Our previous blogs discussed the importance of Expertise and Authority.
Trust, the last letter of the E-A-T acronym, is the final element used by Google to evaluate site quality and determine search ranking. Just like Expertise and Authority, Trust is essential for sites to possess, especially those in the YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) category, which includes law firm websites. Google wants to make certain that sites ranked highly in search are trustworthy.
What is trust?
Trust or trustworthiness in Google’s E-A-T is not much different than those characteristics that we look for in a person–truthful, dependable, and reliable. Google looks at these similar attributes in websites when evaluating its E-A-T which determines its search position.
Having expert and quality content on your site is imperative. Consumers must have trust in the content, as well as the creator. Consumers want the confidence that they’re visiting a secure website that will allow them to ascertain the information they are seeking. You don’t want consumers coming to your site and quickly leaving, nor does Google. And, Google wants to ensure they address the needs of their searchers by serving up the best possible website results to queries.
Per Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines:
“For YMYL pages and other pages that require a high level of user trust, an unsatisfying amount of any of the following is a reason to give a page a Low quality rating: customer service information, contact information, information about who is responsible for the website or information about who created the content.”
Bottom line – Be transparent, truthful, and factual. E-A-T is symbiotic, and when working harmoniously, results in an organically fit site that ranks effectively, and provides a favorable user experience.
How Can Your Law Firm Build Trust?
If you have a site that falls into the YMYL category, here are some questions you should be asking yourself:
- Does your business profile and particulars on your website match other authoritative databases on the web such as law.com’s Lawyerpages?
- Is more than one firm using the address in your GBP?
- DO you have multiple sites making it hard for Google to determine who you really are?
Sherloq solves that. Seamlessly implement powerful AI that tells you who your customers are, where your customers are and when you can market to your customers–all while maintaining CCPA and GDPR Compliance and building the trust your site needs to rank in legal search.
Your customers will no longer be a mystery. Big Voodoo, in partnership with Sherloq, solved that so you don’t have to.