Google Search Quality Guidelines: What is an Expert?

As reported by Jennifer Slegg last week, Google has issued a new set of quality rating guidelines to its external team of manual reviewers. These are the folks hired by a third party, which have been contracted by Google, to manually review that its algorithms are on track in providing the most relevant search results, and best quality sites to the end user.

One of the most talked about topics covered in this latest release is the E.A.T. concept.

E.A.T stands for:

Expertise
  • Expertise
  • Authoritativeness
  • Trustworthiness

If an evaluated website displays these qualities, and is relevant for the search query, it stands to reason it would receive a medium to high rating. Sites that lack in those aspects, and appear either fraudulent or spammy, run the risk of a low rating.

So who is considered an expert?

According to Slegg, Google has stated that the definition of who is an expert is often defined by its relation to the sector of the search query. In some sectors it may be more difficult to determine the level of expertise, as not every subject has a way to qualify expertise. An example of an anomaly would be a forum, where user feedback may be highly valuable to the searcher, but may not be from a professional (say a doctor) but rather someone with experience of a particular problem.

Google has been telling us what to do for some quite time now – create good, well written, informative content. Be the resource that searchers are looking for. This system of rating shouldn’t really come as that much of a surprise, as it seems to be the mantra of many a Matt Cutts Youtube video. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Google’s new quality guidelines. Check out the full article for more insights on what’s been updated