Firsthand Knowledge Makes Google Happy (Finally!) 💃🏻

Hello Reader,

First of all, I'm excited to share with you a new podcast episode I was recently a guest on, Roadmap to One Million, Hosted by Stacey Reed. Check out my episode here! Stacey is an expert marketer who's run ads for all kinds of brands you know, including Zappos.

I've been anticipating Google's announcement that they're fully integrating the new weighting of first hand knowledge and experience into the search results and it's finally, seemingly, live and in the wild. (Search Engine Journal has a good breakdown of this.)

If you're taken one of my workshops this year, you've likely heard me talk about the shift from Google seeing websites through the lens of E-A-T (expertise, authority, trust) to E-E-A-T, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust. Google uses this system to evaluate both websites and searches and added that additional E last year.

In the experience category, they've recently said that they will be weighting what they call firsthand knowledge when it comes to the experience quadrant of that system. What that means is that Google wants to see that you actually have done the thing you're writing about, haven't just talked about it.

You can see how this would impact all kinds of content. For example, reviews are an easy one: did the reviewer get hands on with the product? Or, how to: did the writer actually do the steps listed?

For folks like you and me, it gets a little more complicated, but it's actually really exciting.

What we will be tasked with is doing something I've recommend for years and years: Continuing to demonstrate the why behind our thinking. What led us to this conclusion? This means referencing projects and work we've done, including client language in our articles, linking to relevant certifications and endorsements, and, of course, including a bio in our articles as well.

What I believe will happen is that quite a lot of the mediocre how-to focused content that exists solely to rank and for no other reason will be demoted in favor of that written by folks with firsthand experience with the subject matter.

I, for one, am breathing a sigh of relief over that.

A lot of sketchy, high volume SEO companies are freaking about about it, which makes me even happier.

Content should not exist exclusively for the use of the search engine.

The search engine is a tool, not the audience, and I for one am sick and tired of seeing loads of the same old generic content on websites just to bring in traffic and contribute absolutely nothing to the body of work on a subject.

If you've been thinking about getting back to writing and publishing on your website as a step off the social media hamster wheel, this may be your sign that now is a good time to do just that—because your experience will be valued even more than ever.

Talk soon,

Sarah

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