Is there a decline in curiosity towards SEO? This is the question that has been on the mind of SEO consultant Ash Nallawalla. In a recent article, Nallawalla discusses an emphatic comment made by Google’s VP of Search, Hyung-Jin Kim, at SMX Next in November 2022 that seems to have gone unnoticed by the SEO community.
Kim stated that E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is a template used by Google to rate individual sites and is a core part of their metrics. This statement contradicts what many SEOs have been saying, which is that E-A-T is not part of Google’s ranking system. Nallawalla posits that E-A-T may be a quality assurance process done after a search engine results page (SERP) is delivered.
Nallawalla suggests that an AI process examines evidence of expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness, and possibly experience on each page in the index. This assessment is done continuously during crawls of the site and other sites that cite or link to it. Each factor is given a numeric score that can change with each crawl, and each element of a SERP has such a score. Nallawalla speculates that E-A-T serves as a quality check after the fact and does not slow down the delivery of SERPs.
Nallawalla expresses surprise and disappointment that there has been little discussion about this statement from Kim. He wonders what happened to the legendary curiosity of SEOs in guessing the “200 ranking factors” and analyzing algorithm updates. He laments the loss of pioneers like Ted Ulle and Bill Slawski who would dissect search engine patents and try to find ways to avoid being caught up in Google’s net.
Despite the lack of curiosity from the SEO community, Nallawalla encourages SEOs to be curious and investigate topics like E-A-T. He points out that even though E-A-T may not be a direct part of Google’s ranking algorithms, factors related to experience can send positive signals to ranking algorithms. Nallawalla highlights the work of Daniel K. Cheung, who is building a matrix of E-A-T attributes for auditing a page. Cheung has found it necessary to assign numeric values to each attribute to show their impact on a page.
In conclusion, Nallawalla urges SEOs to be skeptical, conduct their own tests, and share their findings. He believes that curiosity is still alive in the SEO community and that exploring topics like E-A-T can lead to new ideas and insights. Despite the decline in curiosity towards SEO, there are still SEOs like Nallawalla and Cheung who continue to push the boundaries and uncover new knowledge in the field.
