7) Writing with Expertise, Authority, and Trust
As discussed before, several best writing practices help ensure content that is valuable for awareness and support.
In this discussion, we will understand how to ensure quality content alongside best writing practices through incorporating expertise, authority, and trust within the content.
Background
The internet is a primary place where users worldwide look for information and support. The topics searched up include those that fall into the health, safety, or financial domains. Consequently, false information or content that has quality problems such as those that violate best practices can be potentially damaging to significant levels thereby negatively impacting a user’s happiness, health, or wealth. To buffer this, the Google algorithm (and Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines) used to display top content pages considers factors that include: Expertise, Authority, and Trust to ensure protection from low-quality content. These factors are commonly known as EAT in short.
As mental health is part of the health domain and is a significant area searched, the EAT factors are vital to consider when developing content.
Since 2018, the EAT factors not only apply to a website’s main content pages but are also considered when reviewing the content creators (i.e. authors).
EAT and How To Incorporate EAT into Website Content:
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Expertise:
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When considering the expertise factor for website content, expertise refers to the extent to which the website or organization is known and has the suitable credentials and any expertise supporting factors such as awards or external recognition.
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Expert Content is Researched Based: consider stepping into the shoes of your audience and perform a keyword research whilst thinking about their needs. Through your keyword research, grasp why the audience has searched for those keywords (topics). Knowing the intent of the topic queried helps you guide content on solutions and helpful information that can not only meet but exceed the user’s needs.
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Expert Content is Comprehensive yet Digestible: Try to ensure your content is simple and has good formatting, avoid confusing structures or things that are too difficult to understand unless you break down and explain difficult concepts.
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Expert Content is Supplementary: After answering the main intent of a searcher’s query or possible needs regarding a content topic, supplement your content by thinking about further supporting/supplementary content that could further enhance and support the topic: this is when back-linking comes in handy! Audit your existing content and identify which of your published pages can be backlinks to the new content piece. Think of what further topics/content pieces can be branched from existing content and include them on your content development agenda.
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Authority
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Authority refers to the ratings the website and its content get on the basis of genuine ratings as well as content relevance.
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Authoritative Content is Cited: External pages rely upon and cite the content as their sources of information. Citations include external back-linking as well as mentions on the news or social media.
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Authoritative Content is Widely Shared: This is where marketing can help boost the content to build authority. Content with authority is regularly and widely shared and mentioned across social media. Engagement efforts can help drive this factor.
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A Wikipedia Page Boosts Authority: A Wikipedia page for the brand, organization, or even people in a company helps boost authority.
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Brand Authority Matters: A signal to authority is when users search your brand name for their content needs.
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Trust
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Trust refers to validity - a website can have validation pages such as an About Us page or other main pages. Trustworthiness is also determined through positive reviews and user support.
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In terms of content, trust can be boosted through the inclusion of an author's biography as well as external sources being cited, especially if they are other authoritative sources.
Feel welcome to share your opinions on each of the EAT factors or ask any questions!
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This post is brought to you by the Content Development and Marketing Program, find out more information about the program here
@SoulfullyAButterflyThank you for thoroughly explaining the EAT factors behind writing a good article.
I found all points helpful, and I can make connections between your post and many articles I've come across so far. I think it is challenging to make content that is comprehensive yet easy to understand, it's a skill that I'm slowly getting better at through practice 😊
For supplementary content, there's a lot of 7 cups sources that I can think of, and for citations, it is certainly helpful to refer to a wide range of sources like journal articles, news, words by professionals, videos, images, etc.
No questions yet, but I'll surely post here or reach out to a CDM mentor in that case 🌻
I'm learning so many new things through this course. I had never heard of EAT, but thinking back, these would all be points I would keep in mind while consuming information from the internet, so it makes complete sense of applying all of this as the source of content!
@SoulfullyAButterfly What a great read! Thanks for sharing! ☺️
@SoulfullyAButterfly
I have read and understood the EAT factors and tips for incorporating EAT into website content
Expertise:
Website content needs to demonstrate high-level expertise by providing accurate and relevant information. Using what I learn from the previous forum, I can use World Health Organization (WHO) as an example of the source which further enhances the credibility of the article. It can also help establish authority and trust. It is also important to build the structure of the content so that further topics can be branched from existing content and include the backlink on our content.
Authority:
A reputable website can help build authority. If our website's content gets cited and widely shared, it can build up the website's authority over time. Technically, making sure that the content works and does not return an error or 404 page will also help increase the authority of the website.
Trust:
When the website's contents are committed to providing the accurate and trustworthy information, it can help to give the impression that it is a trusted source. For example, if the website clearly cites eligible and trusted source and provide links to reputable health organizations, it can help boost the trust of the reader to read mental health and wellbeing content. A good about us page, vision, and mission, will also help.
Overall, I can easily understand this material in one sitting as I've learned SEO in the past. This material can be improved by using examples so that the readers can also understand how to implement the material. By using examples, it can help the readers to find the connection between EAT factors in content☺️
@SoulfullyAButterfly I found the part about Google search results to be interesting as this is not a topic I'm well versed on. I agree that quality content needs to be fact-based and relevant to the reader.
@SoulfullyAButterfly
Understood ♥︎
Thank you for this. I understand and will be mindful to include these factors in my writing.
@SoulfullyAButterfly
No further questions for now. I have read and understood.
@SoulfullyAButterfly
tjw acronym makes it easy to remember and each component makes sense in that content needs to know and back up what they’re sharing along with having a good reputation among a large population and be relied on as something factual. As of now I have not questions.
