerce sites, your site won’t be perceived as valuable.

As a webmaster, once you know about E-A-T, you should get to work optimizing your site for it. If you’re doing it correctly, then you should see your website rise in the rankings.