Revised November 2023:
Google released the EAT Helpful Content update in 2020, and earlier this fall released an EEAT update: Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness. Google wants to promote and rank high-quality, helpful content through this sitewide signal. 

How does your content rank? Do you need to refresh and update some old blogs or pages - or even delete some blogs that are dragging you down?

How to Refresh and Update Your Old Blogs or Pages

There are a few things you can do to refresh and update your old blogs or pages:

• Add new information and insights.

• Update outdated statistics or facts.

• Improve the readability and formatting of your content.

• Add relevant images or videos.

• Promote your content on social media and other channels.

When to Delete Old Blogs or Pages

If a blog or page is no longer relevant or helpful, you may want to consider deleting it. This will help to improve the overall quality of your website and make it more likely to rank well in search results.

Overall, the EAT and EEAT updates are designed to promote high-quality, helpful content. By refreshing and updating your old blogs or pages, and deleting any that are no longer relevant or helpful, you can help to improve your website's ranking in search results.

Original Post:

In December 2020, Google announced an update to their algorithm that focuses on core vitals: website quality standards that focus on content quality. Websites with well-written, high-quality and relevant content will consistently rank higher than competitor sites with poor quality, poorly written content.

On December 3rd, posted on Twitter:
“Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the December 2020 Core Update.”

- Google’s Search Liaison

Google EAT Principle

Google’s December update stresses the importance of the E-A-T principle and how it scores webpages based on EAT:

• Expertise
Who is the author or your law firm’s content - a person - or Admin? Do your blog posts have an author? Does the author have qualifications and credentials that demonstrate authority on your firm’s services? such as Are you or the author of your content an expert on what you are writing about?

How to Show Expertise

1. Make sure the author of your content is an SME: Subject Matter Expert.

2. In your copy include facts, relevant external links and supporting graphics or diagrams.

3. Make sure your writing is high-quality and optimized.

4. Link to internal articles on relevant topics.

• Authoritativeness
Is the content on your website relevant to the services you are offering? Google has to understand what your website is about, and your authority to write about that topic.

1. Have a real person be the author of your blog posts.

2. Show a photo of your blog author.

3. Add an author bio that explains why you are qualified to write on this topic.

4. Include links in your author bio to the author’s LinkedIn profile or other professional sites and social media accounts.

• Trustworthiness
Is your website secure? Do you have hidden text or links that you don’t want visitors to see? Is the author of your content an expert source? Google wants to ensure that it sends visitors to websites that are trustworthy expert sources.

1. Is your website HTTPS - or HTTP? If it’s HTTP, Google will not view your website as trustworthy or secure - and will send that message to your website visitors.

2. Client reviews and testimonials demonstrate your firm’s trustworthiness and level of expertise.

Legal Website EAT Guidelines: YMLY

The December Google EAT update also impact Google’s May 2019 special guidelines for websites and web pages that require specialized expertise, including legal sites. YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content needs a high EAT ranking because they impact the reader’s life, livelihood, or happiness.

Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines, section 2.3 says Some types of pages could potentially impact the future happiness, health, or wealth of users. We call such pages “Your Money or Your Life” pages or YMYL.

Why Your Firm Should Implement the EAT Principle

Your law firm is in business to solve people’s problems. And people do business with people. When creating content for your firm’s website, it’s not enough just to optimize the content for websites - you have to write content for people:

1. Answer people’s questions with high-quality, relevant content.

2. Showcase your content’s authors, and why they are qualified to write on this topic.

3. Build your website’s content so that people can easily understand your content, and find more related information on your site.

Do You Need To Hire A Content Writer?

Well-written, optimized content helps attract your ideal client to your website. By investing in creating in high-quality content, you tell people (and Google!) how you can solve their problem. You’ll rank higher on Search, people will visit your website, and that will lead to new business and opportunities.

SEO My Law Firm can help your law firm get more online visibility and rank higher on Google! Contact Catherine to discuss how we help grow your business - and your profits!