Structured data and why are significant for a website’s E-A-T?
Since its introduction via an algorithm update by Google in 2018, the concept of E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) has gained significant traction in the SEO community and has emerged as a prominent topic of discussion.
What is E-A-T and how schema markup and structured data can help with it?
Structured data and schema markup are critical components of any successful SEO strategy, particularly when it comes to improving your website’s E-A-T. In this article, we’ll explore why structured data and schema markup are so important for E-A-T and how you can use them to improve your website’s ranking and credibility.
What is E-A-T
E-A-T is a concept introduced by Google in its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, which are used by Google’s human evaluators to evaluate the quality of search results. E-A-T is an acronym that stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
E-A-T is a critical concept in the world of SEO. It refers to the level of credibility, expertise, and trustworthiness that a website and its content have in the eyes of Google and other search engines.
The reason why E-A-T is so important is that Google’s ultimate goal is to provide its users with the most relevant and trustworthy search results possible. To achieve this goal, Google employs a complex algorithm that takes into account hundreds of different factors, including E-A-T. Websites that demonstrate a high level of E-A-T are more likely to rank well in search results and attract more traffic to their site.
On the other hand, structured data is a way of organizing information on your website using a specific format. This format allows search engines like Google to easily understand the content on your website and provide more detailed and informative search results to users. Schema markup is a specific type of structured data that uses a standardized vocabulary to describe the content on your website. This vocabulary includes things like product information, reviews, ratings, and more.
So, how do structured data and schema markup help improve your website’s E-A-T?
There are several ways:
- Improve Credibility and Trustworthiness
When you use structured data and schema markup on your website, it provides additional information to search engines about your website and the content on it. This information can help Google evaluate the credibility and trustworthiness of your website, which is a key component of E-A-T.
For example, if you have customer reviews and ratings marked up using schema, it shows Google that you are transparent about the feedback you receive and that you take it seriously. This can help increase your website’s trustworthiness in Google’s eyes. - Highlight Expertise
Structured data and schema markup can also help highlight the expertise of your website and its authors. For example, if you have a blog post written by a medical doctor about a specific health condition, you can use schema markup to highlight the author’s credentials and expertise in that field. This can help increase the perceived expertise of your website and improve it’s E-A-T. - Provide More Informative Search Results
When you use structured data and schema markup on your website, it can provide more detailed and informative search results to users. This can help increase user engagement and trust in your website. For example, if you have a product page marked up with schema, it can provide users with detailed information about the product, including price, availability, and reviews. This can help increase user confidence in your website. - Improve Rich Snippets
Rich snippets are a type of search result that includes additional information, such as ratings, reviews, and prices. When you use schema markup on your website, it can help improve the quality and accuracy of these rich snippets, which can help increase user engagement and trust in your website. This, in turn, can help improve your website’s E-A-T.
Structured data can play a crucial role in helping your organization deliver E-A-T content, primarily by establishing a strong relationship between your brand, your content, and search engine crawlers.
Additionally, you can leverage organization schema to create connections that search engines might not have been able to establish otherwise, which can set you apart in a crowded market.
In conclusion, structured data and schema markup are essential components of any successful SEO strategy, particularly when it comes to improving your website’s E-A-T. By using structured data and schema markup, you can improve your website’s credibility and trustworthiness, highlight the expertise of your authors, provide more informative search results to users, and improve the quality of your rich snippets. So, if you’re not already using structured data and schema markup on your website, now is the time to start.
