Google’s John Mueller answered whether a content author’s expertise is important to Google’s algorithm because it plays an important role in the Quality Raters Guidelines. John replied that he thought there was some indirect work done on the author’s expertise but noted that it was a “fuzzy spot.”

EAT and Google’s Algorithm

It has been adopted that the Google Quality Raters Guidelines are guidelines for standardizing how third party raters rate search results tested by Google.

The purpose of the Quality Raters Guidelines is to bring a certain amount of objectivity to judging the search results reviewed for usefulness.

John Mueller discusses the Expert Author

So, instead of raters using their own judgment, Google provides guidelines for them to use to standardize their judgment.

Google recommends using guidelines as a way for publishers and SEOs to really judge websites, which some consider to be the factors described in the document are in the algorithm.

As a consequence, the question remains whether some of these factors that are emphasized as important in the guidelines of quality raters are also important to Google’s algorithm.

EAT, meaning Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, is one of the factors that the SEO community is concerned about.

Google Author and Algorithm Specialist

This particular question has to do with the expertise of the content author.

The person asking asked:

“I have some questions about EAT.

In the Quality Raters Guidelines, the author’s expertise is essential.

So do you think this is important for real algorithms? “

John Mueller asked for clarification of what he meant.

The person asking clarified:

“I mean, EAT is only mentioned in the Quality Raters Guidelines.

But I want to know if real algorithms also care about EAT factors like the author’s expertise. ”

Indirect Access to the Author’s Expert

John Mueller does not confirm that there is a direct focus on the author’s expertise in algorithms. He simply said he assumes there is indirect work for determining expertise.

John Mueller replied:

“I suppose there’s some indirect kind of work being done to try to do similar things, yeah.

I mean, we put it in the guidelines so we can guide quality testers to re -evaluate these things and if we think it’s something important, I’ll assume people on the… side of search quality is also working to try to understand that in a more algorithmic way. ”

EAT is Not a Score Algorithm

John next warns against thinking about EAT as a ranking factor or a metric.

Mueller continues:

“But I don’t see it as having an EAT mark and you have to get a” 5 “or something like that.”

Content Expert

Mueller next returned to the subject of the author’s expertise and said it was more like trying to understand how content fits across the web.

Understanding how something fits into the context of the rest of the web is something Mueller has been talking about a bit recently.

Mueller clarifies:

“It’s more of a kind of test to understand the context of web content.

And that is a very vague place. ”

Content Expert

Interesting how Mueller begins his answer by talking about indirectly understanding the author’s expertise and then discussing the idea of ​​expertise associated with the content itself by referring to understanding the context of web content.

How important is an author’s expertise?

Maybe we should ask, what defines the expertise, the author’s credentials or what content they publish?

For example, let’s consider a hypothetical case of a website full of medical misinformation published by a doctor.

How important is the doctor’s expertise compared to the expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness of the content itself?

In theory, an expert author should write expert content.

But is it proof of expertise in the author’s credentials or is it a quality of the content itself?

As John Mueller said, it’s a very fuzzy place.

Sipi

Is Author Expertise Important in the Google Algorithm?

Watch at 10:36 minute mark: