Have you ever wondered what influences Google's search algorithm beyond just keywords? There are multiple factors and one of them is EAT SEO. Google's EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) and internal linking are key for your website's SEO success.
Think of EEAT as your site's trust badge, ensuring people see it as a go-to place for reliable information. Internal linking is like a map leading people through your site & informing Google what important pages are and how they are connected.
Together, they boost your site's visibility & ranking in search results. In this blog, we will learn how Google EEAT & internal linking are connected and the strategies to optimize them.
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Internal links and Google's EEAT are intricately related as they are both crucial in signaling a website's credibility and relevance to search engines.
While EEAT focuses on the content's quality and the site's trustworthiness, internal linking structures help search engines understand the hierarchy and the relationship between pages on a site.
This interconnectedness enhances user experience by making information more accessible but also aids in establishing a website's authority and expertise in its niche, thus influencing its search rankings.
In the following sections, we will investigate how optimizing EEAT and internal linking can significantly enhance your website's SEO performance.
Google EEAT stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It's Google's way of finding & suggesting high-quality content online. Imagine the internet as a huge library, and Google is like a librarian recommending the best books (websites) to readers.
For Google to recommend your website, your content must show real knowledge, skills, and trustworthiness. EEAT helps your site stand out as a valuable source of information. Following EEAT principles tells Google, "Look, our content is relevant, trustworthy, and valuable." It makes your site more visible on Google & builds trust with your audience.
Learn how to establish E-E-A-T for your website.
Internal linking refers to the process of connecting different pages that exist within the same website. It's about creating a pathway that enhances the user’s journey through your website. Think of it as guiding visitors through a museum: each link is a hand pointing them to another fascinating exhibit they wouldn't want to miss.
When used correctly, these internal links keep users engaged, reduce bounce rates & increase the chances of conversion. Learn how to build effective internal linking strategies for your website.
As you know, internal linking is a guiding pathway for users & Google's algorithms. It leads them through a journey of related topics & expert content within a website.
It's like navigating through a well-organized library where each book is precisely where it should be, connected through a web of references & knowledge.
This structure signals to Google the depth & interconnectedness of the content, which reflects the author's experience & expertise.
Google then analyzes these interlinking by examining how effectively topics are interconnected, the context provided by surrounding information, and the quality of the linked pages.
High-quality, relevant links that make understanding easier or provide additional context can elevate the perceived expertise & authority of the content.
Imagine finding a page about astrophysics linked to random topics like recipes. This wouldn't make the website seem very credible.
On the other hand, linking to relevant & complementary topics builds trust among readers. It reinforces the website's authority on the subject matter, making it more reliable in Google's eyes. Learn about the internal linking mistakes enterprises must avoid.
EEAT is crucial in shaping website architecture. When designing a website, it's essential to consider how these factors influence not just content but also the overall structure and functionality of the site. Let us understand how EEAT impacts website architecture:
EEAT has forced businesses to enhance their website architecture to feature detailed author bio pages. These pages are linked to content pieces, ensuring that the experience of content creators is transparent. This linking boosts the perceived expertise & authority and encourages a more systematic internal linking strategy that elevates the website's trustworthiness.
EEAT has pushed for a more structured approach to website architecture, specifically through schema markup. This detailed organization of information helps Google's algorithms to better understand the context & quality of the content. It directly influences the 'Experience' & 'Trustworthiness' aspects. Websites are thus architecturally designed to include schema markup for articles, authors, and reviews, enhancing visibility and credibility in SERPs.
With EEAT, there's a stronger emphasis on creating a logical content hierarchy that enhances user experience. Websites are structured into thematic silos or clusters that focus on a specific topic or set of related topics. It showcases expertise & authority in a particular niche. This architecture makes it easier for users to navigate & find related content and helps search engines to understand the depth of knowledge offered.
Businesses have started incorporating clear, easily accessible information on their website that users & search engines value. It includes privacy policies, terms of service, contact information, and authoritative outbound links. This level of transparency & ease of access directly impact how trustworthy a site is perceived, influencing its overall performance in search results.
Beyond guiding visitors through your website, the benefits of internal linking are countless. A well-structured internal links signal to Google the hierarchy & connectivity of your content, emphasizing its value & relevance. Let us understand the strategies for leveraging internal linking to boost your site's compliance with EEAT:
Start by developing content hubs on your website. Content hubs are like special online libraries or collections on a website where all information about a particular topic is kept together. It gathers articles, videos, pictures, and more, all about one subject, so people can easily find and learn from them. Creating content hubs involves:
1. Designating pillar pages that offer a broad overview of a primary topic.
2. Create detailed cluster pages that delve into related subtopics, connecting them to the pillar page.
3. Using descriptive anchor texts for these internal links ensures users and search engines understand the content's context.
Content hubs facilitate an organized exploration of your site, encouraging users to spend more time and decreasing bounce rates. This structural approach improves user experience and positions your site as a thematic authority in Google's eyes.
Contextual linking is the practice of embedding internal links within the body of your content. This approach provides relevant reading options to users and helps Google understand the relationship between different pieces of content on your site.
To leverage contextual linking, follow these steps:
1. Ensure each link offers additional value to the reader, integrating seamlessly into the page's text.
2. Opt for varied, relevant anchor texts that reflect the content of the linked pages.
3. Periodically refresh older content to include links to newer, relevant articles or pages.
This strategy enhances the user journey by offering more depth. It helps Google understand the intricate relationships between your content pieces, distributing page authority more evenly across your site. Contextual linking significantly boosts page views and user engagement metrics, critical signals for Google's ranking algorithms.
Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink within a web page or document. provides users and search engines with contextual information about the content of the link's destination. The anchor text should be created by keeping the following best practices in mind:
1. Use descriptive, keyword-rich anchor texts that indicate the content of the linked pages.
2. Strive for a balance to avoid repetitive exact-match keywords that can appear spammy.
3. Embrace diversity in phrasing to maintain a natural and engaging flow.
Well-optimized anchor text can significantly increase a website's keyword rankings and overall visibility in search engines. It also enhances your site's navigational structure & E-E-A-T, clearly indicating what the linked pages are about.
Use our free anchor text generator tool to generate SEO-optimized anchor text.
This strategy involves placing internal links in a way that anticipates and satisfies the user's needs for additional information without disrupting their reading experience. It improves the user's experience on your site, which, in turn, encourages them to stay longer and engage more with your content.
1. Integrate internal links in prominent, logical locations to fulfill the user's curiosity and informational needs immediately.
2. Avoid overloading any section of your page with too many links, which can detract from the user experience.
3. Carefully select relevant content that enriches the user's understanding of the topic for linking.
Focusing on user experience with thoughtful link placement can lead to improved engagement metrics such as lower bounce rates & higher time on site. These positive user interactions signal to Google that your website is valuable & deserves a higher ranking.
EEAT requires a deeper look into user engagement, content quality, and your site's authority. Start by tracking user behavior metrics such as time on page, bounce rate, and pages per session. High engagement indicates that visitors find your content valuable, a sign of high expertise and trustworthiness. Use tools like Google Analytics for this purpose.
You also need to ensure that pages with high authority have enough outbound internal links to pass on the "link juice" to other relevant pages. Use tools like Quattr and Screaming Frog to analyze your internal linking. Look for metrics such as the number of internal links per page, broken links, and orphan pages. A well-structured internal linking system should evenly distribute link equity & make every page accessible.
You need to reaccess your content if you notice low engagement. Consider enhancing the quality of your content by including more comprehensive, expert-backed information and updating outdated content.
Ensure that highly authoritative pages link to relevant lower authority pages to spread link equity. Conversely, if you discover orphan pages, link to them from relevant high-authority pages to ensure they're indexed and can start ranking.
Regular audits of your content & internal linking structure can ensure your site remains navigable and authoritative.
Enhancing your website's visibility, authority, and trustworthiness requires strategic internal linking and adherence to Google's EEAT principles. When carefully crafted, internal links guide users and search engines through your site's expertise, fostering engagement and boosting SEO performance. However, managing this across numerous pages can be daunting.
This is where platforms like Quattr come in. They simplify internal linking efforts and align your content with EEAT principles. Quattr streamlines internal linking and provides precise improvement recommendations based on user searches, your data, and competitor insights. It analyzes your content against competitors, helping you enhance expertise, authority, and trustworthiness across your web pages.
Explore our free tools to understand how beneficial Quattr can be for your organization.
Internal linking should be revisited quarterly, aligning with content updates and algorithmic shifts. Regular audits ensure strategic placement, fostering a dynamic structure that enhances user experience and sustains authoritative topical relevance.
EEAT & strategic internal linking efforts can significantly impact sales or conversions. It enhances user experience, builds credibility, and improves website navigation, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.
Linking to reputable and relevant external sites can boost your website's credibility and trust with search engines. Choose high-quality links, as linking to poor or spammy sites can harm your website's reputation.
Quattr's AI-first platform evaluates like search engines to find opportunities across content, experience, and discoverability. A team of growth concierge analyze your data and recommends the top improvements to make for faster organic traffic growth. Growth-driven brands trust Quattr and are seeing sustained traffic growth.
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