Unlock Google's Secrets and Boost Your B2B Content Strategy

It’s generally assumed that the secrets of Google’s search algorithm are as heavily guarded as Buckingham Palace. But the truth is that Google's search priorities - and some great actionable advice for your content strategy - have been in the public domain for about a decade.

While the specifics of the algorithm remain proprietary, Google’s Search Quality Rating guidelines have been available since 2013. Written to help Google’s team of human Quality Raters to assess and give feedback on search results, they also offer content creators valuable clues on what matters for search.

“You can view the rater guidelines as where we want the search algorithm to go,” Ben Gomes, Google’s new SVP of Education, told CNBC. “They don’t tell you how the algorithm is ranking results, but they fundamentally show what the algorithm should do.” Prior to his current role, Gomes spent roughly twenty years leading Google’s search division.

The original guidelines were updated in 2014 to include two core principles on quality content - EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), and YMYL (Your Money or Your Life). In December 2022, Google added another E (Experience) to EAT. 

While EEAT and YMYL might not directly influence Google page rankings, understanding and using them in your strategy are vital. And not just to tick Google’s boxes. They offer a clear path to publishing content with a clear understanding of your audience’s questions, concerns, motivations, and needs. By understanding what matters to Google, you can carve out a more authoritative space for your brand and improve your customer experience.

Understanding Google’s EEAT and YMYL Guidelines

Let’s unpack these two essential ideas and how you can leverage them to guide your content creation efforts.

YMYL: Your Money or Your Life

YMYL refers to online content that could significantly impact an individual's happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. Google places more stringent standards on these pages to limit the potential for harmful content to appear in search. To rank, a YMYL page must adhere to high-quality information and sourcing standards.

Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines use the following criteria to assess whether a topic falls under YMYL guidelines:

• Health or Safety: Topics that could harm mental, physical, and emotional health or any form of safety, such as physical safety or safety online.

• Financial Security: Topics that could damage a person's ability to support themselves and their families.

• Society: Topics that could negatively impact groups of people, issues of public interest, trust in public institutions, etc.

• Other: Topics that could hurt people or negatively impact the welfare or well-being of society.

While certain topics are inherently harmful or dangerous (criminal acts or extremism, for example) most YMYL topics are more benign. Still, the potential for harm from these topics exists when content is not accurate or trustworthy. For instance, if you make a major financial decision based on poor quality information. 

Ultimately, Google advises its Quality Raters to consider YMYL as a spectrum and to use their best judgment whether a given topic requires high trust or accuracy to prevent harm.

If you’re creating web content for certain B2B businesses (think financial advisors, law firms, HR and payroll service providers, cybersecurity, commercial insurance brokers), YMYL clearly applies. However, you also need to be aware of YMYL elsewhere. If your content is for ecommerce, or has the potential to influence a major purchase or business decision, YMYL could apply.

EEAT: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness

While EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) is undoubtedly a tidy acronym, we do have one quibble: it buries the lede!

Trustworthiness is central to Google’s survival as a business. Google may own the search game today, but if people start doubting their results, they will look for alternatives. But, because trustworthiness is subjective, Google triangulates experience, expertise, and authoritativeness to help assess a site’s integrity. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of how Google views these concepts:

• Experience guidelines help Quality Raters determine if a page demonstrates that the creator has direct and personal knowledge on the topic.

• Expertise is established when an author has the credentials to speak on a specific topic. These are often gained through focused training, study, and practice.

• Authoritativeness is derived from your reputation within a given industry. Content creators are considered authoritative when they’re well-known as a good source of information on that topic.

It’s important to note that these values don’t exist in a vacuum - they can (and frequently do) overlap. 

For instance, after providing management consulting for over a decade, your firm would have deep experience and expertise on a topic like organisational change management. Google would likely see your consultants’ blog posts on change leadership as reliable.

However, content from McKinsey & Company would rate as more authoritative and trustworthy given their renown as leaders in the field.

How to Use EEAT and YMYL in Your B2B Content Strategy

Bring a Human Voice to Your Content

Authentic content will always stand out from generic AI-generated webspam. While it’s true AI can be a helpful tool for brainstorming and even outlining, anyone who relies on it too heavily will likely find themselves sidelined.

Instead, have members of your team closely involved in content creation. Work with your subject experts to write content based on their knowledge of key topics and point of view. When outsourcing content creation, make sure those subject matter experts are closely involved in the briefing, review, and editing process.

Find Something Original to Say

Don’t just parrot what everyone else is saying: strive for originality in your content! Offering unique analyses or thought-provoking, fresh angles on topics in your industry is one of the best ways to demonstrate your experience, expertise, and authoritativeness all at once.

For example, a design agency could post their opinion on the latest branding or design trends. Or a financial advisor could provide their analysis on how a new tax regulation will impact specific industries or client types. 

Support your perspective by referencing credible, trusted sources, including other leading figures in your field.

Establish Your Expertise

Whenever possible, add a byline. Create a template for an author’s biography page so every post includes social links and details that establish their credentials and qualifications. Doing so will build up a history of publications from authoritative experts on your core topics.

Also consider how you can showcase expertise that’s unique to your industry. For example, a law firm could break down complex legal issues and significant rulings using language their customers can easily understand.

As you build your stable of high-quality content, you’ll likely create a few pieces that are irresistible shares. Don’t be surprised to find these backlinked by people in your industry. This means you’re starting to be seen as an authority on the topic - and before long, Google will see you that way too.

Showcase Your Experience

Google wants to be sure that the content its search engine serves up is authentic, so it’s important to do what you can to prove your experience. 

An HR consultancy, for example, could create an engaging case study showing how their services helped clients on both sides of a hire. Or an IT consultancy might review new devices or services, breaking down their review process and detailing how they arrived at their conclusions and recommendations.

Content that provides a behind the scenes look at how you operate can also give customers a flavour of what it would be like to work with you. Happily, it also demonstrates experience by showcasing your workflows and methodologies.

Ensure Your Content is Actually Helpful

Never lose sight of the customers you're creating content for. In an age where your customers can turn to AI to answer their basic queries, your content strategy will fall flat if you’re not addressing their needs, concerns, and questions at a human level.

While reviewing your content, ask yourself whether you, as a customer, would be satisfied with what’s on the screen. Does each piece of content seek to answer a customer’s question well? Does it have something of value to offer? Or is it just a thinly disguised vehicle for search keywords with a call to action at the bottom?

Review your content regularly to make sure your information is still fresh. If you’re in financial services and your company blog still features a post detailing the merits of Liz Truss’s proposed tax legislation, how will anyone trust you with their hard-earned money? 

Embrace Customer Feedback and Client-Created Content

As a B2B company, you might not think there’s a need for client reviews on your site, but it can actually be a way to make you stand out. Many businesses still shy away from using social proof, despite strong evidence that customer reviews and testimonials are an important part of your brand story and building trustworthiness.

While it’s always good to nudge your happy clients to share their experiences on your social media pages or tag you in their success posts, don’t be afraid of letting your customers speak their minds. It seems counter-intuitive, but research from the Medill Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University found that negative reviews can actually help establish trust and authenticity.

Authoritative Content that Puts Customers First

Developing a content strategy aligned with Google’s EEAT and YMYL guidelines needs to be more than a means to an end. 

Following the guidelines without thinking just to optimise your search rankings could still lead to deeply unsatisfying content for your customers. In fact, becoming overly focused on demonstrating your experience and expertise could bias you in that direction as your content becomes too internally-focused.

Instead, you need to put your energies into creating content that thinks about your customers' needs at every turn. By answering your audiences’ questions and providing great value, you can establish your business as a credible, authoritative source in your field. The rankings - and customers - are sure to follow.

Need help building a comprehensive content strategy that puts your experience, expertise,  authoritativeness, and trustworthiness front and center? Let’s have a chat about how your content strategy can put you on the path to meeting your business goals.