With over 5000 attendees, digital marketeers flock to Brighton twice a year, for a 2-day global search marketing conference, which has the aim of helping search and digital marketers meet, learn, and do their jobs better. Tom Vaiughton is a regular speaker at Brighton SEO and after 25 years of working in search and digital marketing, Tom is frequently asked to share his ideas and thoughts on how search, Google, website visibility and SEO is evolving and impacting brands and businesses. This October 2024, Tom Vaughton, founder and CEO of Varn, delivered an insightful talk on the main stage at Brighton SEO, on the future of SEO in the AI era titled “How ‘Awesome’ will define SEO in the New Era of AI-Powered Search.”
Drawing on 25 years of experience in the SEO industry and having worked with over 400 clients worldwide, Tom shared a thought-provoking reflection on the evolution of search and the impact AI is having on SEO strategies today.
In his talk, Tom explored how AI-powered tools like natural language processing (NLP), voice search and image and video recognition, are transforming the way search engines interpret and rank content. He emphasised the importance of staying ahead of these shifts while remaining true to the core principles of great SEO—high-quality content, strong user experience and an unwavering commitment to long-term success.
One of Tom’s key takeaways was the need for SEOs to stop relying on shortcuts and to fully embrace the concept of “awesomeness,” a term borrowed from Google’s John Mueller, meaning businesses and agencies should aim to be exceptional in all aspects of SEO; whether it’s content quality, user experience or technical optimisation. He encouraged attendees to test, learn and evolve their SEO strategies, highlighting the critical role of innovation, thoughtful content creation and a clear understanding of user intent in the age of AI. Tom emphasised the importance of creating exceptional, user-focused content that delivers true value over time, rather than simply chasing algorithms. As AI becomes more adept at understanding nuanced queries, SEOs must prioritise personalisation and relevance in order to capture and convert users at every stage of their search.
Tom’s talk provided a thoughtful, forward-looking take on SEO in a new AI era, urging SEOers and marketers to stay adaptable, experiment with new approaches, don’t take shortcuts and always prioritise your end user.
The Varn team also attended many other insightful talks this year. Read on to hear our key takeaways…
Tom shares examples of errors that AI makes, that his young children were able to easily identify correctly. His example shows that while AI is powerful, it’s not flawless, emphasising the need for human insight.
Tom cautions against over-relying on AI in SEO and highlights the value of human experience and judgment. His proposed “cybermethod” blends AI’s efficiency with human expertise to produce higher-quality results by combining their strengths.
Key takeaways:
Carla offers marketers a unique way to approach their target audience research. Rather than categorising by demographics such as age and gender, she suggests categorising by five ‘curiosity cohorts’.
This approach encourages marketers view their audience through a fresh lens. This can potentially drive greater ROI, and results in content that truly speaks to the consumer’s interests, increasing brand loyalty and engagement.
Key Takeaways
In her talk, Nikki provided a thorough guide to overcoming website migration challenges, focusing on common blockers and how to address them. She highlighted the importance of asking the critical questions and strong communication throughout the process of migration to ensure everything goes smoothly.
Key takeaways:
In this talk, Yasmin drew our attention to Gen Z: how they are changing search, and how do we adapt to this? As the younger generation have grown up with technology and are more tech savvy, there are 3 priorities we need to consider to make SEO more accommodating:
Key takeaways:
Nathan began by explaining the importance of Bayes Theorem in SEO, in particular paid ads. Essentially, when you are testing a hypothesis and making changes to your SEO strategy, you need to assess the impact in order to know if this hypothesis was successful or not by keeping track of changes such as levels of organic traffic.
Key takeaways:
Liv Day opened the conference with a deep dive into the critical role that relevance plays in a site’s link profile. She highlighted the impact of irrelevant backlinks on traffic and rankings, detailing how such links can skew the perceived topicality of a website, potentially causing search engines to misunderstand a site’s focus.
Her team removed toxic and irrelevant links pointing to the site, including those leading to 404 pages. The results? A surge in traffic in August 2024, the best organic performance in five years. These results led Liv to emphasise that relevance should be treated as its own metric. She urged brands to use data to close relevance gaps between their content and backlink profiles. She shared her process, using tools like IBM Watson’s natural language processing to help analyse website content and links to confirm their alignment for link building success.
Key Takeaway:
Darren Jacobs explored the explosive growth of retail media and the convergence of e-commerce and digital advertising. Retail media systems are created by brands to advertise directly on retailer websites, to create an end to end customer journey from browsing to purchase.
With 20% of global ad spend going to retail media, driven in part by the post-COVID shift to e-commerce, retailers are turning their own first-party data into a powerful tool for closed-loop attribution and personalised customer experiences. Jacobs explores how companies like Walmart and Tesco are leading the way, by building sophisticated retail media networks to make the most of their revenue streams.
Key Takeaway:
In the third talk of the online PR section, Sophie Coley emphasised the importance of boundaries in fostering creativity and maintaining relevance. Drawing on her journalism background, she shared how she uses a persona-driven approach to content creation. By doing so, she aligns with the daily lives and emotional triggers of the audience.
She shares how important it is to understand key life moments when products or services are needed. This way, brands can create more meaningful and resonant content. She recommended using tools like Google Suggest, Reddit, and TikTok to dig deeper into audience personas. She also suggests creating buyer personas to map user journeys to align organic strategies with.
Key Takeaway:
Jonathon’s talk provided valuable insights into automating SEO content audits, helping to extract key on-page SEO elements such as meta titles, descriptions, H1 tags, and word counts. Given how time-consuming content audits can be, this approach offers a much more efficient and scalable solution.
Key takeaways:
Jo Cameron’s talk explored the potential benefits and challenges of starting a podcast, building on her experience of creating 20 episodes of MozPod in just seven days with a budget of $20k. She demonstrated that starting a podcast doesn’t require a huge budget and can be highly effective in reaching new audiences.
Jo left the audience with an inspiring message from one of her podcast episodes. A guest shared how she and her partner reflect on three things they are grateful for each day, especially on difficult days. This was a reminder that even in SEO, recognising small wins can help maintain motivation and focus on long-term success.
Key takeaways:
Jenna’s talk emphasised the importance of “letting go,” linking this idea with the concept of a site-wide clean-up. She took the audience on a journey through the gradual decline of their organic blog traffic over the years. Through various discoveries and a deep-dive process, her team managed to identify the root of the issue and transform their approach to improve site performance.
Key takeaways:
Our team had an insightful few days at BrightonSEO, with helpful insights for our Future Talent Graduates from some of the SEO industry’s leading experts. Thank you to all the speakers this year, it was great to hear from you.
If you want to learn more about SEO, get in to
Community-based youth charity Young Bristol has become the third South West charity to win a place on the region’s Noble Deeds programme.
Set up in 2021 by Bristol-based SME Noble, the Deeds programme provides digital marketing training & support to not-for-profits, helping them deliver vital services in the area. Increasing in-line with Nobles’ own turnover, this year the support package stands at £25,000. Young Bristol will use this to upskill its marketing team and ensure its services reach the young people who need them the most
Supporting children and young adults aged 8-25 during their critical out of school hours in some of the most challenging areas of the city, Young Bristol’s mission is to provide innovative programmes that create a positive and sustainable impact on the lives of young people
With eight community youth clubs across Bristol, a mobile youth club on wheels, outdoor activity centres and an employment programme just part of what the charity offers, the support from Noble will help the Young Bristol team prioritise where its digital marketing efforts will make the most impact. As well as helping the team to learn new skills and maximise their knowledge of social media, SEO and other digital promotion techniques for a lasting impact beyond the Deeds programme
Lucy Saunders, Head of Fundraising & Development, Young Bristol, explains; “We are thrilled to be the selected charity for this year’s Noble Deeds programme. It is an incredible opportunity for our organisation to gain valuable experience and support from a team of experts. Their support will make a big difference, not only by up-skilling our team and improving our digital marketing, but also by helping us to further our reach and services to even more young people.”
With numerous deserving causes across the city that could benefit from the Deeds programme, choosing just one recipient is difficult. Previous winners have included homelessness charity Emmaus Bristol and South Bristol social enterprise Heart of BS13
Lorenzo Campbell, chair of Noble’s UK Deeds committee, said; “It’s not easy to choose between the many worthwhile entries to Deeds we receive. However, Young Bristol gives us the opportunity to work with a charity that reaches the communities right across Bristol who need their help the most. Making sure young people get the right start in life is so crucial and the passion the Young Bristol team has for that is inspiring.
“The impact the charity has can be life-changing for young people and leaves a real lasting legacy. Hopefully by helping the team enhance their own knowledge and digital marketing skills we can help them make that impact as long-lasting as possible.”
The Noble Deeds initiative was originally started over twenty-years ago by Nobles’ parent [KS1] company in Nevada, North America. Mirroring the US programme, the winning not-for-profit is chosen by an employee-led committee, with the UK Deeds programme opening every June at a free ‘Be Better Bristol’ event for local charities and businesses
The Noble team then work alongside the winning charity from September through to February each year helping them to achieve their specific objective
To find out more about Young Bristol go to https://www.youngbristol.co
To find out more about Noble go to https://nobleperforms.co.uk,
Running an e-commerce store isn’t just about selling online, it’s about understanding how your visitors are navigating and interacting with your site and how you can use that data to inform KPIs, optimise your website and determine your marketing strategy moving forward.
If you run an e-commerce shop, chances are you’ve got questions about metrics. Don’t worry – in this guide I’m going to walk you through the metrics you should be tracking, why they’re so important and what you can do with them.
A conversion happens when a website visitor completes a desired action on your site (usually by making a purchase, clicking on a pop-up or filling out an enquiry form.) Conversion rates are measured by calculating the percentage of visitors who complete said action in relation to the total number of visitors to that page. Tracking these conversions determines your business’s Return on Investment (ROI) – the higher your conversion rate, the more chance you’ll have a positive ROI.
For e-commerce businesses, a conversion is usually the completion of a purchase on your website. Think of conversions as being the final piece of the digital marketing puzzle – while driving website traffic is important, the puzzle isn’t complete without said traffic leading to an actual purchase.
Conversion rates tell us a lot about what is going on in the minds of your website visitors. Measuring conversion rates is about tracking the performance of your e-commerce site and gaining an understanding of how potential customers are thinking and behaving so that you can shape your business strategy accordingly.
You might find you’re receiving a lot of traffic to your website but not seeing the conversions you’d like. Or maybe you’re receiving a lot of enquiries but no sales. The reality is that it doesn’t matter how much traffic you’re driving to your site because it’s worthless if visitors aren’t checking out.
If this is the case, it’s likely you have a conversion rate problem. In order for your e-commerce store to be a success, you need to think like a customer. What roadblocks are standing in the way of them making a purchase? Is there something wrong with your product or offering? Are you pitching to the wrong audience?
Identifying where the issue lies will help you to develop your business strategy to address the problems and inform your KPIs.
Now you’ve got an idea of the importance of tracking metrics on your e-commerce site, it’s time to break down some of the key metrics you should be keeping an eye on:
Segmenting your conversion rates can give a more detailed insight into the efficacy of your marketing efforts. There are a few ways to segment conversion rates:
By Traffic Source: Looking at where your conversions are coming from can give you an idea of where to direct your marketing efforts. Where is your website traffic coming from? Are people visiting via Google, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn? This enables you to improve your advertising or messaging on these channels. It also informs budgetary decisions. If you’re spending a ton of money on Facebook ads but all your customers are coming from Google, then maybe it would pay to divert budget to SEO.
By Device Type: Understanding what device visitors are using allows you to tailor the user experience. With mobile commerce accounting for 66% of global e-commerce sales, it’s important that your website is optimised for mobile devices to guarantee the same customer experience is being had.
New vs Repeat Visitors: You’ll usually find that repeat customers are more likely to make a purchase than those visiting for the first time. This is due to increased trust and loyalty in your brand. Identifying the difference can help you calculate how your acquisition campaigns are performing and where you should be directing your efforts.
So how do you optimise conversion rates on your website? This is where Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) comes in.
Conversion Rate Optimisation is about optimising your website to encourage visitors to make a purchase. This is done by improving the user experience, messaging and design on your site to ensure they have a positive experience. The more user-friendly your site, the more trust you will build with your potential customers.
For e-commerce stores, this might be things like creating easy-to-navigate product pages and a seamless checkout experience – essentially removing any friction your visitors might face. Don’t forget to optimise your website for different devices, too.
These things may seem minor, but they make a big difference in how customers navigate your site. It’s also a pretty cost-effective way of increasing your revenue, as it allows you to lower your cost per acquisition by taking advantage of existing traffic on your site.
Don’t know where to start? Check out our free Conversion Rate Cheatsheet and we’ll give your site a health score so you can get started on improving your e-commerce website and boosting sales.
For more advice, book a discovery call with us today and find out how we can help.
Birch, Bristol’s newest podcast studio, has opened at Nine Tree Studios in Brislington.
Designed with both “audio and video first”, the space offers high quality audio recording in a comfortable suite that’s designed for film.
“When we opened Nine Tree Studios, supporting the local creative industries was at the heart of everything” said Russell, Co-Founder of Nine Tree Studios.
“We have a huge amount of versatile space, and we want it to be useful, accessible and affordable – not just sit there empty. Bristol doesn’t have a huge amount of podcast suites, with some professionals even travelling to London just to record.”
“With our space we hope to welcome and support a variety of creatives, content producers, influencers and hobbyists alike.”
With full-RGB lighting and space for branding, the studio is perfect for both guest and episodic podcast recording.
Birch also has access to Nine Tree Studios’ other facilities, including ample parking, green rooms for hair and makeup, and a large kitchen breakout space.
The studio can be hired from the hour for just audio recording or including video, with various options to suit beginners and professionals alike.
Nine Tree Studios is Bristol’s biggest independent studio. Located just outside the centre of Bristol there’s parking for over 30 vehicles with easy access to Bristol, Bath and the M4.
For more information visit www.ninetreestudios.co.uk, email [email protected], or call 01173706372.
Bristol integrated brand agency saintnicks has announced a further senior appointment with the hiring of Marcus Culloty as the agency’s new Creative Director.
Marcus joins saintnicks after holding the title of Creative Director at McCann Bristol. Before that, he was the Creative Director of The Mix Dublin, part of Pernod Ricard’s global in-house agency network.
With more than 17 years experience working for some of the UK and Ireland’s leading network and independent agencies including Havas, Publicis, and The Leith Agency, he has created a raft of award-winning campaigns for global clients such as Toyota, O2, Jameson and Dunlop.
Now as saintnicks’ Creative Director, Marcus will be leading the agency’s conceptual output alongside supporting with the mentoring, shaping and development of its creative studio.
On his appointment, Culloty said: “saintnicks has a great philosophy for crafting great work that helps their clients and their brands really fly. That’s why I can’t wait to dive in, be part of this experienced agile independent agency’s senior team and take things further than ever.”
It’s a time of continued growth for the Bristol agency with further new talent joining across the business. This month sees the arrival of Richard Canueto-Cook and Hannah Bain into the Client Services team as Account Directors. Both join with previous careers at Ogilvy, Havas and McCann.
The appointments coincide with another strong year for the agency after a consistent period of new and existing client growth within the automotive, sport and audio sectors and a string of industry award nominations.
Steve Davies, ECD of saintnicks commented: “The quality of talent and the versatility of skills in the agency has enabled us to generate stronger campaigns and deliver better performance metrics across the board. With over 65% of our business from international brands we are always seeking talent who can help us to take clients further, and Marcus is a most welcome and exciting addition to the team.”
Werkshop Weekender (formerly known as Werkhouse) is finally back! This year they’re changing it up, and the torch for hosting has been passed on to Halo.
The weekend, where future designers, copywriters, and strategists are given the chance to connect with the industry and get a taste for agency life first hand through a real brief, is happening in Bristol on 16th and 17th November 2024.
Breaking down barriers
As Halo takes over the mantle, they are continuing to dial up the focus on diversity and inclusion. The weekend is open to anyone over 18, no matter their previous experience or education, and all applications are being judged blind.
“We know that university isn’t accessible, or even the right route, for everyone but yet there’s still such a heavy onus on having a degree when trying to move into the Creative Sector. We don’t think this should be the case. Creativity is open to everyone, and always should be, no matter where you are in life or what you’ve been (or are going) through. “ ~ Bryony Greenwood, People & Studio Coordinator at Halo
Werkshop Weekender brings together professionals from some of the best studios in Bristol and Bath, with curious individuals looking to enter the creative industries. Participants are divided into squads to tackle a real life brief from a client in the charity sector, developing ideas and communicating their concepts, with the support of assigned team leaders and on hand professionals.
Studios that so far have signed on for the weekend are:
How to apply
Applications open on 2nd September and close on 1st October, but if you for any reason need more time to finish, please contact Halo at [email protected] and they’ll do what they can to accommodate you.
The Werkshop Weekender team has made it clear; the weekend isn’t for those with experience. It’s for those with an interest in communications, design, and commercial creativity. They aren’t looking for professionals, they’re looking for those with a curious attitude and drive, who want to gain insight into agency life.
“If you’re passionate, if you have ideas, if you’re curious, we want to hear from you. Good ideas come from every aspect of life, and the experiences and the way people perceive life right from day one are what forms rounded ideas. We know life isn’t linear, and your journey into the creative space may not be either (mine wasn’t), so if you have even an inkling to apply, please do!” ~ Bryony Greenwood, People & Studio Coordinator at Halo
Go to the Werkshop Weekender website to find out more and to access the application when it opens.
Bristol-based CRM specialists Flourish have today joined forces with the creative services agency Curious and The Harbour Collective, in what is the first step in the development of a new marketing company – the Harbour Group.
The group will be led by Paul Hammersley. Previously founder of Harbour Collective, Hammersley will become the CEO of Harbour Group, with Hugo Varney taking on the role of CFO. Before forming Harbour, Hammersley was a chief executive of DDB and Cheil. He launched Harbour in 2017.
Hammersley said, “For some time we have been discussing with a number of our Collective member agencies how to more closely align their shared interests and create a more connected plan for future growth and value creation… central to those discussions has been our desire to allow for the continued autonomy of the agency Brands.”
Founded in 2004, Flourish built its reputation in CRM and Customer Journey marketing, working for clients such as Nissan, Twitch and ASOS. Today, the agency employs over 50 people and operates from offices in Bristol and Dubai.
Of Flourish’s three founders, Neil Hecquet and Rich Hartson will be departing the agency, whilst Keith Nichol will remain, taking a position on the Harbour Group board. Nichol said, “The last 20 years have been such an incredible personal experience. I couldn’t have hoped for better partners than Neil and Rich and both have been instrumental in Flourish’s success. The time has come to push on and this opportunity with Harbour enables us to add our strength to a wider group proposition.”
Ian Reeves, Flourish’s Managing Director, said “The Harbour Group vision is clear and offers our clients tangible value through vertically integrated and complimentary services. We’re excited to start the journey alongside Curious and believe their offering can help push the creative barriers of what can be achieved within CRM.”
For more information, please contact Aimee Blakemore, Marketing Manager at Flourish on 01173 117620 or [email protected].
About Flourish
Flourish, which has offices in Bristol and Dubai, is a CRM agency “specialising in the development and delivery of personalised data-driven experiences, direct communications and content”. Its clients include Nissan, Bet365 and Asos.
About Curious
Curious is a “tech-driven agency that provides design, artwork, photography, video, CGI, and content distribution services”, with clients that include Diageo, Specsavers and Patek Philippe.
About Harbour
Harbour Collective, described as a “standalone company which manages a membership base of a number of independent agencies”, includes Live & Breathe, Pretty Green, Thursday, Platform, Digital Natives, TCO, Just So and Mi Media.
We are thrilled to announce that Varn has been selected as a finalist for The Small Business of the Year Award, at the prestigious Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2024. This is a real honour and a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire team.
The Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards are the UK’s largest awards programme celebrating the best of British business. These awards welcome and celebrate businesses of all sizes, from entrepreneurial start-ups and SMEs to well-established key industry players in the FTSE 100. Being selected as a finalist in this prestigious awards process is an incredible milestone for Varn, particularly as this year there has been an unprecedented number of entries.
The Small Business of the Year Award is a highly competitive category open to organisations with up to £5 million turnover in their last financial year. This category celebrates companies that demonstrate strong growth & resilience, plans for sustained growth and innovation, as well as customer/staff engagement, an ethical approach to business and strong business results.
Rob Wilde, Managing Director of Varn proudly shares that, “Being named a finalist for category of The Small Business of the Year Award at the Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2024, is a fantastic recognition of the hard work and dedication of our wonderful team at Varn. We are truly honoured to be acknowledged alongside such outstanding businesses and are excited for what lies ahead.”
The winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony, to be held at Grosvenor House Hotel in London, on 12th November 2024. Being part of this esteemed awards process is a remarkable achievement for Varn. We are immensely proud of our team’s efforts and delighted to part of the awards process, as we eagerly look forward to the next stage of this journey.
If you would like to find out more about the Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards or have any questions for our team, please get in touch and you can contact us here
It’s always important to consider potential restrictions and regulations before deploying a paid advertising campaign. It is clear that restrictions will always impact some sectors such as pharmaceuticals, alcohol or financial services. However, even if you think that your particular industry or sector may not be impacted by advertising restrictions, both Google and internal policies could have the potential to impact your advertising’s approval.
Before running a Google Ads campaign, our advice would be to give Google’s advertising policies section a read, no matter your industry. It’s important to note that policies can significantly alter by location targeted, and some violations can easily result in a permanent account suspension.
The same applies before running any campaign on Meta. Running ads on Facebook or Instagram have additional restrictions to consider. For example, you are unable to infer any personal attributes about the user such as age, gender or medical conditions in your advertising. If this is a concern and you want to find out more it’s helpful to view further details about Meta’s advertising restrictions here.
If you’re running ads in what may be considered a ‘safe’ industry, for example a D2C apparel ecommerce site, then it’s vital to be aware that there still needs to be careful consideration of restrictions when running advertising. With Google Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, despite advances in Google’s AI, their review tools can get tripped up easily. We have frequently seen instances of totally innocuous products being flagged as weaponry, tobacco or other heavily restricted categories – which then require a manual review before being able to advertise and can take several days to remedy.
It’s always valuable to have a read through product titles and descriptions and see if there’s anything that could potentially flag them for restriction. For example, maybe a specific item colour is described as ‘tobacco’ or ‘gun metal’ which could be an issue. Doing this won’t prevent all errors, so it’s important to ensure you’re frequently checking disapprovals in your Merchant Centre account and that your product feeds are optimised.
On Google Ads, using trademarked terms in ad copy can limit them or cause disapprovals. If you’re launching a product in collaboration, it’s vital your partner has cleared their trademarks for you to use by filling in this third party authorisation form. This can be quite a time consuming process to complete. Even if not running a collaboration, your ad text could accidentally use a trademarked term, which would then require editing.
Aside from trademark restrictions, it’s good to note that copy sign-off can be a complex process which needs to be planned for and will potentially take longer than you anticipate. It can involve many departments or have to go through multiple companies in different locations. Ensuring brand restrictions and guidelines are met can take months, especially if requiring review by legal departments.
Our recommendation is to start building a draft of your paid media campaign well in advance of a potential launch. Ideally do this four weeks for a new account, and only after carefully reading policy documents, no matter your sector. If working with partners in other companies, ensure you have a contact who can assist you in providing access and clearance to prevent delays.
If you need support with your paid media campaigns contact our expert team to discuss your challenges and any concerns about restrictions, we would love to help.
If you’re struggling to write content that ranks well on Google, you aren’t alone. Business owners, content creators, and marketers often face this challenge. They struggle to find a starting point for writing content that not only meets Google’s high standards but also ranks well in SERPs, and drive conversions. For years, SEO techniques have been designed for search engines, rather than users. However, the SEO landscape has been changing, with algorithm updates, innovative AI, and SERP feature updates / changes. This has led to a shift in the industry and the need to reassess strategies to align with Google’s request for user-first content; accessible and helpful.
At Varn, we take a holistic approach taking into account the wider aspects of technical SEO, AI-driven analytics and content optimisation, that align with the latest user experience principles. This helps to guide our clients through an ever-evolving and increasingly complex digital landscape.
Google’s E-E-A-T Principle is a cornerstone in raising your website’s SERP profile and rising through the ranking to the first position. By producing consistent useful and helpful content, a steady stream of traffic and conversions will follow. This article outlines the techniques to write quality content that both users and search engines value and ensuring you are writing with E-E-A-T at the core of your content strategy.
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. E-E-A-T content should be part of any long-term SEO strategy to boost your website’s credibility and ranking. These guidelines are used by Google’s algorithms to help to evaluate the quality of the content on websites and in 2022 Google announced they were adding an extra E to the original EAT Guidelines.
So what does EEAT stand for?
This refers to the first-hand or personal experience of the content creator.
This identifies the creator’s knowledge and skill in the subject matter.
Assesses the credibility and recognition of the creator or website.
This evaluates the reliability and integrity of the content.
You may be thinking, what does all of this actually mean? In short, it means creating helpful and people-centric content.
E-E-A-T factors help to keep high-quality, reliable and relevant information available to users on the SERP. A content strategy that keeps ahead of keyword opportunities, utilises cross-functional teams, and produces organic content ensures your website’s content matches the high quality that Google is looking for. It’s also important to update existing content with contemporary research and updates so that this becomes evergreen content. Evergreen content refers to high-quality, valuable content that is relevant and useful to readers over a long period of time and unlike news articles or trend-based content that can quickly become outdated, evergreen content is designed to provide long-term value, attract ongoing traffic and continually engage audiences.
Organic SEO-first content is something we specialise in at Varn, whether for our client’s on-page content, blogs and product landing pages, through to off-page data-driven articles, guest blogs or PPC landing pages.
When creating or updating content for your website, we recommend you incorporate the elements explored below, into your overall SEO strategy to match E-E-A-T guidelines. Ultimately it’s about ensuring your content is as attractive as possible for the search engines to find, understand and rank.
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness can be shown in various ways. For example, you can include detailed author bios on your website when someone writes and shares an article demonstrating your expertise. It’s vital to produce high-quality and well-researched content, cite credible sources and engage with the industry.
Social-proof your content with reviews or client testimonials, accreditations or awards you’ve achieved. Help the reader understand why they should listen to you. If you don’t have credentials to be speaking about a certain topic, be sure to collaborate with someone who does. Industry partners, influencers, and expert quotes featured in your content will help you to create user-first E-E-A-T content.
Include a brief section about your business, explaining your expertise, the areas you serve, and the scope of your services. Why should people listen to you? Remind users why they should choose you for a service or trust your advice on a subject. A ‘Why choose Us?’ section or a succinct ‘About Us’ that mentions the years you’ve been in business, and partners you have worked with, will help to position yourself as a credible expert.
An internal link is the hyperlink on your website that takes the user to another page within your website. Contextual internal linking extends the user journey and helps search engines understand your website’s hierarchy structure and the importance of content. It doesn’t just add SEO value, it also aligns with improved user experience and conversion. Internal links add context to the relationship between pages in your website and shares page authority to important pages. Before diving into creating an internal linking strategy, make sure you understand why internal linking is important.
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. Rather than using generic phrases like “click here”, use descriptive anchor text that aligns with your destination page’s keyword mapping strategy. Build on a page’s keyword authority with descriptive anchor text. This will help users and search engines understand your content’s purpose.
You can align the anchor text with keywords informed by Google’s perception of keyword authority for a page with Google Search Console. If you haven’t set up Google Search Console, take a look below at these helpful tips.
Make sure your call to actions (CTAs) for a page match the page’s intent. If you’re unsure of a user’s intent, understanding search keyword intent will help. Use CTAs to encourage users to take specific actions, they can be particularly effective at the end of your introduction and content. If in doubt, prompt users with your company’s credentials and offer to get in touch or speak to experts.
It’s vital to think of the user journey, so for example, if you have a blog about the benefits of a service or product, you would expect to see the service or the product page linked. Understand where in the marketing funnel your user is, if they are looking at a blog that is an introduction to a product or service, then they have just started their journey. Therefore you can make them aware of problems with the solutions that you offer, speaking to their pain points, challenges and desires. To do this effectively, you will need to know your audience inside out.
Focus on high-quality, informative content. You and your team are experts, real people with a breadth of valuable first-hand experience that people want to learn from. Your team’s first-hand experiences are invaluable. They match the Experience part of the E-E-A-T guidelines. Share them to create authentic, informative content.
Here are some helpful tips how to write user first E-E-A-T content:
Write for your audience first, then tweak and structure for SEO. Google is discouraging SEOs from writing content just for search engines. And rightly so, we’ve all clicked on a result in the SERP and been met with AI-generated nonsense. Google asks us to provide ‘Helpful, Reliable, People-First content.’ The days of writing content based on search volume alone are over. Search engines are now flooded with AI content – Google struggles to find the most helpful content to rank. In this new age of SEO, business owners, experts and SEOs must work together to find a middle ground, that is both helpful for users and optimised correctly for the search engines.
Work with a marketing/ SEO expert to perform user research. This should consist of understanding pain points, desires and the audience’s buying journey. For example, in the decision stage of the buying journey, we need to catch users when they are in the consideration stage of that journey. So think about your blog content, and capture solutions to help solve their pain points, queries, worries, wants, and needs. It’s vital to capture your audience’s attention by writing content that resonates with their experiences and aspirations.
Reflect on the next steps you want users to take and use internal links to support their decision-making process. Think about what makes sense for them, and explore this around aligning the actions you want taken which are based on your business goals and the user journey you want them to experience? Is it a brochure download, to get in contact or book an appointment?
You can use existing data from Google Analytics to help inform your decision making. The GA4 Page Path explorer can tell you which blog pages were part of the converting/purchasing users’ journey. Use this information to guide your internal linking, and take your user on a journey through the buying funnel. You can take this a step further with natural placements where a related topic is introduced. It’s important to remember that there is no need to add links for the sake of it, it must be natural, and these links need to add value.
It’s vital to ensure your content is accessible and engaging. One element to consider is the readability of your content or article on a desktop, compared to when people may be scanning the content when using a mobile. Additionally without good content structure, even the most insightful/helpful information can be dismissed as untrustworthy or irrelevant by search engines.
Structuring E-E-A-T content with keyword-rich headings doesn’t just have SEO value, it also improves user experience. These headings make it easier for users to navigate the content, find the information they need and hence perceive the content as authoritative and trustworthy. Clear, relevant headings also help the search engines understand the content’s topic, making it more discoverable and likely to rank higher.
Eye tracking research can be used to help understand how users interact with headings on webpages, revealing their role in capturing initial attention and guiding navigation. This data informs effective design decisions to enhance readability, user engagement plus overall user experience. Eye-tracking research studies found that when people read on the web, their approach depends on what they are doing, what they expect based on their past internet use, how the page looks, and the type of content it has, like text or pictures.
The most common scanning patterns are:
The F theory – where the user will mainly look on the left side of the webpage and examine the top of the page.
Spotted pattern – where the user will jump around to the most interesting spots – often influenced by effective website design and UX.
The layer-cake pattern – where the user will focus on headings and subheadings as they act as signposts for information.
Incorporating FAQ sections into a website’s content strategy aligns well with E-E-A-T principles, as this helps to create content that is not only informative and reliable but also highly valued by both users and search engines. You can use Google Search Console, to help you uncover long-tail keyword opportunities to feed into your FAQs.
If you want to find FAQ opportunities in Search Console you can do the following;
Don’t forget to structure your FAQ content to appear as snippets in search results with schema mark up optimisation, to help increase click-through rates.
On a final note, user-first content that adheres to E-E-A-T principles isn’t just about chasing low-hanging fruit or seeking quick wins. It’s about building a foundation of trust and authority for your brand and business that will continuously fuel organic search growth over the long term.
Still not sure where to start? Our team of innovative SEO experts can support you to develop a robust E-E-A-T content strategy that will drive traffic and conversions. Contact our expert SEO team to discuss your E-E-A-T challenges, we would love to help.
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