Reading Time: 3 minutes
How Does Google Evaluate Experience
Google has been evaluating content based on EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) for years now. These three characteristics have guided Google’s algorithm in how it measures the quality of content. Lately, Google has added a fourth characteristic: Experience.

Why Is Google Adding Experience?

The intention behind adding Experience to its content quality evaluation is to help provide the best possible content for users. If someone is searching for reviews on a pair of shoes, for example, that information is better coming from someone who’s purchased them and worn them rather than someone who hasn’t.

When Is Experience Applicable?

Experience applies to all kinds of content. A demonstration is best performed by someone who’s done it before. A museum is best reviewed by someone who’s actually been there. A restaurant is best described by someone who has been there or who works there.

Why Is Experience So Important?

Experience ties into Trust, the final characteristic of the EEAT acronym. Google considers Trust to be the most important of those qualities, with the others there to support it. The idea is that users will trust someone more who has first-hand, personal experience with the content they’re providing, not just knowledge about it.

How Does EEAT Help Your Search Rankings?

EEAT is Google’s content quality assurance program. It’s how you demonstrate not just to Google but to your audience that you know what you’re talking about and can be trusted to provide accurate, helpful, and trustworthy content. You’re demonstrating that you’re an authority in that topic that they should trust to give them information they need and want.

How Does Google Measure EEAT?

Google ranks web pages on its SERPs using an algorithm, so how can it measure something subjective like experience or trustworthiness? The short answer is that it can’t. The long answer is that Google measures users’ behavior regarding your content and translates that into its guidelines for what makes content high-quality (the EEAT guidelines). Google may also analyze the keywords in your content, looking for not just the ones you’re trying to rank for but also other words you’d expect to find in quality content about that topic (for example, bamboo, conservation, and China in content about giant pandas).

What User Behavior Does Google Measure?

Google takes into account user behavior when it ranks pages. This behavior includes how quickly they return to the SERP after clicking on a result, how many different web pages on a particular site they visit, and how they interact with a site. If a user clicks on a link and then almost immediately navigates back to the SERP, that’s a sign that that page wasn’t what the user was looking for and therefore should be lower down in the search results. By contrast, a site where the user stays for a long time, views multiple pages, watches videos, makes a purchase, signs up for a newsletter, etc. is one that is more likely to rank higher for that keyword.

How Do You Demonstrate Experience?

So you have first-hand experience with the topic you’re producing content about. But how do you demonstrate that first-hand experience in a way that Google will understand? Primarily, you should focus on demonstrating your experience to the user. Users are more likely to trust someone with personal experience and will therefore be more engaged with that content, which will translate into the positive user behavior that Google rewards.

Need help in improving your presence on search engines?

Share This