Hopefully you have heard of Google EAT by now, but you may be wondering just how to effectively apply it to a Google Business Profile (formerly “Google My Business”) listing? Expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (E-A-T) can be extremely powerful in helping a business to gain Google’s trust. Today I’ll walk you through understanding EAT at a high level, provide you with an important infographic which you can save and share with your team – and the opportunity to download our guide to learn even more about EAT.
Google EAT’s Role With a Google Business Profile Listing
According to a study completed by BrightLocal, the average business’ Google Business Profile listing is found 152 times in direct searches and 852 times in discovery searches, translating to discovery searches being 84% of total searches. This means that in search, consumers are more often looking for a product or service, and not a specific business. If a business wants to be “discovered” then it must understand how to apply expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness to their Google Business Profile (GBP) listing.
Here’s a brief explanation of EAT as it relates to a GBP listing:
Expertise
Businesses can’t just tell people that they are experts in their field or industry, they have to prove it. Expertise means that a business is showing that it has a total knowledge of their product, service or skill – and this knowledge should be shown across multiple social media channels.
Authoritativeness
When consumers are looking for answers, they go to the business that is an authority in that area. To become the authority, a business needs to show that they are reliable and can be trusted, which comes through by maximizing the usage of features available within a Google Business Profile listing.
Trustworthiness
It can certainly be challenging to prove trustworthiness to both consumers and Google, but it can be done. To exude trustworthiness, all activity across every social media channel and anywhere online must be honest, transparent and real.
The action steps outlined in this infographic will lead a business to gain the trust of both Google and consumers.
