Let’s start off by a quick explanation of what this means. E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. And that is what you need to create with your website visitors. They need to feel E-E-A-T when they land on your Sports website.
E-E-A-T was made famous during the “Medic Update”. What actually happened is that Google started to look at who was behind the websites.
Basically, Google started to look at;
- …can the visitor see who is behind the website?
- …does he/she have experience?
- …is it an authority?
- …or an expert?
- …or can be trusted?
If there is a “Yes” to all those, then your website is fine. Unfortunately, most websites fail on the first step.
But fear not, it’s easy to fix. In this article we will give you some advice on how you can help the Google robots, spiders and crawlers find the information they need in order to change that.
Basically; A visitor wants to know “Who is behind this website and why should I trust what they write?”
But first… Some disclaimers.
E-E-A-T is extra important for YMYL-topics
First the good news. E-E-A-T is only super important for “YMYL-topics”
YMYL topics are “Your Money or Your Life” topics.
For example: Finance, Insurances or Medical advice.
Sports news are not YMYL topics, so lacking Experience in sports does not necessarily give it a low rating in Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines SQRG.
Google figured that it’s very important that medical advice is written by doctors. But it’s not so important that basketball game reviews are written by athletes.
“But my friend’s sister’s cousin said that E-E-A-T isn’t a ranking factor..?”
There is a wide debate going on if E-E-A-T is a “ranking factor” or not. But the debate is mostly about how to define “ranking factor”, which is kind of silly. If it helps you get traffic – just do it. And let’s face it, you wouldn’t be reading this blog post if you didn’t think it was important, right?
Also, a positive thing about E-E-A-T is that it increases customers’ trust in your product or service which will ultimately lead to a higher conversion rate.
Enough disclaimers, let’s dig into it! Let’s look at some easy to do actions that will increase your E-E-A-T.
How to increase E-E-A-T on your Sports website in simple steps
Step 1: Write in the first person
This might sound a bit strange, but which of the following statements are written by somebody who has first hand experience?
- “Most people say they have a hard time reaching their customer service” OR
- “I had a hard time reaching their customer service”
The second one, right? You need to phrase your texts in a way that the writer understands that it is your story they’re reading. They are reading about your experiences.
Other ways of showing your actual experience could be:
- A picture of you actually being there
- A video of you showing yourself actually doing it
Summary: You show Experience by phrasing the text to show that you have experienced this.
For the Google Bots: Always phrase the text so it’s clearly about your experience (when it is).
Step 2: Provide information about the creator
The next step is easier and requires less effort. Just show everybody who you are.
- Add a byline in the top
- Add a description about the writer in the bottom of the article
- Make sure it’s a real individual, preferably with a real presence online.
The description should show why the writer is an expert on the topic.
At the bottom of this article you can see a text about me;
From the text you can see that I’ve worked with SEO and internet marketing for over 15 years. So as a reader you can see that there is a lot of expertise going into this article.
My description could be improved by stating my Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering and Management and by adding links to my Twitter (X?), an online shop where you can buy my book about e-commerce and my personal website (sorry, Swedish only).
Summary: you show Expertise by clearly stating who created the piece and what that individual's credentials are on the topic.
For the Google bots: Add a persona schema.
Step 3: Provide information about the company behind the website
The next step is to basically do the same thing but for the entire organisation that is behind the website. This is to show that you, as an organisation, have authority on the topic.
Add an About Us section to your website.
Show that there are Humans behind your content and your business.
In that section, clearly show why your organisation is an authority on the topic.
In our About Us section you can see that we have worked with content, SEO, hosting and web publishing for a long time. Our staff also consists of SEO specialists, developers and project managers with degrees from universities. You can see that we are a credible source for information related to those topics.
Summary: You show Authority by making your organisation visible and clearly showing why your organisation is to be trusted.
For the Google bots: Have enough information on a topic to be deemed the “go-to source”. This is called Topical Authority and we will cover that in a different post.
Step 4: Add info and trust markers about your company
The final step is also easy and it will improve your conversion rate. Add trust markers about your organisation.
First step is to, again, clearly show who is behind the website. Add information about who you are, why you exist, your background and how a visitor can reach you.
- About us page
- Address
- Email addresses
- Phone numbers
- A sitemap
Trust markers for the organisation
Things like;
- A Trustpilot rating
- Reviews from clients
- Case studies and client testimonials
- Press releases
- Awards won
Summary: For Trust, clearly show who is behind the website and why those individuals are to be trusted when it comes to the topic.
For the google bot: The google bot loves a good sitemap. And when it comes to trust there is a rumour that it also likes finding many different Email addresses on a website (“support@…”, “sales@….” contact@…”).
Final Thoughts – don’t be afraid
At the end of the day, you want your sport site to get more visitors.
I’ve seen a lot of sports sites that are afraid of writing who is behind the site. Sure, there is a lot of negativity on the internet and maybe somebody won’t like what you write about a certain team, player or game. But who cares? Haters gonna hate.
You are a creator and as such the greatest thrill is having people consuming and enjoying your creations. Ignore the haters and go chase that thrill. Show your visitors who you are and why you should be trusted. I believe that in sports publishing, there is an opportunity here. And you can gain from it.
Gain your visitors’ trust, and Google shall reward you.
Having really good content that shows you know your stuff will make Google like your website more.
If you want someone to check your content, products, and website to make sure you’re following E-E-A-T well, the expert SEO team at Attentionflow.ai can help. Send us a message so we can help you out.
