Checklist: EEAT Factors

Context

Does this page relate to YMYL?

YMYL refers to content on topics that could impact users' health, financial well-being, or safety. For example, "heart attack symptoms" or "how to invest money properly." Google pays close attention to YMYL pages as they are held to higher quality standards compared to other pages. Therefore, content on YMYL pages must be as accurate as possible.

What is the purpose of this page?

How effectively does the page achieve its purpose? If it's a product page, how easy is it for the user to purchase the product? If it's an informational page, how effectively is the information conveyed? Check if the content on your page could be perceived by Google as an attempt to harm the user.

Is there information about who is responsible for the content on the site?

Is it clear who specifically created the content for the pages?

Is there an "About Us" page?

Does the "About Us" page contain important information about the company and authors? Is it easy for users to find?

Content Quality

Does advertising interfere with content viewing?

Main content should not be obscured by ads or other content. Check the page with ad blockers turned off. Refresh the page several times and see if ads appear. If pop-ups occur, users should be able to close them easily and quickly. Check the page on multiple devices and browsers, as ads may display differently.

If such ads appear on your page, it will receive a low rating: - Ads that continue to cover the main content as the site visitor scrolls down. - Pop-ups that overlap the main content and cannot be closed without clicking through the ad. - A page that forces the user to click on it or download something. - Ads that push the main content down so much that many users do not notice it.

Does the page content match the site's theme?

Does all content on the site serve one theme? Are you considered experts in this theme? For example, publishing an article about internet marketing on an accounting firm's site is a bad idea, as this content does not match the site's theme, and your expertise in marketing will appear questionable.

Is it evident that effort was put into creating the content?

Users should understand how much effort, talent, and skill went into creating the content.

Example of low-quality content: machine translation of thousands of URLs.

Is the author qualified enough to write on this topic?

Is there an author biography on the site listing their credentials and experience? Ideally, every blog post should have a brief author biography that links to a more detailed author page. Can the content creator be trusted based on the biography and author page?

Is the page title accurate?

Check how accurate the page title is and whether it misleads the user. No clickbait: the title should clearly indicate what the page is about.

Are the sources you reference of high quality?

Only refer to reliable and authoritative sources. This is especially important for YMYL topics — ideally, each source should have a corresponding link.

How original is the content?

Check the uniqueness of the content. Does it offer something new to the user, or is it just a rewrite of someone else's article without adding any original material?

Example of low-quality content: a list of popular smartphones created from information in other articles with minimal original content.

How accurate is the content?

Assess how well the content on the page corresponds to the facts. If it's a YMYL topic, are there mentions of authoritative sources?

Is there any content on the site that was generated automatically?

Check if the site has pages consisting of automatically generated content. This is one of the main signs of a spam site. Automatically generated content has no value for users.

Was the content copied from somewhere?

Check if the content was completely copied from another source. Note that copying is allowed for some content. If you plan to publish material that has already appeared on another site, you need to obtain permission.

If you think the content was copied, search for a sentence or phrase from the text on Google. You can also use specialized tools for plagiarism detection.

When was the content published?

Check when the content was published. If it is outdated, the information needs to be updated. Do this on a regular basis. Add the date of the last update to show that the content on the site is kept up-to-date.

Is there any junk content on the site?

The page should meet the needs of users. If it is written specifically for a search engine with an abundance of keywords, the page will not be useful to the reader.

Users usually aren't interested in the history of carrot cake when looking for its recipe.

Are original media files used in the content?

Check if the content includes original photos or videos. This is a great way to demonstrate your expertise.

Does an error page contain useful information?

Is the 404 page clear enough? Does it explain the problem that occurred, does it help users?

Reputation

What do other sources say about the site?

Research the online reputation of the site. Look for independent reviews, expert recommendations, news articles, and other reliable sources of information about the site. A large number of negative reviews from trustworthy sources leads to a low quality rating of the page.

How to find reviews about your site? For example, the IBM site. Try using these commands in Google search: [ibm -site:ibm.com] — search for IBM, excluding pages on ibm.com. [“ibm.com” -site:ibm.com] — search for “ibm.com”, excluding pages on ibm.com. [ibm reviews -site:ibm.com] — search for reviews about IBM, excluding pages on ibm.com. [“ibm.com” reviews -site:ibm.com] — search for reviews about “ibm.com”, excluding pages on ibm.com.

Do your competitors have more reviews than you? Are these reviews better than yours?

Conduct an analysis of competitors' reviews and compare them to reviews about your site.

Does the company have a Wikipedia page?

Getting a Wikipedia page is not easy, but it can significantly boost your credibility. To create a page, all information about your company must be easily verifiable, and the organization must be referenced by reliable authoritative sources.

Has your company received any awards in its industry? If so, is this information available on your website?

Prestigious awards indicate a reliable reputation. Information about awards alone is not enough; you need to provide proof, such as a photo report from the award ceremony or screenshots of certificates.

What to do if your website lacks external reputation?

If you have a small or local website, the lack of reputation will not harm you. It will not be an indicator of low resource quality, as you can use the site only as an auxiliary tool, relying more on word of mouth. If external reputation is missing, pay special attention to other aspects of site quality.

EEAT

What do the site and the author say about themselves?

EEAT is partially assessed based on what is said about the site on the "About Us" page and on the author's biography pages. Are they trustworthy? Do they clearly explain why users should trust you?

If pages with expert content do not answer the question of who is responsible for this content, it will be a serious red flag for Google.

Does the author have personal experience in what they write about?

Check if the content creator has the necessary personal experience on the topic. Personal experience is welcomed by both users and Google. To demonstrate experience, you can use first-person narration.

AI cannot convey real personal experience—this is how you can distinguish good human-created content from AI content. Example of low-quality content: a restaurant review written by someone who has not dined there.

Is the author an expert on the topic?

How much does the content creator possess the necessary knowledge or skills for the topic they write about? The qualifications of a copywriter or journalist will not be enough to write an article on digital marketing. Such an article should be written by an expert (or at least reviewed by one). Show in the article the level of qualifications, academic achievements, awards, etc., that the author has.

Example of low-quality content: an article about skydiving written by someone who has no experience in this sport.

Does the author have authority in this field according to external sources?

Search for the author on Google. Ideally, you should see other articles by them on similar topics. Look for mentions of this author in authoritative sources. If you find nothing, the author likely lacks expertise.

Does the author have authority in this field according to internal sources?

Is there content on the same topic on the site written by the same author?

Is there a Person microdata on the author biography pages?

Add Person microdata to the author biography pages to provide Google with information about them. Use the sameAs microdata to give Google additional information.

Is there an Article microdata in blog posts?

Ensure that blog posts use Article microdata: add links to the author's biography and publication dates in the articles.

How authoritative are the sources where backlinks are placed?

Are links to your site placed on authoritative domains?

How reliable is your website?

Analyze how accurate, secure, and reliable the website pages are for users. Unreliable pages are rated low, regardless of how authoritative the content on them is.

Example of low-quality content: an online store without detailed information about customer support.

Is there evidence that the author is trustworthy?

Have the author's articles been published in authoritative and trustworthy publications? Can the author's biography be found on Google (not on your site)?

Is there information about the refund policy on the site (for resources accepting payments)?

Does the site contain pages with detailed information about customer service and refunds? It is important for the user to understand the conditions under which funds are returned and how to contact customer support.

Is your company's address listed?

If possible, add the physical address of the company to the "About Us" or "Contact" page: this will show Google your reliability.