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My site probably has low E-A-T despite being really good

         

porton

8:41 pm on Sep 18, 2019 (gmt 0)

5+ Year Member



I've just read <snip> (a blog article on the importance of E-A-T for SEO).

I have a math Web site which looks like a crackpot (mad false scientist) site. Everything is mathematically proved but I am sure Google can't check this. It is even written on the site that I have no scientific degree.

Should I make it look more like a "normal" scientific site to improve E-A-T? (Before I ignored this: If you are a professor of math not K-12 scholar you will understand that I am serious, I thought it does not matter if not a high qualified expert would consider it serious or not.)


[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 9:37 am (utc) on Sep 21, 2019]
[edit reason] removed blog link - see forum Charter [/edit]

Robert Charlton

10:53 am on Sep 21, 2019 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



porton, Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]. Yes, I agree that E-A-T is important.... In a theoretical math site as you describe, if it were a "straight" and "normal" scientific site, chances are that a "formal" academic background might be valued over personal experience.

That said, if you want to hold on to some of the humorous flavor of your current show, you will need to make your presentation also really entertaining, perhaps even genuinely funny.... In such cases, if it works for a sophisticed audience, it may well also work for the Google algorithm, though heaven knows how Google might make these evaluations.

Note that the Google human reviewers don't individually evaluate sites or mathematic proofs, entertaining or otherwise, so your site itself most probably never will be evaluated.... What is more likely to be evaluated is an algorithm that eventually will look at presentation and audience reaction, and also at credentials (on your site and on the web). Whether for entertainment or instructional value... or both... you will most probably have to put your best foot forward, describing accomplishments, awards, concrete achievments, in both how much audiences (live or the web) like you, where you may have trained, as well as how you picked up the math, and not only describe what degree of originality you present, but embody it in your presentation... this both for users and for Google.

If you can "sell" the entertaiment aspect, then Google might dial down the demand for academic credentials and look at you more as an unusal niche entertainer, with some academic content. I'm just conjecturing here... but Google has specifically said in the past it values humor, so they must have approaches to value it algorithmically.

It's a fine line... and in truth, if you are going to have fun with a subject and still convey useful math or physics, the audience demands, which are really what need to concern you, should be the most important... They may even be tougher than either entertainment or math presentation alone... Eg, can you present the subject so it teaches, and do so in a way that might elicit laughts throughout? Humor could be verbal, or it could be situational or even slapstick.

In physics, to cite a classic... Richard Feynman's Lectures on Physics are noted for their wit and humor. His comparisons of momentum plus gravity vs angels pushing moons and planets around in orbits, eg, is a classic bit of lecture that's frequently remembered. It's a stroke of genius that's hard to match.

On another end of the spectrum in physics, I've had physics teachers who would do things during lectures like step into wastebaskets at points that needed some lightening up. I can't imagine Feynam stepping in a wastebasket, though, so you need to choose and test the personality you plan to project with an audience you hope to attract.

I did have a fair amount of college education that overlaps with what you're discussing... and my theoretical math professors were almost uniformly a serious lot... and I don't know how amusing you could make something like the derivation of the real number system. You will have to get to know your audience.

IMO, comedy should be extremely precise, never sloppy and random, but that's a personal taste. I don't know how well you can fit your crazy, mad scientist persona into what I think the required precision needs to be... but that's your creative challenge. Connecting with the right audience is likely to be tricky, but, also, all important .

Good luck. I hope these random thoughts will help.

martinibuster

5:50 am on Sep 24, 2019 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



The APPEARANCE of E-A-T is way overblown in terms of displaying author credentials and all that.

I know of several medical niches where the top ranked sites are by people who have zero medical school experience. This is a fact. What they have is a strong marketing hand.

You say your site is "really good" and that means the content is good right?

But, being "really good" is not enough.

What matters is if the content is relevant to users and if the site loads fast and works great in mobile.

If the design of the site causes users to back out of the site then you have a problem. Nobody's going to link to it or spread word of mouth about it. If that's the case then THAT is your problem.

The stuff about E-A-T is the product of people who believe the quality raters guidelines hold secrets to Google's algorithm. It does not.

What matters is relevance and a good user experience. The rankings generally follow from there. And that's even for YMYL queries. Relevance issues is why alt health sites failed, not because of author credential issues. The sites were no longer judged to be relevant and other more relevant sites replaced them.

Good luck!

Roger Montti

brighteryeg

11:39 pm on Sep 27, 2019 (gmt 0)

5+ Year Member



Agree with above, you're probably not going to lose on e-a-t if you have legitimately great content. It's also more likely to factor in on those ymyl niches. A strategy I've seen some websites take if you're worried about is basically have the content peer-reviewed and confirmed accurate by someone who does have the credentials.