Before you question why we are writing a blog about giving your employee’s some credit, don’t worry, this isn’t a gushing blog about how you need to be a more humble leader or anything like that. 

We are sticking 100% to what we know, and that is marketing. In particular, this blog is about SEO and discussing how letting your experts show that they are experts, your website reach, and ranking, will be higher.

LET US TAKE YOU BACK

We have written about the E-A-T principle before, and this practice ensures that you meet all those criteria.

Search engines do not just take your website as the truth about your business. They piece together the employees that work for you and the customers that talk about you and use those other online cues as part of their ranking decision. 

So what if your employees, the experts you hire, are not:

• Visible on your website? 
• Contributing to the content about their specialism? 
• Being used in comments in the press? 

This is not uncommon. A lot of blogs do not have authors beyond Admin, Team XYZ or even just the marketing person that puts it all up. These sites are missing out on ranking points from search engines.

LET YOUR EMPLOYEES TAKE THE SPOTLIGHT.

Now we know that not everyone is comfortable with writing. Truth be told I (Nat) have three sets of eyes on my blogs before it goes out to sense check, capture any typos that have been missed and give me feedback on it. That doesn’t mean someone can’t contribute to the content that someone else will write on their behalf.

By getting information from an expert (a brief if you will), that is then written up by your marketing team or partner is a great way to let your expert shine without the anxiety or pressure of them having to produce a web-ready piece. Then set up their author profile and start to attribute content to them.

For those that are terrible at even giving you bullets of content, why not try video instead? Just because someone is not a confident writer doesn’t mean they are not a confident speaker or able to produce an educational video.

WHO ARE THEY?

Make sure that your experts are somewhere easily found on your website – the Team or About page is the most obvious options. Include photos, a bit about their knowledge and how people can connect with them.

Their author profile also has to be complete. If you can, use the author profile to feed through to the About or Team page to save you having to do the same job twice.

IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT ONSITE CONTENT

Expert comment in the press is another E-A-T cue to search engines. 

• Trade press
• General press
• Local radio
• Academic reviews
• TV
• Online topical conversations and more

These are not only ways to get your business known and show off who you have working for you but also give clues to search engines around E-A-T.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

“What happens if someone leaves?”

If someone who has contributed to your content leaves, then our advice is:

• Rewrite with another expert from the team and attribute to them.

OR

• Put under a generic author until you know what to do with it all.

But never panic. Search engines are getting more and more advanced, they will see the path of the individual. So if they go into a job that is higher than the one they left but in the same field, that expert comment and content, is still just that.

So if you are looking for a way to boost your rankings with an “easy” admin task, this is the next to do on your list. The fact is by boosting your employees online expert profile will not only promote your business in the eyes of the SEO lords but might give them warm fuzzy feeling as well (sorry we said this blog wasn’t about that and we went there).