SaaS SEO Guide

E-A-T for SaaS brands: What is it and why is it crucial in SEO?

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What exactly does E-A-T stand for?

The E-A-T acronym stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust. E-A-T is one of Google’s core quality metrics, so it’s rated for every search query. The aim is to ensure all content is useful and safe for users, especially YMYL content.

In late 2022, Google added another E, Experience, to make the acronym E-E-A-T or Double-E-A-T.

Understanding Google’s E-A-T guidelines

Google has a team of search quality raters to assess websites according to Google’s search rater guidelines, including E-A-T.

To determine E-A-T, Google’s raters consider your website’s content and the authors of that content.

For example:

Experience: How much first-hand experience does the content creator have with the topic?
Expertise: How much relevant knowledge or skill does the content creator have?
Authority: To what extent is the content creator or website known as a go-to source for the topic?
Trust: How accurate, reliable, honest, and safe is the page for users?

A visual guide to Google’s E-A-T for SaaS

Google considers Trust to be the most important E-A-T quality since, as they put it:

“Untrustworthy pages have low E-E-A-T no matter how Experienced, Expert, or Authoritative they may seem.”

The amount and type of Trust needed depends on the website.

For instance, product reviews must be honest and written to help others. But most social media posts don’t need such a high Trust level (although E-A-T still goes hand-in-hand with social media and SEO).

That’s not to say Experience, Expertise, and Authority don’t matter. Rather, they serve to support a rater’s Trust assessment.

For example, when someone with extensive experience writes about a topic, it’s more trustworthy than if it’s written by someone with no first-hand experience. It’s the same for Expertise.

Google tells its raters to look in the following places to assess E-A-T:

Your site’s “About Us” page
The author’s profile page
Independent review sites, news articles, references, and so on
Your site’s review and comment sections
Your site’s main content (MC)

These are the areas where it’s most important to show high levels of E-A-T.

Graph showing the clear relationship between referring domains and page ranking

What is the value of E-A-T for SaaS businesses?

E-A-T SEO for SaaS brands is extremely valuable. Content with E-A-T is more likely to rank well on SERPs, even though E-A-T itself isn’t a ranking factor.

Why? Google’s search rater guidelines list E-A-T as one of the defining features of a high-quality page.

User experience (UX) is extremely important to Google, and E-A-T content offers a better experience. Readers look for accurate, informative content, so they’ll quickly leave your site if they don’t find it. And your ranking will suffer.

Content with E-A-T is also more likely to attract backlinks from high-authority domains. Links are a ranking factor, and they tell Google you have something worth sharing. So, they’re a vital part of your enterprise SEO strategy.

Tips for optimizing your SaaS brand’s E-A-T

There are a few things you can do to improve E-A-T for your SaaS brand and give more value to your readers.

Below are five tips based on Google’s E-A-T guidelines:

Include an author bio

According to Google, if an author lacks Experience or Expertise, they’ll rate the page as low-quality. So, all your content should have an author bio that demonstrates why they’re qualified to talk about a topic.

For example, my author bio talks about my extensive SaaS experience, which shows Google’s raters I have a high level of expertise:

An example of an author bio which can aid in showing E-A-T for SaaS

You can also link your author bios to your “About Us” page. Or, create a page for each author that goes into even more detail about their experience, qualifications, and awards.

2. Get positive reviews

Google tells quality raters to look for independent sources of “credible” information on your website or author. So, if you want to rank well on Google and prove your worth to readers, you need positive reviews.

If you haven’t already, make sure your SaaS website is on software review platforms like G2 and Capterra. Then, invite customers to share their experience and engage with any reviews they post一positive and negative.

Responding to reviews helps to humanize your brand and shows customers you care about them. It’s also a great way to signal Trust to Google.

3. Acquire backlinks from authoritative websites

The best way to show your Authority is to get backlinks from high-authority websites. This is what Google has to say:

“One of several factors that we use to help determine [E-A-T] is understanding if other prominent websites link or refer to the content. This has often proven to be a good sign that the information is well trusted.”

Tread carefully, though. Google is getting better at spotting which links are genuine votes for your business and which are only there to promote you.

Here are some suggestions on how to get more authoritative backlinks:

Publish in-demand content like research reports, whitepapers, and ebooks
Connect with journalists and experts in your field at conferences, on social media, and so on
Create interactive content like quizzes and embed it in relevant blog posts
Publish in-depth guides and posts (3,000+ words) that give useful information and tips on a topic you’re an expert on

4. Build E-A-T into your SEO content strategy

Like all aspects of enterprise SEO, demonstrating E-A-T effectively requires planning and consistency.

To do it well, you need to build it into your SEO content strategy. That means reviewing each piece of content against Google’s guidelines to ensure it conveys your E-E-A-T.

Also, take time to find credible sources to back up your statements. For instance, link to studies, academic papers, industry news sites, and so on一sites with a high level of authority.

To check the authority of a site, use an SEO tool like Semrush, which assesses metrics like a site’s quality, popularity, and backlink signals.

5. Regularly update content

Finally, it’s important to regularly update your content since the SaaS industry一and business needs一are rapidly evolving. Users are drawn to the most up-to-date information, as that’s the most useful. Google will also view outdated content as less trustworthy.

Show Google that you’re constantly updating your content

Focusing on evergreen content is one way to avoid this issue. But that’s not always possible, so make sure you perform regular content audits to identify areas that need a refresh.

Then, you can:

Update statistics (you want stats that are no more than three years old)
Replace images, videos, and interactive content
Add new content (for instance, a new section or new paragraphs)
Re-optimize your content for the latest keywords
Add new internal links to relevant posts

Build your SaaS website’s credibility with E-A-T

E-A-T (or E-E-A-T) plays a vital role in how Google rates the quality of your site’s content. So it’s something you can’t afford to ignore.

E-A-T for SaaS brands helps you establish yourself as a thought leader in the SaaS industry. How? By ensuring every piece of content you publish is high-quality and informative. This also helps you achieve a higher ranking on SERPs.

In other words, if you want to build your SaaS website’s credibility and get more organic traffic, you need to E-A-T!