E-E-A-T is shaping the way every creator on the internet thinks about SEO, but how does it affect food bloggers? We’ve pulled together our best tips for building your E-E-A-T on your food blog.
This post contains affiliate links. I receive a commission if you choose to make a purchase through these links.
Experience. Expertise. Authoritativeness. Trustworthiness.
No, this is not an elementary school lesson in character traits. These are the words behind Google’s concept of E-E-A-T, a way it evaluates content on its credibility and relevance. While it’s not how Google ranks content, how helpful and original your content is contributes to ranking factors.
Creating helpful content is something we all want to do. After all, last fall’s Helpful Content Update (HCU) has left a bitter taste in all of our mouths, even if we weren’t affected.
You can read more about E-E-A-T in Google’s search rater guidelines if you’re interested, but today we wanted to focus on how you can bring these ideas into food blogs specifically.
What is E-E-A-T?
Google put out a guide on creating helpful content and how to self-assess your content. Let’s first go over the words in the acronym and what they mean.
- Experience: Google prefers firsthand or life experience on the topic.
- Expertise: The search engine is looking to make sure the author has clout and knowledge on the topic and that they are an expert in their field.
- Authoritativeness: Google is looking for others to recognize you as an authority on the topic.
- Trustworthiness: This one is the most important. You want your readers to trust you!
So how do we work all of these into our blogs and our content? Here are a few things you can do.
About page
This is one of the most important pages on your website. Readers, potential brands and clients will visit this page to learn all about you. But what is actually there right now? How long ago did you update it?
It’s time to re-write your about page to position yourself as an expert. It’s important to showcase who is responsible for the website. It’s not your resume, but it’s the best place to share your experience and expertise.
Photos and videos of you
On the internet, it’s hard to trust people. Displaying professional headshot shows readers you are a real person and can help them relate to you and build trust.
Putting your voice and your visage in photos and videos not only lets people see behind the scenes but also lets them picture the real person behind the content. Hearing your tips and seeing you perform the steps of a recipe is helpful, and the kind of thing that keeps people coming back for more.
“As seen on” section or page
This one’s all about the authoritativeness and expertise. Any kind of proof of your features, awards and press mentions is a great way to show off yours. When people big names like MSN or Buzzfeed, it instantly tells them, “Wow, a trusted brand trusts them.”
Consider finding a place on your site to add:
- how you learned your craft
- certifications and awards you’ve earned
- well-known pages where your work has been seen
- publications where you’ve been featured
Author boxes
If you have writers on your team, you might consider adding an author bio to their articles. This shows readers who is behind that page, without them needing to click to another page.
You can add these with reusable blocks or an author box plugin. It should be a short version of your About page — your greatest hits.
Backlinks
Earning backlinks from other websites, especially trusted ones, is a great way to show your authoritativeness. Pitching yourself to podcasts, agreeing to be interviewed for articles and responding to journalist requests like HARO
If you have written for other publications, you could set up a profile on Muckrack, a digital network of reporters and journalists. They can see your credentials in one spot and pitch you for stories.
Likewise, linking to other sites that you deem an expert in a topic is being a good internet citizen.
Recipe development
We all know recipes should be tested at least once or twice before sharing them on your blog. Why do we do this? There is nothing worse than finding a recipe you want to make and spending money on the ingredients, only for it to totally flop!
Making sure your recipes are well-tested and actually work is key to building trust with the people who make them. Equally, it’s important to double-check them before you publish. Are all the ingredients and steps present? Work with a proofreader to read through your recipes, if possible.
As much as we all hate mean commenters, keep an eye out for recipes that readers report aren’t working and consider re-testing it. If you do update a recipe, you could add a footnote indicating that you re-tested it and what you changed. This shows readers your commitment to recipes that actually work.
Recipe ratings
In line with developing great recipes, it’s just as key to train our readers to rate them and leave honest reviews. Those 5-star ratings really mean a lot, especially when there are hundreds and thousands of them! When someone is searching, it shows that recipe is a great one — why wouldn’t they pick it over one with two 4-star ratings?
However you can, encourage readers to rate recipes and leave honest reviews. You could add a reusable block to all of your posts, tell your readers about it on Instagram stories or include a reminder on your email newsletter.
Website security
One way to lose trust is to have a spammy website. Pages that are glitchy or redirect to a bad ad are a surefire way to get someone to close the tab and never come back.
- Check your SSL certificate. A few years ago, there was a big push for websites to have SSL certificates because browsers will notify a visitor that a site isn’t secure. Now this is common with all hosts, but it’s something to check.
- Update your plugins — regularly. Outdated plugins are a great way for hackers to get into your site, so keep them updated to prevent malicious software that could make your website seem fraudulent to a user or — worse — break your website.
- Make sure your site is safe from hackers. Running a website firewall or security plugin is a good first step to preventing malicious behavior.
- Work with a managed host. Switch to a great managed host (we like Bigscoots) who could help you in a bind. They can also install security measures, monitor things and keep your site running smoothly.
E-E-A-T: Where to go from here?
None of these is a magic button that will make your site rank higher. After all, E-E-A-T qualities are not ranking factors. However, they contribute to things that are ranking factors.
Think about a visitor who goes to a site for a dinner recipe. The site has a clean design and the reader feels excited they found it. They make the recipe and it turns out great, so they rate it 5 stars. They come back next week for another dinner idea, and even stay longer to read more articles and subscribe to the newsletter.
And now think about them going to another site. There are tons of pop-ups and the site glitches. If they don’t X out of the site now, they stay because they are excited about the recipe they found. However, the recipe doesn’t turn out how they expected, so they rate it 2 stars. And then they don’t come back.
The first site is more likely to rank higher than the second because it feels more professional, safe and trustworthy. A reader is more likely spend more time there and re-visit it, sending ranking signals like more time on site and returning users over to the search engines.
How Can We Help?
As you plan more content or consider a redesign, think through all these aspects of E-E-A-T and how you could work on them to showcase yours.
The Grace + Vine team is here to help, too.
Our new Crafted Websites are a great way to build beautiful, user-friendly sites that are the next step toward building all the qualities of E-E-A-T. If you’re ready to get out of that cookie-cutter theme, our semi-custom themes are the perfect solution.
Leave a Comment