SEO is the key if you want to stay on top of your business and make the most out of digital marketing. And there’s another SEO acronym that you need to decipher and understand, which is EAT. It means A High Level of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. If you’re working with SEO, you’ll need to expand your SEO toolbox and be ready to use all the new tools that can help your business become more credible. As you know, optimizing SEO for your business can also help grow brand awareness!

It’s no secret that Google is one of the frontrunners if you want internet users to find you. Of course, they can be tightlipped when it comes to their page rankings. But they had shown a snippet, such as in 2015 when they released their Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. Here, you can easily differentiate the good web pages from the bad with three factors. These are Beneficial Purpose, EAT, and ymyl (Your Money or Your Life). Let’s learn more about these three factors here.

What is Beneficial Purpose?

When the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines were updated in 2018 and 2019, they put a stronger emphasis on beneficial purpose. You can find all of these under Section 2.2, called “What is the Purpose of a Webpage?” The section states the purpose of the webpage is the reason why it was created. All web pages on the internet were built with a purpose, and they should be emphasized. For example, a webpage designed to help internet users is called beneficial purpose. Some are made to harm others, while there are web pages designed to make money.

The first step in understanding a page is to know its purpose. If you want a webpage with a higher PQ rating, it should be beneficial to other people. Conversely, those designed to cause harm or make money will receive the lowest PQ rating.

YMYL: Your Money or Your Life

YMYL or Your Money or Your Life are web pages with content that could have a negative impact on the quality of life of people. Google’s SQEG says that YMYL are web pages that could potentially impact a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. Some examples of a YMYL webpage are news, civics, government, & law, finance, shopping, health & safety, and more. YMYL is important because it determines the reliability of the content. The same goes for EAT.

If you want to optimize for YMYL, you can first determine if your webpage is one. Next, make sure persons with expertise on the topic publish your content. You can also build a profile for the content creators, such as an author’s bio. There are many other steps to take when optimizing YMYL, but you only need to ensure that your content is factually accurate.

EAT: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness

EAT means Expertness, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Expert refers to the creator of the main content. Ensure that they are an expert on the topic and that they have credentials. Authoritativeness refers to the main content, the creator, and the website where the MC appears. Finally, Trustworthiness refers to the content, the creator, and the webpage. But it has to provide a sense of Trustworthiness that people know is true and accurate.