What the H-E-C-K is E-E-A-T?

Have you ever gotten to the end of a video on the internet and asked yourself “why did I just spend 5-minutes watching that?”

Search platforms (Google, in particular) have been adjusting their standards to prioritize content that is based on experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, or what they call E-E-A-T.

The content you’re creating at your meetings lines up perfectly with this. It’s real human experts saying real human things. The trick is to learn how to capitalize on it - which is where echo comes into play.

Here’s a summary taken from Google Search Central.

What Google Means by “Helpful, People-First Content”

The guidance encourages content creators to focus on people first, not search engines.

What to aim for

Original, valuable content: Offer unique information, reporting, research or analysis, not just rehash what’s already out there.

Depth and completeness: Cover the topic thoroughly in a way that gives real value.

Clear expertise and trustworthiness: Indicate who created the content, provide evidence of expertise or firsthand knowledge, and cite sources or context appropriately.

Good page experience: Make the content well-written, easy to read, with clean style and proper structure.

What to avoid

Content created primarily to game search rankings rather than help people.

Mass-produced, thin, or superficial content spread across many topics without real care or expertise.

Relying only on copying or summarizing other sources without providing new insights or value.

The “Who, How, Why” test

Google suggests thinking about who made the content (is authorship clear?), how it was made (was it carefully researched or produced, even if assisted by AI?), and most importantly why it was made - is the goal to genuinely help and inform people, or just to chase traffic?

By following these principles, you align with what Google’s systems are designed to reward content that truly helps people instead of just trying to rank.