Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) are a framework used by the search engine to assess content quality. It’s a part of a strategy to determine whether the search engine results pages (SERPS) are returning information that is relevant to the query and of a high quality.
The quality of the content is not assessed by algorithms, but by highly trained employees. They are essentially looking for trustworthiness, so that Google can deliver the best possible user experience and protect them from potentially harmful or misleading information.
This is particularly important when it comes to the healthcare industry, including pharmacy ecommerce websites.
Your Money or Your Life
Health is considered to be a Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topic, because it is crucial to quality of life and wellbeing (alongside finances). Therefore, Google’s human reviewers are particularly vigilant when it comes to assessing the quality of the content for these topics.
If they find that the SERPs are returning substandard content that scores poorly on their E-E-A-T framework, action may be taken to adjust the algorithms.
This means that health related sites such as online pharmacies can fall down the rankings if they do not meet the E-E-A-T criteria. This can lead to reduced visibility, fewer website page visits, and potentially diminished trust and credibility among the target audience.
What do the components of E-E-A-T mean?
Experience
The Google quality raters will assess whether the content is based on first-hand experience. For example, they will prioritise content on healthcare websites that has been written or reviewed by a professional, such as a qualified pharmacist or journalist with medical qualifications.
They may also look for examples of case studies or customer testimonials from people who have actually used the product, or had the treatment and so on. This is seen as more trustworthy than a company that is simply promoting its own products.
Expertise
When assessing expertise in healthcare articles, the raters will be looking for articles and production descriptions that are written by or have contributions from a person with relevant knowledge and qualifications in the field. They may also look for writers who cite credible sources to support their information, such as the NHS and WHO.
Authoritativeness
Authority is based on how well recognised the content is by other credible sources. For example, the assessors might look at the quality of third-party websites that link to or cite the online pharmacy’s web pages or brand. It might also include positive reviews on third party sites such as TrustPilot.
Trustworthiness
Trust is the cornerstone of a successful online pharmacy business. The level of trustworthiness will be assessed by factors such as having a secure, well-designed website; transparent privacy policies and terms of service; and credible content that is created by experts or supported by scientific evidence.
How to improve E-E-A-T ratings for your pharmacy website
Strengthening your E-E-A-T ratings involves paying attention to all of the components described above. The web content should be up to date, factually accurate, and created or reviewed by a relevant professional or user with first-hand experience. The website itself should display clear security and compliance information, and have high quality backlinks.