Earn Google's trust.

In years past, ranking a website in search was relatively clockwork — but Google quickly realized that focusing on just links meant they were being gamed for profit. Its focus has shifted, and it has started to reward sites that provide beneficial information rather than chasing the algorithm itself.

Google is demanding more of local businesses in order to rank them higher. Local experts and authorities have a better chance of ranking when they invest time into creating quality content that addresses key search queries, has an authoritative tone, and uses trustworthiness indicators like rich media, websites, and local mentions.

With another big local algorithm update in the books, it’s becoming even more important to address your local business’s expertise, authority, and trust on the web.

What Is E-A-T?

Expertise, authoritativeness, and trust are what E-A-T stands for — and with it, Google has come up with an innovative way to rank pages based on the quality of content, rather than simply following links.

E-A-T is now a key SEO and local-marketing component businesses must understand to drive home their digital strategy. Any business focused on growing digitally should start with understanding what E-A-T is, and what their strategy should be to increase visibility on digital channels like search.

How Important Is E-A-T in Your Digital Marketing Campaigns?

When it comes to queries, the importance of E-A-T cannot be overstated — though some types matter more than others. If you’re just searching for pictures of random niches, E-A-T probably won’t matter much. On the other hand, if you’re searching for correct measurements or need expert “how-to” advice, E-A-T is undoubtedly important.

In the past, manipulating search was easy and anyone could be classified as an expert. Now, with E-A-T, Google has the ability to surface content from an established writer and authoritative website. Depending on the nature of the query, serving the wrong information can be highly inconvenient — and potentially life-threatening (if you’re searching for medical advice). Google refers to these as Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics, and if your site is built around one of them, understanding E-A-T is crucial.

How Do You Manage E-A-T in Local Marketing Campaigns?

Think long and hard about how a local searcher sends a query to Google. Typically they’re looking for local expertise and a business near them that can fix a problem or provide a service — think “a business near me that can fix my plumbing.”

When you try to find something, you typically gravitate toward a business that stands out with local authoritativeness. In our example, a plumber who provides great service, has great feedback, and whose website has authority and great content.

How to Improve Your Local Authority

Local authority is about reputation. Simply put, when local searchers see you and your content as the go-to source for your industry, that’s authority. To evaluate authority, searchers typically use ratings, content, and mentions to connect the dots to a website or individual. Shoppers look for reviews or sources not written by the brand itself — if you had a Wikipedia page, for example, it’s fairly likely you’re an authority.

Here’s our list of how to start building local authority for your business:

• Google Business Profile categorization and optimization — Choosing the right category is one of the most important steps to earning trust and traffic. Filling out your profile helps establish authority.
• Google reviews — Not just good for trust; a business with legitimate, positive reviews will go a long way toward converting visitors.
• Physical location — Google has cracked down on PO boxes and other verification workarounds. Having a physical location near the city centre helps establish trust.
• GMB and content strategy — Posting content on both your profile and your website provides justification for your local-pack results.
• YouTube strategy — The second-biggest search engine is YouTube. Rich media that talks about your services drives home that you’re an authority. Using NAP (name, address, phone) as video citations always helps.
• Local and niche citations — After your content strategy is in place, signals and links from websites in your niche or geo-area are the cherry on top.
• Structured data — Marking up your business with the proper schema for LocalBusiness and Person entities makes it easier for Google to connect the dots in the Knowledge Graph.

Expertise

Expertise means having a high level of knowledge or skill in an area. It’s evaluated primarily at the content level. Tying your entity across the web as an expert helps prove the qualifications and education of the content creator — think “how-to” content, video, tutorials, and real-life experience.

Trust

Trust in a website is determined by three factors: legitimacy, transparency, and accuracy. With local businesses, searchers look at reviews, content, and transparency about who is responsible for published content. High-quality content must be factually accurate and generally supported by experts.

Trust is a tricky concept. People and websites can’t always be perceived as trustworthy in every area, but generally, if it’s niche-related there’s a good chance they can be relied upon. For example, you’d listen to Sixo Agency for marketing and SEO tips — but you’re not coming to our website for food recipes.

How to Improve Your E-A-T Score for Local SEO

The first step is to understand that demonstrating and improving E-A-T are two different things. You can’t demonstrate it if you don’t have it, so your main challenge is getting Google to understand that you’re an authority in your local area.

Build More Links

Still the #1 ranking signal. Links mean people are talking about your brand. They’re a factor in how well your site ranks for certain keywords. As Google’s Gary Illyes has noted, E-A-T involves links and mentions from authoritative sites. Google is also incredibly good at understanding which links count, so build high-quality over low-quality.

Provide an Active Content Plan

An active content plan is imperative for establishing E-A-T. In medical or financial niches you absolutely need one. But what about the local plumber? We believe an active content plan is still one of the most important things — how can a page be trustworthy or authoritative if its content misleads or is three years old?

Get More Reviews

A no-brainer. Reviews are critical. Google tells Quality Raters to use online reviews to help judge trust and authority. Focus on getting more positive reviews across the web — Google Reviews are the go-to, but depending on your niche, places like TripAdvisor (for hotels) matter too.

Get More Mentions

Mentions on well-known industry websites can be an important tool for improving authority. Quality Raters look for these when assessing reputation. To get started, publish unique content and data that others will reference.

Hire Experts

Coming up with an aggressive E-A-T strategy can feel overwhelming for a local business owner. The solution: hire experts to help you. Look for people with a proven track record, or who are already creating high-quality content on the topic.

Final Thoughts

E-A-T aligns with relevant content, location, categorization, and good reviews — and it may be even more important than we realize. It’s incredibly important for local SEO, and it all starts with some simple processes:

1. Be legitimate in the information you provide. If you can’t do it yourself, hire local experts. Your goal is to care about your customers, have values, and do what a real company would do.
2. Demonstrate your authority and importance to Google with quality content on a regular schedule. Get reviews, backlinks, and mentions for your business.

It really is simple — it just takes a lot of time and effort to accomplish. We see local business owners launch a new website and get frustrated with the results. Remember, Google is a machine and doesn’t owe you or your business anything. Having a website doesn’t guarantee a rank; properly optimizing it and providing more authoritative content than your competitors is what separates you in Google’s eyes. Google changes all the time, and some of this criteria will too — but E-A-T will likely continue to evolve and play a more important role moving forward.