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Content authority is a hot topic in marketing. Google has clearly stated its preference for sites that meet its E-E-A-T guidelines:
- Experience
- Expertise
- Authority
- Trustworthiness
Content marketers know authoritative content contributes to high search engine rankings, but effectively communicating authority isn't always easy. To help clarify things, Compose.ly's Head of Marketing and Sales, Nicole McLean, sat down with PrimePay Senior Content Marketing Manager Kate Super.
Kate develops content strategies prioritizing subject matter expertise, verifiable facts, and quantity over quality. Her clear explanation of content authority inspires content marketers seeking to make an impact.
Key Dimensions of Content Authority
Google's E-E-A-T guidelines are simple in theory. Content is valuable when it's backed by expert knowledge and credentials. The challenge is communicating that authority in the final product, where the content hits the page.
Trustworthiness
As a reader and content leader, Kate Super agrees. She shares the story of her search for a carrot cake recipe that would impress her Easter guests. Every page seemed to claim its recipes were the "best."
"It felt very self-serving," she recalls. "How do I really know it's the best? I don't have time to do all these practice cakes."
Then, Kate found Pancake Princess, a baker with a data-centered recipe review website. Pancake Princess test-bakes the top 10 rated recipes online and posts the results with data, personalized recommendations, and quotes from her taste-testing team.
As a baker, Kate feels like she can trust Pancake Princess's informed recommendations. She appreciates the blend of data and commentary from people who have baked the recipes.
As a content marketer, she sees this earned trust as evidence of authoritative content.
Branding
Kate believes that a consistent brand tone helps to convey authority. Now that so much content sounds alike, largely thanks to the widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI), a strong voice conveys confidence and authority.
Kate believes creating a branding document is the best way to ensure a consistent tone. She uses examples that convey "good," "better," "best," and "avoid" versions of a message to show what PrimePay content should sound like.
With that strong voice in place, PrimePay audiences feel they're hearing from an expert brand.
Quality of Content
Content quality goes hand in hand with a strong brand voice. Search engine algorithms and human readers will likely consider you an authoritative resource if you consistently post helpful and relevant content.
From a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective, quality content comprehensively answers the reader's question and is easy to read. When it includes facts, that answer is most valuable and conveys authority.
According to SurveyMonkey, 75% of consumers believe supporting data makes content feel more reliable. More than 80% prefer to read this type of content over a similar piece that doesn't feature data.
Readers and algorithms don't know if your data is genuine unless you tell them. To earn a reputation for high-quality content, mention and link to the source for all quotes and statistics you use in your article. Be wary of any material you retrieve from artificial intelligence (AI), which doesn't fact-check and often shares unverified information.
Expertise and Experience
Before 2022, E-E-A-T was just E-A-T. Then, Google added the second "E": experience. The goal was to acknowledge the value of subject-matter knowledge, which Kate agrees is crucial to content authority — real-world subject-matter knowledge.
As a content marketing professional, Kate understands that her topic knowledge will never rival an industry professional who does the work daily. She works diligently to build relationships with internal subject matter experts (SMEs) at PrimePay and uses interviews with them to strengthen her team's content.
The key is to name and introduce the SME in your content. SME credentials check off Google's experience and expertise boxes and earn your human readers' trust.
Building an Effective Content Authority Strategy
Building a content strategy is about resonating with your target audience. As you develop your plan, consider the topics and ideas that matter to them. If you have area-specific audiences, consider hot-button issues that will boost local content authority.
Next, determine what constitutes success with that audience. Kate suggests having separate objectives and key results (OKRs) for SEO-targeted and authoritative content. OKRs like traffic volume and keyword ranking work well for SEO content, which depends more on organic search.
Authoritative content is less about visibility and more about engagement. You'll want OKRs related to people taking the next step, such as downloading or clicking from your thought leadership video to your website.
Use those goals to choose topics and content types for your authority strategy. Review those ideas to determine what resources might boost content authority. Don't be afraid to think creatively about strategies like influencer partnerships, co-branding, and sponsored studies.
Measuring Content Authority
Tracking results is essential in maximizing return on investment (ROI) for your content authority strategy.
Performing Content Audits
A content audit is a comprehensive review of your brand's content. It examines what you've published, how it performs, and which content you can optimize for better results.
If you're auditing specifically for authority, you should look at features such as authorship, outbound links, and engagement. Nielsen Norman Group recommends keeping these factors on a spreadsheet for easy reference.
Implementing Metrics for Assessing Authoritativeness
The more objectively you can measure authority, the more valuable your audit will be. In a video for SEO resource Moz, principal search scientist Russ Jones recommends looking at the following features:
- Question-answering success: If you look at the most common questions about a topic, based on Google search density, how many does this piece answer, and how well does it do that?
- Information density: How much of the piece is valuable and actionable information?
- Citation density: How many citations or references to experts does the piece have?
- Writing and media style: Does the writing come across intelligently, and does the author include visuals to aid understanding?
These metrics are extremely valuable for assessing the authority of your current published content.
Impact of Content Authority on User Engagement
Your audiences may not analyze all of your content closely — at least, not consciously — but they will notice whether it reflects expertise. When it does, trust increases, and users engage more deeply.
As the Content Marketing Institute has pointed out, buyers are more likely to take the next step with a brand they trust. If your published content is authoritative, people will feel better entering their email to download gated material or schedule a demo.
Trust also encourages people to share your content. People's reputations are on the line when they share content on social media, and a credible brand helps to dispel doubt.
SEO Considerations Related to Content Authority
Balancing authoritative content and SEO can be challenging. While Google prioritizes valuable material, higher-level authoritative pieces don't always rank as highly as SEO-optimized content.
That doesn't mean those authoritative content pieces are irrelevant to SEO. They bring traffic that boosts your domain authority, a ranking score that evaluates your site's reputation. The more reputable your site, the more likely it will rank higher. Over time, that reputation may help your content get better results.
Meanwhile, you can boost the rankings of your authoritative content by tailoring your content strategy to keyword research. Learn what search terms your audience uses and plan thought leadership content around them.
Remember that this content must go deeper than competitors' surface-level content. Talk to SMEs and get a unique angle on the subject. Originality can help you get those clicks.
Long-Term Benefits of Establishing Content Authority
Content authority is a marathon, not a sprint. Over time, your reputation for authoritative content pays off in consumer relationships, SEO strength, and even revenue. According to PwC's trust survey, 93% of executives see bottom-line benefits when audience trust increases.
That same trust encourages other content creators to link to you. Those backlinks improve your SEO and help you earn more organic traffic, which helps to build your reputation, and the cycle continues.
Get the Authori-TEA of Content Authority from the Experts
Speaking of subject matter expertise and trust, content marketers can learn a lot from what Kate Super has built at PrimePay. The brand's authoritative content stands out in the HR and payroll space, building audience trust daily.
Watch the entire Future Trend Fridays webinar [LINK TO COME] with Kate Super to learn even more about how she approaches content authority, strategy development, and carrot cake.
