How to Optimise Your Shopify Site for E-A-T

It’s no secret that Google is putting more and more emphasis on content quality, user intent, and E-A-T.

Good quality content is often favoured by Google algorithm updates, whereas low-quality content can be penalised by the same updates (such as the infamous Medic update).

In fact, we found a tweet claiming that E-A-T is referenced 186 times in the Google guidelines. 

So, how can you put these recommendations into practice on your Shopify account?

Use apps like Yopto to display user generated content

If you rely solely on your online store, or only have a couple of brick and mortar shops, then user generated content (UGC) is a great way to help users understand a bit more about your product and brand.

NIO Cocktails and Made.com are great examples of how this can be used effectively. User generated content is a fantastic way to showcase your products in a natural setting without high tech lighting, hi-res cameras, etc. It can also help users picture how it would look in their own setting and see that it is a popular, well-respected product.

Example 1: NIO Cocktails using generated content

Example 2: MADE using generated content

Create a resource section

Create long-form content that matches user intent at different stages of the purchase cycle. LuxDeco’s ‘Behind the Brand’ information is an excellent example of this. 

LuxDeco stocks hundreds of luxury brands, including Ralph Lauren, Jonathan Adler, Bernhardt etc. Understandably, there is not a lot of room to go into depth about each individual brand on each collection page so, instead, LuxDeco have written individual ‘Behind the Brand’ sections that they link to from the main collection page.

Not only is this a great example of expertise on the brand, but it will also help them rank for any long-tail keywords related to this brand (hopefully resulting in more traffic).

Provide content for all areas of the user journey

Here at NOVOS, we like to make sure that we are creating content that targets all five stages of a customers’ journey. The five stages of a buying journey are:

Research: A customer does not have a particular product in mind but is looking for inspiration. Example: “What to wear to a cocktail party”

Awareness: A customer is aware of a general product, but does not know the specifics of what they want. Example: “Cocktail dresses”

Consideration: A customer has decided on a product, and is looking for comparisons and options to find the perfect item. Example: “Best cocktail dresses for winter weddings”

Conversion: A customer has an intent to purchase a particular product and knows what they are in the market for. Example: “Black midi cocktail dress” 

Post conversion:A product has been purchased and the customer is looking for information about how they can be used or looked after. Example: “What shoes to wear with a cocktail dress”

Here are some great live examples of this type of content:

• Post conversion – Thread has created guides like ‘How to wear green chinos’  
• Post conversion – Dyson has a brilliant troubleshooting area of the site for all their electronics including hair styling tools and hair dryers.
• Research – Diamond’s Factory provides a ring size guide with a free ring sizer to capture all customers looking to buy a gift or propose?

Update your FAQ pages with keyword research

Make the most of your FAQ page! These pages are often neglected by SEOs and are considered an ‘ancillary page’ rather than an important eCom page. However, there is plenty of opportunity here to capture new customers.

This works particularly well for new eCommerce sites that have TV ads running for the first time and have gained an increase in branded visits and new customers. Addressing all follow up questions helps to lower your bounce rate and keep customers on site.

How should I optimise these pages?

If there were any questions that popped up on your ‘People Also Asked ‘ sections that couldn’t be grouped into a guide and they are relevant, pop them in your FAQ page.

See the NIO Cocktails example below –

Tip: As a rule of thumb try to keep FAQ answers to the length of featured snippets (approx 50 characters).

Optimise your FAQ section with Schema

Mark up your FAQ page(s) with FAQ schema.

Properly marked-up FAQ pages may be eligible to have a rich result on search which can help your site reach the right users. 

For example, Trend Spotter has managed to do this for the query ‘What is a cocktail dress.’

Not only do they help Google better understand the content of the page, but they also take up more SERP real estate – particularly on mobile! This will push your competitors even further down the results. You can read more about implementing FAQ schema on developers.google.com

Resurface old blog posts and add relevant keywords

Is content going to waste on your blog? Are there any historical posts that can be updated to match user intent? 

Book time out for a blog audit and see if there is any content that can be combined into a long-form guide or structured to answer long-tail queries.

Spend time noting down the questions that appear for your most important keywords in the ‘People Also Asked Section’ and look at whether these can be integrated into old, existing content.

Not only will this demonstrate the expertise and authoritativeness of your brand, it could help increase the organic visibility of the site.

Mark your blog posts up with Schema (where relevant)

Consider exploring the following schema options:

1. Article Schema
2. How To Schema
3. FAQ Schema
4. Author Schema
5. Video Schema

Not only will this help Google better understand the content on the page, but it will also make your blog posts eligible for ‘rich pins’ on Pinterest.

Article Rich Pins add the headline or title, the description, and the author of the article or blog post from your site.

Shopify Tip: Schema Plus for SEO is a great app for updating Schema across multiple pages, and takes no time at all to implement!

Include author bios and author info on your blog

Try and only push blog posts with a real author. Authors should ideally have their own bios written on the site, rather than a blank page.

Author bio top tips –

• Does your author have a favourite product on your site? Why not link to it from the author bio? Not only does it add credibility, but it’s a nice way to leverage internal product links.

• If they are frequent contributors to the press, consider creating a Wiki page for them or link to a Linkedin profile/website.

• Mark up the pages with the author Schema.

Why are author bios important for SEO?

• They meet the E-A-T guidelines by confirming that an actual person is behind the content creation. Someone is therefore claiming this content and makes it less likely (hopefully) to be fake news.
• Enhances the credibility of the article and sends trustworthiness signals. 
• Demonstrates authenticity.

For an example of a good author bio, I’d recommend taking a look at The Sole Supplier.

Ensure your company address is visible on your site

We recommend having your company address in the site footer.

This will:

• Help validate your Google My Business account. 
• Support local SEO via consistent name, address, & phone number references.
• Reinforce that you are a legitimate company with a physical office.
• Confirm to Google that you are a transparent and trustworthy company.

Consider a product care section

Patch Plants are a great example of a user-friendly product care section –

Not only does this reinforce product expertise and trustworthiness, but it’s great for user experience and brand reputation too.