E-A-T is changing the state of SEO, and the world events of 2020 have only added to this trend. Learn why E-A-T is so important and what you can do to optimize for it.
3. VVIRTUAL ROADSHOW
LILY RAY
About Lily:
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
Lily Ray is the SEO Director at Path Interactive,
where she provides strategic leadership for the
agency’s SEO client programs.
Lily has worked across a variety of verticals with a
focus on retail, e-commerce, b2b and CPG sites.
She loves diving into algorithm updates, assessing
quality issues and solving technical SEO mysteries.
10. VVIRTUAL ROADSHOW V
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
QUERY 1:
VERSION A
ORIGINAL
PAGE
WHAT
RATERS
DO
VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
QUERY 1:
VERSION B
ORIGINAL
PAGE
+
GOOGLE’S
PROPOSED
CHAGE
11. The raters use the
Search Quality Rater
Guidelines to
determine what
Google considers
high vs. low-quality
content.
(PS: you should read them).
12. Connect. Collaborate. Commit.
VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
Search quality
evaluators measure
& assess website
quality & E-A-T in
live user tests
Feedback is
benchmarked and used
to inform future
algorithm updates
Algorithms identify signals
that correlate with E-A-T
(i.e. PageRank & links)
24. VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
High E-A-T news
articles should be
written with journalistic
professionalism,
factually accurate
content, published
editorial policies and
robust review
processes.
25. VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
High E-A-T medical
advice should be
written by people
with appropriate
medical expertise
or accreditation, in
a professional
style and reviewed
regularly.
26. VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
High E-A-T pages
on “home
remodeling” or
“parenting” also
require expertise,
given they are
Your Money, Your
Life (YMYL) topics.
35. VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
We have an important
responsibility to our
users and to the
societies in which we
operate to curb the
efforts of those who aim
to propagate false
information on our
platforms.
- How Google Fights Disinformation
41. Connect. Collaborate. Commit.
VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
I had plans to talk about
how all these things
might be connected…
FAKE NEWS
GOVERNMENT
SCRUTINY
MISINFORMATION PROJECT
NIGHTINGALE
FITBIT
PSEUDOSCIENCE
YOUR MONEY
YOUR LIFE
DANGEROUS
HEALTH ADVICE
#C3NY | @lilyraynyc
ELECTION
SECURITY
44. VIRTUAL ROADSHOWVIRTUAL ROADSHOW
…Due to a sudden
global pandemic
that rocked the
entire world, lead
to nearly 1 million
deaths, caused
economic turmoil,
impacted
elections, and
spawned rampant
misinformation
campaigns.
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
50. VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
Timeline
of Google
updates
related to
COVID-19:
Date Article
3/4/2020 Google I/O Cancelled Over Coronavirus Concerns
3/9/2020 Google Asking Businesses To Update Business Hours & Details For COVID-19
3/10/2020 Google Search Relations Team Grounded During Coronavirus
3/13/2020 Googlers Taking Work Stations Home During Coronavirus
3/13/2020 Google My Business Asking Is The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Affecting Your Business?
3/16/2020 Should Google Halt Search Algorithm Updates During COVID-19 Outbreak
3/17/2020 60% Of SEOs Would Like To Pause Google Algorithm Updates During COVID-19 Outbreak
3/23/2020 Google Stops Accepting Local Reviews & Q&A During Coronavirus Outbreak
3/25/2020 Google Advice On E-Commerce Sites Closing Due To COVID-19
3/25/2020 Google My Business Not Functioning Properly During Coronavirus Outbreak
3/26/2020 Most SEOs Claiming Organic Search Traffic Declines Due To COVID-19
3/26/2020 Google Ads Offers Advertising Advice During COVID-19
4/1/2020 Google Ads New Policy Prevents Profiting Off Sensitive Events, Like COVID-19
4/1/2020 Google COVID-19 Announcements Beta Structured Data
4/2/2020 Google Posts With COVID-19 Updates
4/2/2020 April 2020 Google Webmaster Report: COVID-19, Algorithm Updates, Mobile First Indexing & More
4/3/2020 Google Search Console COVID-19 Announcement Feature
4/3/2020 Google Doodle - Stay Home. Save Lives. Leads To Coronavirus Tips Results
4/3/2020 Google Says They Are Not Filtering Out Sites For Coronavirus Searches
4/6/2020 Google Logo Says Thank You Coronavirus Helpers
4/7/2020 Google Summarizes Its Search Changes For COVID-19 In Tweets
4/7/2020 Google Search COVID Announcements Feature To Be Live Soon
4/14/2020 Google Throttling Crawling Of Sites During The Coronavirus Outbreak?
4/17/2020 Google Now Supports Government Benefits Schema For COVID-19 Announcements
4/21/2020 Google Local Services Ads Enables COVID-19 Highlights
4/22/2020 Google Testing Questions Box In Search Results In US For COVID-19 Queries
4/23/2020 Google Offers Free COVID-19 Posters For Your Business
5/1/2020 Google Question Hub - What Is Your Question Is Wider Than COVID-19 Searches
5/4/2020 Google Has Not Slowed Crawling Your Site Because Of COVID-19
5/5/2020 Nooglers First Day As A Google Employee During COVID-19
5/5/2020 AMP Not Required For COVID-19 Related News In Google Top Stories Carousel
5/7/2020 Google My Business Adds COVID-19 Responder Policy For Hotels
5/7/2020 May 2020 Google Webmaster Report: Core Update, Google Shopping, LinkedIn & COVID-19
5/7/2020 Google Adds COVID Testing Center Details To Local Panel
5/12/2020 Google Posts Prioritizing COVID-19 Posts Over Other Google Posts
5/18/2020 Google AdSense Unable To Review Some Sites Due To COVID-19
5/26/2020 Google Asks SEOs How COVID-19 Changed SEO Work
6/19/2020 Google Ads Begins Issuing COVID-19 Credits
6/22/2020 Google Internship During COVID-10 Pandemic
7/20/2020 Google Ads To Ban Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dangerous Ads
7/24/2020 Google Search Showing Flight & Hotel COVID-19 Impact
58. Connect. Collaborate. Commit.
VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
• Analyzed SEO visibility of 150
of the top COVID conspiracy
and pseudoscience sites
• Sistrix U.S. visibility index
• Date range: January 1 – June
1, 2020
COVID Conspiracy & Pseudoscience Sites:
Methodology
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
59. VVIRTUAL ROADSHOW
FINDINGS
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
• Average SEO visibility*
score for the 150 conspiracy
& pseudoscience sites:
Site Visibility Score (June 2020)
150 conspiracy sites .03 (avg)
286
220
156
141
*Sistrix U.S. Visibility Score
.03 (avg)
60. Connect. Collaborate. Commit.
VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
In other words,
conspiracy sites
are virtually invisible in
Google’s organic search
results.
63. VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
This creates a ripple effect throughout the organic
search ecosystem.
Google’s search results
changed drastically during
COVID-19.
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
64. VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
and the focus on high-
quality health content have
only become increasingly
important in 2020.
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
65. Connect. Collaborate. Commit.
VIRTUAL ROADSHOW
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
The rise in misinformation
related to coronavirus, plus
the 2020 election, have only
elevated the importance of
E-A-T.
66. VVIRTUAL ROADSHOW
E-A-T TIP #1: EXPERTISE
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
Name your authors, editors, and
expert reviewers.
Provide context about them and
their credentials.
Include links to their social
profiles, online mentions, and/or
personal websites.
67. VVIRTUAL ROADSHOW
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
Invest in the individual experts at your
company and expand their online
presence.
Earn personal and organizational
placement in Google’s Knowledge
Graph. Use structured data.
Obtain backlinks from trusted sites
within your category.
Link to authoritative sources.
E-A-T TIP #2: AUTHORITATIVENESS
68. VVIRTUAL ROADSHOW
@lilyraynyc#C3NY
Disclose information about your
business, such as:
The company mission, its
editorial and advertising policies,
its founders and leadership team.
Be transparent about how it
makes money (including affiliate
disclosures).
E-A-T TIP #3: TRUSTWORTHINESS
