Even Quality content with a strong link profile isn't always enough...
Where SEO is heading in the future...
It’s 2021…
And, still, if we have to name the most important ranking factors; perhaps the top two factors would be:
Quality content
Strong link-profile
But here’s the thing →
Even a good content piece (not great) with a mediocre link profile can beat high authoritative sites.
Before I explain the possible reasons, let me give you more context of what I am talking about.
Search term → Types of cement
Search volume (IND) → 3,600/month (as per Ahrefs)
Now, let’s look at the SERP for the given keyword →
Here are some things to check out →
Content-wise, the top-ranking page (Hanson. my) isn’t better than any of the top 5 results for this keyword.
The link profile of the top-ranking page has no competition with the other 5 pages (2nd to 6th)
theconstructor.org is a well-known blog in the civil engineering space that is running for more than a decade.
On-page SEO for the other pages is almost equal (optimized for the keyword)
Still, Hanson. my (1st position) is able to beat all the authoritative pages for the given keyword.
Note: I am seeing the same ranking positions of the top three web pages same for almost 30+ days.
The reason?
It’s most probably E-A-T (Expertise- Authoritativeness- Trustworthiness)
In the SEO industry, E-A-T indicates:
The expertise of the main content creator-
Authoritativeness of the content creator or the main content (MC) itself-
The trustworthiness of the content creator or the main content (MC) itself
That means Google will try to find out whether a person/brand behind any content/web page has enough level or expertise, work experience in his/her niche, or not.
Here’s the fact, I haven’t disclosed yet →
Hanson. my (the 1st position page) is a globally recognized cement manufacturer in Malaysia.
Now, let’s answer the following questions
Does Hanson. my (the 1st position page) has the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness when it comes to cement manufacturing and its related questions?
Y E S !!
All other pages in the SERP are civil engineering blogs, not cement manufacturers.
So, it totally makes sense to rank a website in the 1st position that has the highest E-A-T in the cement manufacturing field.
Yeah, there are many other factors like content quality, relevance, On-page SEO, and the list goes on…
But EAT is also important if not equally important.
Here’s what the officials of Google have to say about the importance of E-A-T:
“For all other pages that have a beneficial purpose, the amount of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) is very important.”
Final words
Take some time and go through the Quality raters guideline (official guide from Google to measure the quality of web pages).
Well, it’s 175 pages long.
But it’s totally worth it. At least, you’ll learn the current state of your site (in terms of the quality) along with many important concepts like YMYL pages, etc.
Download the PDF guide (Quality raters guideline)
Don’t have the time to read this lengthy document?
You can check out my guide on E-A-T (SEO), where I have discussed:
What is E-A-T & why it is so important?
Measuring E-A-T
E-A-T Audit
How to improve for E-A-T?
Hope that helps.
To take your learning further,
I personally recommend you to follow to SEO experts:
Hai Rafiqul its very useful. How google assess EAT.