Why You Need to Focus on EAT for Local SEO

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In 2014, Google rolled out a crucial update, E-A-T, which stands for (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). 

Ever since its birth, E-A-T has been the talk of the town.

E-A-T is an undeniable factor that Google uses to assess the overall quality of a web page. 

Content is the heart of SEO, and that’s where EAT comes into action to keep it thriving.

Akin to E-A-T’s potential in shaping global search rankings, it significantly impacts local SEO. 

Moreover, local SEO has always been the black sheep of the whole SEO ecosystem. And local businesses must focus on building local E-A-T to gain better local visibility online. 

There are numerous perks that E-A-T holds in local SEO; let’s check some of these. 

Importance of EAT for Local SEO

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1. Local EAT Represents a Local Business’s Prominence 

The E-A-T factor defines a piece of content's authenticity, quality, and credibility. Here is how you can understand the crucial elements of E-A-T content: 

• Expertise: Your content must represent your expertise in the niche. It should meet an adequate content depth and deliver relevant value to the reader.

An expert author should provide the content, and it should be mentioned on the page at the top or bottom of the content.

• Authoritativeness: You need authoritative references and backlinks to exude the authority of your content. If the author is cited in a valuable work or many E-A-T sites give you a backlink, it boosts your credibility. 

• Trustworthiness: Your content must communicate trust and not be biased or deceiving. 

Meanwhile, for local SEO, Google has one way or the other, stated that it evaluates local SEO by primarily looking at these three factors:

• Relevance: The relevancy of the searcher’s query and search intent with a future search result.

• Proximity: The distance between the business and the searcher’s location or the location mentioned by the searcher.

• Prominence: The popularity and authority of a business for the specific location 

Here, the E-A-T factor showcases genuine resemblance with ‘prominence’ and ‘relevancy’.

So, as you attain local citations, backlinks, and positive reviews to grow your ‘prominence factor’, you also grow your ‘authoritativeness’.

Moreover, your local business’s relevancy communicates the ‘expertise’ or value you offer for a specific search query.

2. E-A-T Content Grows Your Local SEO Value

Audiences who saw the relevant content are three times more likely to be satisfied with the results. Meanwhile, the bounce rate increased for the users who felt the content was only somewhat relevant.

Moreover, page quality is a crucial ranking factor for Google. And qualitative-relevant content is an undeniable factor that increases page quality.

So, E-A-T content helps you grow your local SEO value in several ways like:

a) It improves your content’s prominence:

Content curated by an expert to target the local people searching for services in your area helps you win prominence. 

Moreover, as you build your content authority by gaining backlinks and mentions, it further exudes prominence. 

b) It enhances your content’s relevancy:

E-A-T factor focuses on building relevant value for the searcher’s query. And for local SEO, you can do this by enriching the localization factor of your content. 

• You must add location-specific keywords to your content. 
• You must answer the popular long-tail queries through FAQs which will help you appear in the PAA section of SERPs, as shown in the below image. 

• Use your local dialect, currency, and references in your content.

These factors contribute to your content’s expertise, relevancy, and value proposition. 

Moreover, this approach helps you rank for highly-relevant local search and long-tail queries.

3. Local EAT Significantly Impacts Your Local Rankings

The first five results on Google search engine result pages gather more than 60% of the user clicks.

Moreover, the local 3-pack results capture the highest CTR for local-intent searches. So, you are missing significant business unless you rank for the top spots in local searches. 

Hence implementing the right E-A-T approach and local SEO efforts is a must. 

E-A-T factor for local SEO is represented with several elements like: 

• NAP Consistency: A consistent NAP (business name, location, and contact details) across your site, GMB, and listings showcase trust. 

• Local Citations: You must claim your business listing on Yelp, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, etc. Your presence on these sites exudes your brand’s popularity and credibility. Express Update, Factual, and Neustar Localeze are valuable aggregators to help you gain local citations. 

• Local Reviews: Google offers GMB reviews a considerable share in deciding the local search rankings. These reviews reveal the trustworthiness and the value a business offers.

• GMB Images: GMB images give authentic insights into your business. And they have become a crucial E-A-T factor for local businesses. You must use numerous GMB images of your store, street view, staff, menu, ambiance, events, etc. 

Take a look at the below screenshot of a GMB profile having HD images which enhances EAT quality of the site. 

• GMB Profile Relevancy: A significant part of local E-A-T is GMB profile relevancy. Ensure to optimize your profile with detailed business info and the use of relevant local keywords. Use FAQs, long-tail keywords, sub-categories, etc., to further improve relevancy.

• Unstructured Citations & Backlinks: Another authority factor includes brand mentions and backlinks. E-A-T specific content earns you a better reach and backlinks. 

• Social Signals: Your brand’s social presence and engagement are other proof of your popularity. 

Optimizing all these local E-A-T parameters will win you high local search rankings.

4. Increase in Foot Traffic & Sales

Increasing relevant traffic boosts sales (thanks to the expertly curated content!)

It is all about providing customers with the correct and factual information. This adds value to their search.

If local searchers aren’t ready to seal the deal yet, they will be encouraged by your proximity and optimal availability. 

• Business Location: Your location defines the proximity factor crucial for local SEO. So, if you have multiple outlets, you must add their location pages and their addresses to GMB. 

For example, the below screenshot shows the number of outlets added by KFC on GMB. 

• Business Hours: By transparently adding your business or service hours on GMB to showcase your optimal availability. If these business hours resonate with the consumer, you will likely gain a conversion. 

Further, you must add store images, products/services, CTAs, contact info, etc. 

Read: 9 Local SEO Tips To Drive Foot Traffic to Your Business

5. E-A-T Content helps You Win More Engagement and Backlinks

A potentially rich content curated around the trending topic will likely gain engagement. Moreover, E-A-T-specific content is more likely to be shared online. 

More web admins prefer linking to quality content. And so, E-A-T content wins you relevant and high-authority backlinks. 

Quality content also earns you more guest posting opportunities. And you would end up winning more authoritative PR contributions. These efforts will further add to your business’s popularity and online visibility. 

Tip: You must use SEMRush, and Ubersuggest, to track backlink opportunities through competitor research. 

The screenshot below shows a site's backlinks, DA, anchor, etc, that a competitor can leverage to build a link from these sites. 

And the same tools can help you with relevant location-specific keyword insights. 

To further enhance your keyword research, use keywordtool.io and Google Keyword Planner.

Use your keyword insights to analyze the popular long-tail search queries. Producing quality content around these queries and sharing them wins you unstructured citations and links. 

6. E-A-T Could Act as a Review Magnet

Bright Local says 87% of users read online reviews before purchasing from a local business.

People who find you through your high-ranking and credible content trust your business. These people are more willing to opt for your services than your competitors.

And happy customers are more generous to leave you a good and honest review. An excellent positive review on your GMB could work wonders for your business. 

For example, look at the screenshot below of a review provided with photo proof. It creates a positive impression among the audience. 

Good reviews could potentially attract more sales and more happy customers. Moreover, the GMB reviews have a substantial share of your local SEO value. That won’t be possible if you don’t have your business optimized for local SEO. 

You can attain more customer reviews by executing local SEO with the inclusion of E-A-T. Google will interpret that as a sign of efficient customer experience.

Read: How to Respond to Positive & Negative Reviews in Google My Business

7. Improvement in User-metrics and Acquisitions

The goal of local SEO isn’t just to attract relevant visitors and inquiries. But, you must win high engagement and more acquisitions through your efforts. 

When you optimize your site content for E-A-T, you can expect a growth in user engagement. 

A quality-oriented and relevant content will decrease the bounce rate on your pages. You can witness a visible improvement in user metrics, clicks, and conversions. 

Google will also likely use your E-A-T content in the featured snippet for relevant queries, as in the below screenshot. 

EAT is evaluated highly while ranking YMYL websites in the featured snippets. Moreover, your E-A-T content gets more visibility online, which grows your referral traffic.

EAT & Local SEO - FAQs

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Q1. How Does the E-A-T Factor Shape Your SEO Value? 

Ans. E-A-T factor is the standard quality that raters use to assess the site’s quality. Google evaluates your content’s quality based on the E-A-T factor (Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness). And it uses this parameter to define a part of your SEO value. 

Q2. How to Optimize the Content for the E-A-T factor?

Ans. E-A-T represents the three crucial parameters of content: 

• Expertise: The author must be a cited expert in the specific niche. And the content must deliver expert value. 
• Authoritativeness: Google assesses the quality and authority of the content. It must be backed with valuable backlinks and references. 
• Trustworthiness: You cannot expect to rank with content that deceives the reader or is biased. Instead, it must be trustworthy.

Q3. Does the E-A-T Factor Impact My Local SEO?

Ans. Yes, if your local SEO is optimized for the E-A-T factor, you witness perks like:

• Improved engagement, user metrics, and conversions
• Better content reach, backlinks, and citations
• Prominent local presence and improved local SEO value

Increase in inquiries, footfall traffic, and conversions

Key Takeaways

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Using E-A-T with local SEO will help you crack into the top organic results and improve your brand visibility.

Here are some tips for leveraging E-A-T for local SEO:

• Produce E-A-T optimized content for winning quality backlinks 
• Optimize the site content for the E-A-T factor to win positive user metrics and acquisition
• Add location-specific keywords to the site & GMB content for improved localization & relevancy 
• Build trust with consistent NAP, insightful GMB images, and positive GMB reviews
• Build local E-A-T by listing on reputed platforms (Yelp, Foursquare, GMB, etc.) 
• Share your E-A-T optimized content on social media to build social signals and gain links