What Is E-A-T and Why Is It Important to a Medical Practice’s Website

May 30, 2023


E-A-T is an easy way to remember the most important aspects of website success for medical SEO: expertise, authority, and trust. Google uses these traits to determine how a website ranks on a page of results when someone types in a search. The better a site does in each field, the more it is considered a valuable source of information. This increases the chances that Google will direct online users toward it. Developing a strong sense of expertise, authority, and trust is essential for any medical SEO strategy.

Breaking down E-A-T

To improve your E-A-T standards, you first need to understand what each does for your website. By comprehending how Google analyzes your website, you can start fixing any problems the site may have. E-A-T is especially important for medical websites, as these are meant to be trusted sources on healthcare content.

Expertise

Expertise refers to a website’s knowledge in the medical field. Demonstrating that you have equal, if not better, informational content than other medical sites proves that your site is worth ranking higher. People want to find the top information out there, and Google uses your site’s expertise to determine if it deserves to be in the top five results.

Authority

Authority is all about reliability. It does not matter if you have great information on your site if no one thinks to turn to it. You want people to know that your site will get them the right information every time.

Trust

Trust relates to your credibility. In any scientific industry, trust is a must to keep current patients and attract new ones. You can lose the trust of your online audience by presenting false information, linking to uncredible sources, or publishing content that is not of good quality. Once trust is lost, it can be incredibly hard to gain again.

Improving a website’s E-A-T

There are multiple ways you can determine how your website ranks for E-A-T and how to improve it. Take the time to boost your E-A-T with these tips.

Survey patients

To know what Google thinks about your site, you need to know what real people think about it. Survey your patients to see how they view your practice and website. Assess reviews and comments to see what people are saying. Work on improving unsatisfactory features of the site.

Examine pages and posts

Take a critical eye to your website to verify that it looks like the content is written by someone with expertise. Make sure it answers real questions visitors would have. Determine if the site is offering quality information, and edit the content if it does not.

Check backlinks

Backlinks are huge in building credibility and authority. If multiple websites have links to your site, it means your content is trusted. The more sites that backlink to yours, the greater your authority. Consider offering to guest-write for another authoritative website to get more backlinks and build trust.  

Strengthen your site’s brand

Search engine optimization for doctors can be challenging to pin down. Doctor Genius can help you analyze E-A-T and structure a strategy for improvement. Contact us to learn about our SEO services for medical professionals.

Doctor Genius, located at 16800 Aston Street, Suite 270, Irvine, CA 92606, provides a range of services for practice success. We seek to meet our clients’ needs by providing a variety of marketing, SEO, practice optimization tools, and coaching to transform the healthcare experience. Though we work to provide the most accurate information, the content found on this website is solely intended for entertainment purposes. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that the information provided is entirely correct. You may not use the information on this site to cure, prevent, or diagnose a perceived medical issue. If you have healthcare-related needs, please speak directly to a healthcare professional. Never self-perform medical treatments discussed on this website. All images displayed are also for entertainment purposes only, and personal experiences may differ. Please note that the business tactics mentioned on this site might not be applicable to your industry or practice.

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