You are who the customer believes you are.
That may not always be your preferred image of you, but it is what you’re stuck with. Online search has changed and the content you create is a digital version of website nutrition. Google has updated the way they evaluate your site’s value. Based on their quality ratings guidelines, you are what you EAT.

The semantic web has blossomed into the need for Google to catalogue website quality based upon the E-A-T concept. (The most basic way to explain the semantic web is to get past the idea that online search ranking occurs due to the use of specific keywords, but rather logically understanding the searcher’s intent and connecting them with the websites that have the most relevancy to their needs. In other words, Google is fashioning an algorithm that understands my wife. It’s not about what she is saying, but what she is wanting. Confusing, I know.)

Which brings us to why you are what you EAT.
Google seeks websites that have E-A-T elements:

• Expertise
• Authoritativeness
• Trustworthiness

It is just like having a conversation with a friend. If you want to talk cars, you don’t want to hear from every friend that owns a car. You want to hear from the friend who has a history of putting out relevant content with information, facts, helpful hints, and more regarding the topic. You seek credibility from the people you want answers from. Ask yourself what questions your website actually answers (if any) and then determine if you’re putting out solutions, or simply sharing inventory. Do people visit your website only to know availability and basic pricing? Or do they seek to gain more insight into the car-buying process?

Here are quick factors to determine if your website is part of the solution or part of the problem:

• Do you have a FAQ page?
• Do you have a FAQ page for each department?
• Do you have video answers to commonly asked questions?
• Are these questions written in text themselves as sub-headlines on your page, and followed by the answers?
• Are you sharing vehicle comparisons?
• Are you comparing your own models against each other, as well as comparing to your competitors?
• Do you offer a way for website visits to Ask a Tech? or Ask a Manager?
• Do you give detailed explanations regarding buying vs. leasing?
• Do you share how-to videos?
• Are you involving yourself as an authority on related topics within forums, groups, social networks, and more?

Again – experts share their advice and opinions with others off of their website, as well, as a means to grow themselves into a trusted authority on the subject. Are you confining yourself expertise to one URL or are you trying to build a brand across all channels?

Start redefining how you serve answers to those people who have questions. Use your website, your team, your technology, and all of the mediums available to you. The more you focus on being a solution to people’s problems, rather than solely being the seller and servicer of a product, the more online search will benefit you. Be what you E-A-T and watch your search rankings grow.