While Google’s guidelines don’t just tell marketers how to make money online, or how to structure their content, they provide a wealth of information about what exactly Google values when searching, what makes a website high quality, and how content should to be written. We are especially interested in this with the last part.
The need for “Expert” writers, according to Google’s search guidelines
It’s no secret that Google has always loved original, useful and well-written content in depth. Many of the latest Google algorithm updates are designed to reward high-quality websites that feature clear, concise, and professional writing, and pages that feature little or no content, poorly structured text, or careless selection or copying. content, Google lowers them in search rankings and their corresponding page rank.
What is interesting about Google’s new guidelines, however, is that they place a huge emphasis on the need for “expert” writers (copywriters), especially on pages that Google considers important to have expertly written text. While it is clear that Google has always valued quality written content, it seems that more than ever, more and more attention is being paid to important information that can help or, for the worse, harm many people. important to be written by “experts” in the field.
EAT: Expert, Authentic, Reliable – Content – Page Standard
EAT is an acronym for Google, which is exactly what a high quality page should do. EAT refers to “Expert, Authentic, Reliable” content and summarizes exactly what Google is looking for in high-quality pages.
According to section 4.3 of Part 1 of the guidelines, “High quality pages and websites need sufficient experience to be authoritative and reliable relevant to their subject matter.”
At first glance, this may seem a bit vague, but Google continues to explain. The guidelines state that in order for a page to possess these qualities, it must be distinguished by “expert” content written by “expert” writers:
- Comprehensive medical care should only be provided by people or organizations that have the appropriate accreditation for it. It should also be written in a professional style and will need to be reviewed, updated and edited regularly to ensure that quality and authoritative information is entered on the site.
- Comprehensive financial advice, tax advice, or legal advice should be written by expert writers and also updated regularly.
- Important advice from web pages that can affect a person’s finances or well-being (this includes investment pages, home remodeling pages, parenting sites and children) should be written by an “expert” writer.
- Hobby pages on topics such as hockey, horseback riding, or photography require expert writers.
Pages that do not have this level of web page expertise, or pages that cover a broad topic but offer little information, will be marked as low quality by Google reviewers. This also applies to pages with low quality main content or content that is simply distracting or useless.
What does an expert copywriter do?
Now that you know which pages require an expert writer, you may be wondering what exactly an “expert” is. It is clear from Google that this depends largely on the subject matter itself. Reviews of a Product (feedback) or the level of a restaurant or hotel, for example, can be considered “Expert”, even if the person who wrote it is not at a secret dinner or is a mystery shopper. While the reviews are detailed and mostly useful, Google considers them to be “expert” written content.
The same goes for forum type discussions. In this case, Google provides an example of a forum for support and mutual assistance for the community of cancer patients, where ordinary people can provide information about how long their loved ones have lived with cancer, for example. Although these people are not doctors and thus are not qualified to write “expert” medical content, their immediate experience (what Google calls “everyday experience”) of cancer makes them qualified to write such content.
The Takeaway? Pages require different levels of competence. While advice on the disease itself – “liver cancer” – should be written by a medical professional or organization, advice on how to deal with it or care in a family situation or environment can be written by a person with immediate experience.
YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) Page Standard
There are some pages that Google has placed under special control. These pages are called, “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) pages. Examples of these pages include:
- E-commerce pages that provide a platform for purchases, money transfers, payment accounts, etc.
- Pages that offer information on investing in stocks and bonds, planning retirement, buying a home, financing for college, buying insurance, or filing taxes.
- Pages that offer specific information or advice on health, drugs, mental health, and nutrition.
- Pages that offer legal information on topics such as child support and parental rights, divorce, citizenship, and writing at will.
YMYL pages are subject to special control by Google because low quality pages can easily negatively affect a Google user, such as health, happiness, or finances. For this reason, it is especially important that these pages must have a high EAT degree and be written by qualified expert writers. As the saying goes, if you’re working on any topic that can have a big impact on users, so if you go into some of the columns above, it’s worth hiring an “expert” writer.
Conclusion
While we’ve always known that Google loves high-quality content, it’s obvious that now it’s more than ever, Google values content that is written by reputable experts and reliable sources.
As the trends for high quality written content will continue in the new 2016, and the requirements in this direction will most likely increase, we can expect to see content in the websites that have these features and they will be rewarded. while pages with low quality, poorly written and structured content are likely to go down in the world rankings. While “expertly” written text has always been an important factor, as detailed in the Google Search Guidelines, it is clear that hiring expert writers (copywriters) is now more necessary than ever for a site to rank, not just in the demand itself, as well as the quality of the site, respectively its products or services. Webmasters will need to invest in a real author who knows how it all works – an industry copywriting expert – instead of just the more general SEO Copywriter.