With an increasing focus on importance, E-A-T is becoming a very valued aspect of any website for Google.

E-A-T stands for Expertise (information about the creator), Authoritativeness (the authority of the website, content creator, and the content itself), and Trustworthiness (the trustworthiness of the website, content creator, and content). Today, we will be focusing on the E – Expertise.

What is Expertise?

Expertise incorporates all the credentials and distinctions of the website and the content author.

It’s often difficult to determine exactly how Google decides the level of expertise a website demonstrates. However, evidence shows that Google will more easily recognize a website’s expertise if said website posts any recognized industry awards they might have received on one of their main landing pages.

The author’s expertise can be based on whether the author has won accolades or are renowned in the field they are writing about. An author can demonstrate their authority by having relevant experience, a degree in a specific topic, or by working in that sector.

Depending on the subject of your page, the definition of expertise can change. A typical person or hobbyist can be perceived as an expert if the content topic is relevant to their own personal experiences.

What is Google’s view on Expertise?

Google uses Expertise to determine whether content is high or low-quality. It’s essential to understand the expertise of your content, as there is a difference between an experienced expert writing about their field to a marketeer creating the content to gain links.

In August 2018, Google released a broad core algorithm update that many named the “medic” update. The update’s name was due to its significant impact on medical websites as it affected Your Money, Your Life (YMYL)sites. Our research below showcases the effect of the August update on the organic traffic of emedicinehealth.

Organic Traffic of Emedicinehealth

The primary purpose of the update was to create a safer SERP (Search Engine Results Page) by placing more importance on reputation and reviews, especially compared to your competitors. Doing so provides the user with the best and safest match for their search query.

With YMYL sites, expertise is of the utmost importance, as readers need to be assured they can rely on the author’s knowledge. This is because YMYL can incorporate topics relevant to their industry and authority. Below are some example topics and popular websites that provide users with knowledgeable content in their specific field:

How do you incorporate Expertise into your site?

There are many ways to improve your site’s expertise and for your content to be deemed high-quality. Below we have detailed what should be incorporated into your content and why these are important.

About Us page

The best way to start is by creating an About Us page that showcases who your company is, what you do, and how you do it. The information on this page provides the user with all the relevant information they need to know about your offerings as a business and indicates your authority to search engines.

Author pages

Creating author pages that collate the experts’ credentials, which can be who they are, their job role, and why they do it, is another excellent idea to boost your site’s expertise.

Awards are a crucial part of the author’s expertise, so if you can add them to the author page, do so. This proves to Google and the user that the author is renowned in their field and an expert in that sector.

You can attach these pages to each blog they write, linking to other content pieces by the author to build expertise and trustworthiness of a piece of content. This works with pages from other websites as well as your own.

To increase the expertise of your blog even more, you should show all the research you have mentioned or referred to and update blogs regularly, so references are always up-to-date.

Show your sources

The best way to showcase your expertise with factual pieces of content is to state the sources you used in your research, as this backs up your claims and strengthens your expertise in the field.

Case Study pages

Another page you can add to your site is a testimonials/case studies page, which proves to Google that your organisation are experts in your field. Evidence that demonstrates you have worked with a wide array of companies also adds to the trustworthiness of your site.

Question/Comments pages

A great way to show your expertise is by creating a contact page for further questions or comments to show how you can best help readers with their problems or questions.

Schema

Schema is an excellent optimisation that can be easily implemented into your website. It can provide additional information about something that Google might not have understood without the help of structured data. In short, schema reduces ambiguity among entities, which helps create new connections Google wouldn’t have made in its Knowledge Graph.

Google’s guidelines don’t specify which schema attributes it fully supports or which ones have more value, so it’s not guaranteed which specific attributes to use for Google. In this case, attributes on Schema.org should be applied where relevant.

Schema can be used in multiple ways to boost the expertise on your site. For example, the links between the organization that publishes the website and the organization that creates the product must be explicitly stated and differentiated. This is because your organisation may be experts in the products field, but the organisation that publishes the website might not be, so it is best to distinguish which organisation is the product manufacturer.

Organisation Schema

You will need to use organisation and person schemes to show your expertise.

Organisation schema provides a range of attributes that can create context for your business or brand, emphasizing how your organisation is an expert in your field. For example, you would use the Founder attribute to add the details of the company’s founder, and if they are renowned in their field, this would positively affect your expertise.

hasCredential is another important attribute, as it showcases the credentials awarded to a person throughout their career, which would help back up your expertise. The attribute knowsAbout is used to mention a field you are well-versed in while making no assumptions about knowledge. They do not differentiate skill levels or tie them to school objectives, events, or job posting descriptions.

Other organisational data you can add to your schema includes the Address attribute, which would showcase the business’s physical address. The attribute Duns adds The Dun & Bradstreet DUNS number for identifying an organization or business person. This would be helpful to add because it is linked with your organisation and sector. Finally, you would use the memberOf attribute to show Google which organisation you belong to, which can help prove your expertise.

Person Schema

Person schema provides options for listing properties to provide more context about the person, many of which strongly support Expertise. The person schema affiliation showcases the organisation that this person is affiliated with. If the organisation has an abundance of expertise, this will improve expertise on your site.

AlumniOf is an attribute that displays what organisation this person has been an alumnus, which adds to the career and expertise of this specific person. The award schema showcases an award won by or for this item that improves your expertise in that field.

Other person schemas can add to your expertise. You can use hasCredential again, like in your organisational data. With the hasOccupation property, you can share with Google your current occupation, and for past occupations, you can use Role. Another similar attribute is jobTitle, as you can share your current job title with Google. Two of the last substantial pieces of schema attributes are honorificPrefix, which allows you to state an honorific prefix preceding a person’s name such as Dr/Mrs/Mr, and honorificSuffix, which allows you to state an honorific suffix following a person’s name such as M.D. /Ph.D./MBE.

There are many ways to increase your expertise on your website, and with these ways listed above, you will keep up with the latest E-A-T trends.