How to Increase Google’s E-A-T Rating for Your Orthodontic Website

Far too often, content editors focus their SEO efforts on linking anything and everything combined with excess keyword stuffing. Yes, link-building strategies do work, and keywords still matter for good SEO, but when your goal is to get your orthodontic website to rank well on Google searches, you’ll need to further refine your strategy. One of the best ways to improve your rankings is to boost your Google E-A-T ratings.

What is a Google E-A-T Rating?

Sadly, you don’t get a higher E-A-T rating by taking extra snack breaks. Your Google E-A-T rating plays a major role in how well your website will rank on searches, and it measures your rating based on three key metrics: expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (See? E-A-T). Last August, Google announced a major update to its broad core algorithm, which puts more of a priority on high quality, relevant content. In particular, pages with higher E-A-T ratings are now more likely than ever to rank well on searches. Plus, any content that falls in the category of “YMYL,” or “your money, your life,” will be the most heavily scrutinized under the E-A-T metrics.

So what exactly does this mean for your orthodontic practice? The SEO strategies you implemented even just a year ago could possibly be underperforming, even if they were effective when first put into place. It also means you should switch up your strategy if your current one doesn’t prioritize your page’s E-A-T rating, especially since any content relating to orthodontics definitely falls in the YMYL category.

Boosting Your E-A-T Rating

There are several strategies you can focus on to boost your website’s E-A-T rating. While consistency and frequency of posting will always be helpful, you may consider prioritizing slightly longer blog posts that more thoroughly cover a given topic, even if it means posting not quite as often. Experiment with different word lengths and pay extra attention to your analytics to see how your new blog format is performing. After some trial and error, you should find the right balance of quality and frequency that keeps your E-A-T rating high.

Blogs and editorial articles with an author’s name and credentials posted are also more likely to earn a higher E-A-T rating since it indicates expertise and trustworthiness. When it comes to landing pages, and your website as a whole, your E-A-T rating will benefit from including quality content in your “About” sections as well as sections about your staff members, especially your lead orthodontist.

Reputation management is also key to your E-A-T rating. In particular, your online reputation will play a major role in how well you will rank on Google using their algorithm update, even if you have a shining reputation offline. Many small businesses struggle with gaining a positive online reputation despite having satisfied customers, and orthodontic practices are no exception. By focusing on using strategies to generate more reviews, you can get your satisfied patients to express their delight in your services where it matters according to Google.

In addition to applying these strategies to future content, it’s worth it to take the time to review the current content on your website. If you have content that is unoriginal, inaccurate, or incomplete, you can boost your E-A-T rating by trimming it. Don’t be too surprised if your rankings take a slight hit initially by cutting some content. As you trim low E-A-T content and add new, high E-A-T content, you can expect to see your rankings start to climb and to see more new patients choosing your practice.