If you own a website or do SEO, you need to be familiar with the Search Quality Rater Guidelines (QRGs) that Google publishes. These 172-page documents provide guidelines for quality raters, who evaluate the information on search results pages and offer feedback to the Google algorithms that rank web pages in their search engine.
One of the primary rating guidelines deals with E-E-A-T, which stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. The guidelines say that pages with high E-E-A-T satisfy real user needs and have a clear purpose. They also have a well-respected author, excellent content that is useful and understandable, and a positive reputation.
How do Google’s Quality Raters evaluate E-E-A-T?
What E-E-A-T is? The guidelines also look at how the page addresses YMYL queries, which are queries that could have implications for the user’s life or livelihood. They also look at how the page meets the intent of a search, such as whether it answers the question, provides recommendations, or offers advice.
Lastly, the guidelines look at how the content is presented and whether it’s objective, factual, and trustworthy. For example, if a page gives medical advice, it must be from a healthcare professional. Google also looks for authoritativeness. For example, if an article is published through a scientific journal, it’s considered to have higher authority than an article published on a personal blog or news website.
The guidelines also encourage quality raters to research the author and their reputation to help them assess a site’s E-E-A-T. For this reason, it’s important for businesses to have author bios or links to their social media profiles on their About Us page.