E-A-T – Nacho Benavides
Today we talk with Nacho Benavides, ecommerce specialist and especialy in how to apply E-A-T parameters to get the most out of any online store.
Nacho took interest in SEO at first for his own necessity, he needed more clients for his own ecommerce. From that moment he hasn’t stop learning, focusing on -as he called it- “reading between lines” all the information given by Google.
We have Nacho’s experience and knowledge to learn more about E-A-T, stopping to comment on the key points of each of these parameters (Experience, Authority and Reliability). We also talked about the importance of content, how to detect who are good authors and about Nacho’s personal experience in the ecommerce world.
How did you first get interest in SEO?
One of my first projects was building an ecommerce to sell contacts to my acquaintances.
When I realised that it doesn’t have enought benefits so I would be able to quit my current job (I worked delivering pizzas), I started thinking on ways to attract customers to my online shop so I could sell more.
In the process of improving my ecommerce, I began to train myself in web positioning until today.
You’ve worked as a freelance for years, when and why did you decided to start SeoBlinders?
I decided to start SeoBlinders on October of 2018 with Sara Arellano after I sold my share of a company dedicated to online shop creation.
That company was one that worked with international ecommerces of 5 countries and had a 100 people team.
So, why did I decided to found SeoBlinders if such company worked so well?
Because I wanted to continue growing professionally with a well-organized team that will support large-scale projects.
Something that has caught my attention when visiting your agency’s website is that you only work with one project in each sector, why?
We are a SEO “agency”. I had worked with companies such as Webpositer or Ikaue and that had given me a lot of ideas about how I wanted my agency to be.
The agency model in which we feel confortable is one with extreme implication in our clients projects, someting that has big risks.
Our model is that for each consultant we take 1 or 2 projects maximum, so we have a very small number of clients.
We just work with ecommerces and we only take one client per sector. Not only for our implication but for our clients exclusivity.
We are part of their team and confiance is key. That’s why we have confidential and exclusivity agreements to work hand in hand.
You have worked with a multitude of sectors, from medical issues to reforms, news media, sex shops … Are there common aspects to all SEO strategies? How much does the sector for which we work influence the strategy approach?
Yes, there are commont aspects, the “keys are the keys”. But there are a great differents depending on the kind of pages we are working with.
In other words, the strategy, problems, opportunities… of an SEO campaign for an ecommerce have nothing to do with that of a forum. It changes radically!
Within types of websites, although we have touched practically all of them, we are clear that from experience, we can apport the greatest added value to ecommerces.
In addition to the type of page there is another great differential point in an SEO strategy, the sector.
Especially with the new changes in the algorithm and with the “arrival” of the E-A-T parameters, we are talking about two types of sectors: those called or not called Your Money or Your Life.
For example, an online pharmacy where they sell and give advice on health has to pass a much stricter filter at the E-A-T level than an ecommerce that sells hospitality spare parts.
We were very interested in your presentation on how to adapt your ecommerce to the new algorithm. In it, you put a lot of emphasis on the importance of the E-A-T. Do you think that in general terms you are aware of the true importance of contents?
Absolutely NOT, people is not aware of the importance of contents.But you have to make a nuance with “what is the content”. We have to keep in mind that content is all the HTML on the web.
It does not have to be understood that the content is just the text or that the EAT is just authors signing the content.
Regarding the E-A-T, they talk about the experience of the content creators. In your opinion, what should a good web content creator be like? What characteristics should he or she have?
Great question. Keep in mind all the E-A-T letters in that selection of content creators.
In addition, it must be taken into account that Google is capable of creating author vectors of your own content even if there is no type of mark or author signature.
That said, if you decide that your strategy is suitable to associate authors with it, you have to select them very well thinking about:
- What proven experience does that people have on that sector? It is important that it is demonstrable and understand that with demonstrable you have to focus on that, in some way, Google can track it and verify it.
- What reputation does this person have in your sector? (E-A-T)
- From where, who and how do they speak of this author entity?
All that and more are points to assess very well before associating with an author entity. Special care must be taken in sectors where the E-A-T filter to pass is high.
A very controversial topic about content writers is the one related to authorship. What do you think, the texts should be signed by their creators?
You have to take into account the section in which you are, the type of website and the sector. What you can do in a “product page” has nothing to do with what you can do in a “blog post”.
Let’s take an example, my wife is lactose intolerant. Suppose I want to buy a multivitamin for her. If I enter on an online store where I can clearly see the intolerances of this product and if an “expert” author entity on the product told me with which other products can I combine it or be careful if I combine them, I would appreciate it very much.
It’s a lot like the in-store recommendation that the “expert” behind the counter might give you, right?
Regarding authority, how can we reinforce the authority of content creators? And the brand?
There are many techniques but, in general, we enter the field of branding and communication. We need that on the internet, this author entity is surrounded by content that demonstrates experience and reliability in the sector in which we want to work.
In addition, in some way, we will seek to facilitate the relationship of the author and the content with our site (links or mentions).
An author entity, sometimes it can be a person, but other times it can be the brand itself. You have to do well with an off page and on page content strategy to work on the reputation of your different author entities.
These are some quick wins you can work with:
- Conduct interviews with your author entities from authoritative sites in your sector.
- Publish studies on your website and those sites.
- Create secondary tools / services on your website that show that you are an expert in your field and then work on the off page part.
And finally, reliability. What does it consist of and how can we work on it?
Again there are many techniques, but I like to separate it into two groups:
- What sections / pages of your website show reliability? For example: who we are, your return policy…
- What blocks of your website denote reliability? Where are they? For example, an online trust stamp, an award stamp, an advantage check… The important thing about this is that you try to work it in repetitive areas, a block of advantages on the home plate has a lot of weight but much more if you repeat it throughout the Web.
What do you think about John Mu?
Hahaha! Every time you publish in tweets, conferences or posts, you have to know very well how to “read between the lines.”
To know how to “read between the lines” you have to try to understand the objectives of Google as a company. And to understand the objectives of Google as a company there is nothing like being at the foot of the canyon on a day-to-day basis and knowing “where Google comes from”.
Everything is on the internet, patents, updates, posts, videos… You just have to dedicate an important part of your time researching the topic that interests you and if you are able to see the “evolution” of Google or other search engines depending on which topic, you will be able to intuit where the shots are going and many reasons for which you cannot find an explanation if you get stuck in the day to day.
Finally, can you recommend us some reading to learn more about E-A-T?
If you are able to read between the lines, I think that with the mere fact of studying the Quality Guidelines well and expanding information on what you are reading (especially researching a lot about which patents may be affecting what they explain in the guidelines), you have a brutal knowledge base to be able to apply it to an effective SEO strategy.
