The AI Content Revolution: Understanding AI-Generated Content with E-E-A-T Practices

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) is now more than ever a crucial factor in ensuring that quality content is shown on the first page of Google.

In today's dynamic digital environment, AI has changed the way content is produced. Savvy users can notice when content is AI generated based on the predictability of the patterns these prompts use, as well as possible biases that it can hold. This is why content creators are leading the charge of providing high-quality, authoritative content.

Here we explain the significance of E-E-A-T and its important relevance in today’s AI content revolution, and give practical advice on how to harness its power to increase the quality of your content.

The AI Content Revolution

The AI content revolution signifies the revolutionary impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning on content marketing. As search engines employ sophisticated algorithms, they can better analyse vast amounts of data, leading to the delivery of relevant, high-quality content to users if used correctly. This transformative development has shifted the focus of SEO from quantity to content quality and user experience.

The credibility of the content that is online must never be lost, and it is important now more than ever in this AI-content revolution that we keep in check how much new automated information and content is placed online. This is where E-E-A-T comes into play.

What is E-E-A-T?

Have you ever questioned how Google evaluates the value of search results? The two main components of Google's ranking algorithm are relevance and search intent. Google's E-E-A-T quality concept, on the other hand, is another crucial element that significantly influences search rankings.

Google's search ecosystem is influenced by E-E-A-T in several ways, including the rankings in traditional Google search, the addition of rich snippet elements, review/stars, FAQ snippets, sitelinks, featured snippets, content indexing, the Helpful Content System, and even the Snapshot AI Box.

Let’s break down each concept to understand them better:

Experience

When it comes to E-E-A-T, experience is the newest element. Generally, it counts for what Google defines the spectrum of topics as YMYL, which stands for ‘your-money-your-life’ topics. These are topics that are more sensitive and can have an impact on your life, which can be health and/or financial stability, safety, and/or welfare of society.

Google will evaluate how you can demonstrate first-hand experience on topics related to YMYL. Because these are sensitive topics, you should be aware that expertise is also key when discussing these topics in a blog post. Providing credible sources and valid expertise will go hand in hand with provable experience in the discussed topic.

Expertise

Expertise is an important concept that complements the previously mentioned experience. Google evaluates the content based on the author's firsthand knowledge. Essentially, the content will be better if the author is experienced in the subject.

Developing authority and credibility in a specific niche necessitates demonstrating expertise. Search engines prioritise content that demonstrates in-depth knowledge and genuine enthusiasm for the topic.

Authority

Google also takes authority into account. It refers to the author's or website's standing and popularity in a particular subject area. Content from a well-known and respected website or author in their industry is more likely to be trusted.

The level of authority alludes to the reputation and clout of content producers or their websites. Websites with a high authority rating are regarded as trustworthy sources in their industry or speciality. These websites show up more often at the top of searches.

Trust

While trust is the last component of E-E-A-T, it's the most vital. Google places a high value on the credibility of the author, website, or content. Trust is at the heart of the E-E-A-T philosophy. When users can rely on the information provided, the overall quality of the search results improves.

E-E-A-T's foundation is dependability. There has to be complete confidence in the security and dependability of the information you access. Untrustworthy websites may face search engine penalties as well as audience distrust.

The Significance of E-E-A-T in Content Ranking

Impact of E-E-A-T on SEO

Google's E-E-A-T factors are used to assess the quality of content and the reputation of authors. This information is then used to influence search engine rankings. User-generated ratings and reviews, the volume of content created by an author, the number of publications on a similar topic, the elapsed time since the last content update, and the sentiment around mentions or ratings are all factors that can influence the E-E-A-T score.

Here’s an example found on Search Engine Land: An experiment with a website containing 10K pages of 100% AI-generated content without human editing resulted in poor performance and a quick decline. Alternatively,AI-generated content that was thoroughly fact-checked and edited by humans performed decently after six months.

Google has had some major improvements in their algorithm to detect AI-generated content, and overall, it has tried to navigate how to adapt to the ever-changing scenario of artificial intelligence and its many uses.

Here are a few things you should keep in mind when using AI-generated content for your website -

• Google can detect AI content and has algorithms to target AI-plagiarised content.
• Content that is copied, auto-generated, or lacks effort, originality, talent, or skill will receive the lowest quality rating.
• Google is not against AI-generated content itself but is against spammy, automatically generated content.
• The performance of AI-driven content in organic search varies.
• The success of AI-generated content may depend on factors such as website authority, reputation, and human editing.
• AI-generated content may show an initial spike in impressions or clicks, but its long-term performance needs to be evaluated over at least three months.
• AI content can work to some extent, but it still requires other supporting factors, such as website trustworthiness, to signal credibility to Google.
• The quality and trustworthiness of the content and the overall website are crucial for ranking, rather than who wrote the content or the presence of backlinks.
• Website authoritativeness and trustworthiness are essential for countering the influx of AI-generated content.

E-E-A-T and AI-Generated Content

When introducing AI-generated content into the conversation, E-E-A-T serves as the metric by which search engines evaluate the credibility and reliability of web content and its creators. This is measured by certain factors that the post and site might have, both on and off-site. Let’s break it down:

Google's On-page E-E-A-T factors:

• Provide clear text on the About Us page about the use of AI-generated content, whether it's human-edited or fact-checked.
• AI content should be edited and fact-checked by writers to ensure uniqueness and quality.
• Include links to other sites that are known to have authority in the field (this is referring to external sources) and other institutions in the content you wrote.
• The content should be contextually relevant and should achieve the purpose it was written for with a unique view on the topic, this means the article should be on the topic of the site/company and if it is, for example, an FAQ, it should answer the most asked questions of the main topic.
• Create content that shows effort, originality, and talent.
• The content you write for informational purposes and for YMYL content should be accurate and consistent with what experts say and with correct references (and even better, with contributions or fully written by top experts themselves).
• An author biography on the site should clearly state the author's qualifications and experience, along with responsibility for the website.
• Using author profiles and about-us pages, using HTTPS on the website, and creating helpful content are all part of the author/publisher's transparency.

Google's overall site E-E-A-T factors:

• Make sure the website is authoritative about the topic.
• Links from the footer should lead to essential pages, like About, privacy, terms and conditions, etc.
• Take a look at the online reputation of the company or content creator stated in your site (if not the website itself).
• See if there are any reviews of the website or business (address lower-ranked reviews to increase positive customer opinions).
• Put company info in the footer, especially if it's part of a bigger company.

Google’s Off-page E-E-A-T Factors:

• PageRank score: PageRank is a link analysis algorithm used by Google to determine the importance and authority of web pages based on the quantity and quality of links that rank to them. Unlike other tools, Google no longer updates the public about it, but it is still using it. However, it’s most likely that PageRank is not the only tool used to serve the same purpose.
• Backlink Anchor Text: These are clickable text links that point back to a specific webpage, giving search engines an idea of the content's context.
• Ratings of Published Content by Users: These help assess content quality and user satisfaction, affecting search engine rankings.
• Amount of Content Published by the Author: How much content an author creates can impact their perceived expertise (make sure all content is quality content).
• Number of Publications on a Similar Topic by the Author: Shows the author's expertise in that subject, possibly boosting their credibility.
• Elapsed Time to Last Release: If the content hasn't been updated or published for a long time, it can affect its freshness and relevance.
• Sentiment around Mentions or Ratings: Analysing the sentiment of mentions or ratings can provide a better understanding of what people think of a brand or content.

In summary The AI content revolution and E-E-A-T have ushered in a new era of content marketing. To remain ahead of the competition and flourish in the digital landscape, prioritise expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness in your content strategy. E-E-A-T significantly influences SEO and search rankings as search engines, especially Google, prioritise content that demonstrates expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Pages with high E-E-A-T are more likely to rank higher in search results.