John Mueller Disproves The Notion That Google Uses Trust Factors

Publishers and site owners are always trying to identify the top SEO factors when it comes to improving their website’s trustworthiness, along with expertise and authority. During an Office Hours hangout, Google’s John Mueller was asked about how to improve a site’s trustworthiness. Mueller explained to the SEO community the subject of trust factors in his response.

Trustworthiness and E-A-T

Google’s Quality Raters Guidelines stipulates that expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) are significant elements for search quality raters. E-A-T is considered when evaluating search results for specific sorts of queries, particularly those related to Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) areas like finance and medical research searches. Therefore, trustworthiness has become a hot topic among those in the SEO community. It’s only natural for an SEO to want to learn how to increase their site’s trustworthiness.

Is E-A-T a Ranking Factor?

E-A-T isn’t a ranking indicator in and of itself. However, it might have an impact on your content’s rank. E-A-T is a guideline that Google uses to identify high-quality content that should be ranked higher, and it is part of various aspects of the search engine’s algorithm. So, although it’s not a direct ranking factor, it may indirectly influence one’s overall search ranks.

Publishers and site owners believe that “content is king”, but no one seems to agree on what makes content good. Now, Google is giving the SEO community a glimpse into what it considers high-quality content, and this may have far-reaching consequences for content marketers and SEO consultants.

The E-A-T guidelines help real human evaluators, who review hundreds of websites, distinguish what Google considers high-quality content. Based on the guidelines, great content should:

• Be created by an expert
• Be trustworthy
• Be posted on an authoritative site
• Be updated regularly
• Be helpful to users

The content should be created by someone with a high level of expertise, but “everyday expertise” from individuals who have real-life experience is also acceptable. On the other hand, search evaluators may penalise websites that misinform, deceive, or spread inflammatory messages with a lower E-A-T rating.

Google Search Results About Trust Factors

If one types in the query “what are Google’s trust factors” in Google’s search bar, they will find a slew of websites making various assertions.

One prominent website discusses the “trust factor”. According to the site, the Google trust factor is a weighted average of several variables that Google uses to assess how trustworthy a website is. The more trustworthy a site appears, the more likely its articles will be ranked higher in certain Google searches. Another website claims that an algorithm helps measure the so-called “trust signals”.

Other websites also believe that there are several factors that Google depends on to determine if a site is trustworthy, with security as a leading factor. One site even published a periodic table of top SEO factors, including “trust elements”.

There is a twist in Google’s search results, however. Mueller’s response appears to contradict what all of those answers on Google’s search results say.

How To Improve Trust

A user asked Mueller for ideas on how to improve their website’s trust with Google, perhaps to achieve higher ranks. The person asked if websites with great content could improve trust with Google or if it is only determined through links.

Google Says There Are No Trust Factors

Mueller’s response would surprise the SEO community, especially those who believe that Google uses trust signals. According to him, they do not have a trust factor at all. No one in Google can look at a website and judge it on a scale from one to ten.

Mueller even remarked that the person’s question was quite philosophical at this point. He said that there is no sure way of knowing whether or not improving the site’s content would make a website more trustworthy than others because they do not use metrics specifically for that.

No Metrics For Measuring Trust

A metric is a tool for assessing and evaluating something. Mueller makes it clear that Google does not have a specific Trustworthiness measurement metric. The only reason why the search quality raters guidelines value trustworthiness is because that is what the third-party raters are supposed to look for. However, this does not imply that Google uses an algorithm to rate websites for trustworthiness.

Mueller then verified the practice of content improvement. He believes that enhancing the quality of one’s content is always a good idea. There are, however, numerous variables to consider there. It’s surely not a question of whether or not trust can be built on the basis of links alone.

No Metrics For Trust And Not Just Links

It’s always a bad idea to take anything written in a patent or statement from Mueller and apply it outside of the context of the entire patent or statement.

Mueller’s response that there is no metric for trustworthiness was to answer the question of whether “links” or high-quality content” could help improve their website’s trustworthiness with Google.

Mueller told the person asking the question not to focus on whether links or quality content influence Google’s assessment of a website’s trustworthiness. Doing so would discourage them from believing in a non-existent trust factor.

Instead, he encouraged site owners to concentrate on enhancing the content. Publishers have complete control of their website’s content, which is something that can’t be said about legitimate links.

Improve E-A-T With The UK’s Top SEO Agency!

Since Google released its set of E-A-T guidelines, the search engine company took its standards higher. Now, they work hard to provide only the most relevant information possible in the SERPs for users.

If you want your pages to rank higher, you must ensure that they’re authoritative about their topics, trustworthy with reputable sources, and don’t give misinformation or contain errors that may mislead readers.

Position1SEO is an SEO agency that specialises in boosting your site content’s expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. We have years of experience in creating content for businesses of all sizes, ensuring that you get high-quality SEO services at affordable prices.

Our team of content writers can create fresh and relevant content that perfectly matches how you want your brand to be presented. We also offer a wide range of SEO services tailored to meet the needs of our clients’ budgets.

Position1SEO has worked with various clients across different industries, and no project is too small or too big for us! We’re confident that we can get you where you need to go, and that’s on the first page of Google’s search results!

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