The success of any given website can hinge on where it ranks in search engine results. One of the most important factors in how a given website is ranked has largely been established by Google’s Quality Raters Guidelines. This set of guidelines has had a huge impact on where and whether certain websites get seen in searches. The ratings produced by Google’s team of assessors directly affect how the search algorithm correspondingly ranks websites, which of those sites get seen, and which ones fade into the background of a search.
While the actual ranking guidelines were a well-kept secret for years, they only recently saw the light of day. Needless to say, they have proven to be an extremely valuable resource for anyone doing business or providing services on the internet.
One of the most important things the industry learned from these guidelines is that Google rates specific types of websites much more stringently than others. Namely, sites that are categorized as “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) are considered a top priority for Quality Raters, as they “potentially impact the future happiness, health, or financial stability of users” (Google Quality Raters Guidelines).
If your website fits into one of these categories, Google has likely categorized it as YMYL. If you are unsure, think about whether your product or service pertains to a topic that might be of high importance to a person’s life decisions (e.g., a child adoption site, car-seat consumer safety, etc.). If it is, then it’s also a YMYL site.
The Google Quality Raters Guidelines also highlighted another major factor in their ratings besides YMYL and that’s how authoritative the site is. Google uses the acronym E-A-T for Experience, Authority, and Trustworthiness as a ranking measure.
In short, the E-A-T rating for your website is meant to be a ranking of public trustworthiness – the answer to #fakenews. There are many things you can do to improve your EAT rating, and most are pretty simple.
One final piece of advice for ranking better with E-A-T in mind is not to be shy. Make sure your name (or someone’s name) and title are on your blogs or news section. The first step to proving your authority and expertise is claiming the content on the page. And Google’s crawlers are definitely looking to see who is contributing to these sites.
Need more insight on how your YMYL or medical website can survive the Medic Update? Or, are you ready to put your E-A-T to the test?
Let’s get to work. Call (419) 540.4437 or email toledoseoforgrowth@gmail.com to get started today.
Google’s job is to help users find trustworthy content. The more trustworthy you make your site, the better you will rank, especially if you are part of the YMYL world. If you’re looking for help with your YMYL site, call Toledo SEO for Growth at (419).540.4437 or email toledoseoforgrowth@gmail.com.