How Pedestal Search’s Content Team Writes to Meet Google’s E-E-A-T Requirements

If you’re in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) world in some capacity, whether as a client or an SEO content strategy creator, then you know SEO and content strategy has to meet E-E-A-T. And, no, that’s not about consuming food, but in a weird way it is like eating and consuming, but for content and ranking and getting found online—all the good things your SEO partners, like the team here at Pedestal Search, concern themselves with. 

And now many people in the industry (and outside of it too) are worrying about and are curious about AI generated content and how it will change and impact SEO content, and just content overall. The short answer is it won’t, not for a long time. Artificial intelligence won’t replace human intelligence and content creation. It simply can’t because it doesn’t have the same abilities we humans do. It’s not programmed that sophisticatedly. 

What is Google E-E-A-T?

Google E-E-A-T used to be just E-A-T but with the rise and popularity of AI content generators coming into the mainstream now with Open AI’s ChaGPT, Bard (not up and running yet to the public and is still being tested by beta users as of this writing, but you can join the waitlist if curious to try it out), and Bing (but, wow, is it ever hit-and-miss and a tad angsty!), the rules for content and how they (the fine folks at Google) decide on what gets shown have been upgraded. Let me explain and back up. 

In 2014, Google added to their Search Quality Guidelines and introduced guidelines called E-A-T, which stand for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, the three elements Google uses to judge a page based on credibility of author, page, and website. But late last year, they added to that and introduced a second E, Experience, making it E-E-A-T, the gospel by which all SEO content creators need to follow and think seriously about when creating content that will rank. 

And we do it here at Pedestal and encourage our clients to work with us to get that ever-important Experience and Expertise aspects into blog pieces we curate for them. I make sure our content writers keep it top of mind and I also keep it in mind as I’m editing. Your content matters to us, and our goal is to help you rank, and for that we need to ensure your content is written in a way that shows the four key items above were implemented. Google knows content that has all four, believe it or not, and will give preferential ranking to those pieces that comply, because for Google they are of higher quality than other pieces that don’t follow E-E-A-T. 

Why Google E-E-A-T matters

So what do we need to worry about? There’s a lot, to be honest, but focus primarily on low quality pages. These pages won’t have an appropriate level of E-E-A-T for the topic being covered. Here are some examples Google provides from their Search Quality Guidelines on each of the four pillars, if you will. Pages won’t rank well if: 

• The content creator lacks adequate experience (e.g., content is about cooking meat but written by a vegan)
• The content creator lacks adequate expertise (e.g., content about driving written by someone who has never been behind the wheel)
• The website or content creator isn’t an authoritative source for the topic of the page (e.g., a martial arts website is giving advice on college entrance exams). 
• The page or website is not trustworthy for its purpose, (e.g., unauthored pages, unlike this one you’re reading right now)

AI can’t E-E-A-T

Writing content for your website with the help of subject matter experts (SMEs) and ensuring it’s reviewed and guided by qualified professionals and editors is what we offer at Pedestal. And this is how you stand a better chance of ranking on page one on Google, and page one is where we’re all jockeying for position. 

Our SMEs research your industry through various methods and create content that will rank. Sometimes we’ll ask for more info or to have a quick chat, and when we do ask for these it’s simply because we are trying to prepare the best content that will rank for you. We want you to succeed. 

But to achieve great search rank, we need clients’ help and input and we do that by speaking to the professionals—you—to get info only you would know, which adds to the Experience and Expertise portion of E-E-A-T. 

How to achieve high levels of E-E-A-T

As content editor, I’ve been editing for over twenty-three years, and our content writing team has years of combined experience, so added with knowledge you share and our SMEs, the content we create for you here at Pedestal will have Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. 

But we need your help in providing us with the Experience portion by sharing with your SEO team any news that can enrich the content we write for you. Been to a conference lately? Gave a keynote speech somewhere? Have a report on the past year’s efforts of your company? Share it all if it will help add to experience and expertise. 

So when we come to you and ask about this, be open and ready to have a chat. We’re doing it to ensure your content is as complete as possible so it can rank well. And ranking takes time; it won’t happen overnight. 

Have questions or want to consider having us fulfill your SEO needs? Reach out and let’s talk about how we can help you reach your SEO content strategy goals!