When you’re looking to improve your online presence, learning healthcare SEO techniques as a therapist can feel like a daunting challenge. The important thing to understand is there is nothing more important than building trust and credibility with potential clients. With the ‘Your Money or Your Life’ nature of online content for healthcare, misinformation can carry impactful consequences.
EEAT is Google’s way of evaluating the credibility and accuracy of the content on your website. The aim of this article is to take you through what EEAT is in detail, and break down how it can be a benefit to expanding the online presence of your practice.
What is EEAT?
EEAT (standing for Experience, Expertise, Authoritiveness and Trustworthiness), is an evaluation framework created by Google to assess the quality and credibility of your website’s content.
So what questions should you be asking to figure this out? Let’s find out:
- Experience – Do I have first-hand experience related to the topic? Do I include personal experience, insight or examples in my content?
- Expertise – Are you knowledgeable on the subject matter? This can often be demonstrated through qualifications and other certified credentials.
- Authoritiveness – Are you and your content recognised as an authority on the subject matter, or are you a leading voice in your field on this particular topic?
- Trustworthiness – Is your content accurate? Is it reputable and reliable? Is your website secure and transparent?
Why does EEAT matter in Healthcare?
With the high-stakes nature of private healthcare, it’s important for potential patients to be fully informed with accurate information. People’s decisions regarding their mental health depend on this, and misinformation can have potential real world ramifications.
Meeting the standards of EEAT in your online content helps to eliminate this risk and drive more potential patients to your practice. EEAT seeks to improve:
- Patient Trust – Whether sharing real-world clinician stories, displaying any professional credentials or accreditations, being recognised as a trusted figure in your field, all of these work together to build much needed patient trust. Potential clients seek the reassurance that they’re putting their health in the hands of an experienced qualified professional.
- Search Visibility– Google will increasingly prioritise accurate content written by said experienced professionals. The more Google prioritise your content, the higher your website will rank and ultimately attract a higher volume of user traffic to your site.
- Reputation & Credibility– When you consistently demonstrate content that meets the EEAT criteria, you’re passively building a strong reputation for being a recognised , credible professional backed up with tangible visual evidence on your site.
As well as being a crucial part of healthcare SEO, EEAT is also tied to demonstrating ethical responsibility. By publishing accurate content and avoiding misinformation, you are further building your online reputation on a base of responsible ethics. EEAT isn’t just SEO for therapists, it’s public health.
How to Demonstrate EEAT on your Healthcare Website?
Demonstrating Experience
- Time – Think about mentioning in your profile on your website, how much time you’ve spent in the field and any previous organisations you’ve previously worked in. For example, if you’ve spent over 10 years working in the NHS, make sure the reader is aware of that.
- First-Hand Posts – Share some blog posts that include first-hand stories of your experience working in mental healthcare. These helpful posts can range anything from Breathing Techniques for dealing with anxiety to What to expect when starting therapy.
- Case Studies – Similarly, anonymous case studies of past patients experience is also a great platform for showcasing your experience and giving patients an insight into specialised therapy. What did the patient come to the practice suffering with? What strategies did they learn to deal with this?
- Video Content – Consider filming short video interviews of yourself and your staff, explaining your practice’s approach to helping people. This gives patients the opportunity to ‘meet’ the professional, and learn more about what they can expect in therapy.
Demonstrating Expertise
- Credentials – Be sure to include prominently displayed credentials, both for you and the rest of your team. By showcasing your team’s qualifications, you’re illustrating your practice’s highly skilled expertise in the area and further reassuring any future clients.
- Educational Content – Provide educational blog posts for readers. This can take the form of peer-reviewed studies, Q&As and FAQs or even educational webinars that highlight your expertise.
- Accurate Accreditation – When publishing any articles such as peer-reviewed studies, make sure that they are accredited to named, credentialled mental health professionals. This demonstrates credibility in the source material for patients.
Demonstrating Authoritativeness
- Professional Recognition – Highlight any awards or recognition you’ve received within the mental health sector. This recognition from respected authorities works to improve your standing and credibility in the mental health field online.
- Third-Party Approval – When writing original educational articles, make sure to include citations detailing that your work has been reviewed by another qualified mental health clinician. Again, this external professional approval helps to reinforce your credibility with readers.
- Backlinks – If listed or featured in reputable directories such as the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) Therapist Directory, be sure to highlight this and include links on your site. These backlinks act as a ‘vote of confidence’ for your site and signal this to Google.
Demonstrating Trustworthiness
- Policies – It’s crucial to include an accessible page outlining clear policies. Privacy policies, terms of service, cancellation fees, refund policy; all of these highlight your compliance with professional standards.
- Confidentiality – Similarly, include a section relating to patient confidentiality and safeguarding. This displays a level of transparency with patients. The content here should be aimed at making any potential clients feel safe to put their trust in your services.
Security – Having a secure website that’s also user accessible is a huge benefit. Ensure that your site has HTTPS encryption and be sure to keep your site’s design clean and professional.
How does EEAT impact Search Engine Optimisation?
The key benefit of following the EEAT principles, is that it guides you in creating high-quality content that performs well in Google search results.
While EEAT isn’t a direct ranking factor for Google’s search algorithm, it is used as a guideline by human ‘quality raters’ that evaluate the overall content quality and how it correlates with the quality of search results. Google will use the data from these human evaluations to improve its search algorithm.
So while EEAT isn’t a direct factor for Google ranking, in the long-run it is a more sustainable approach to search engine optimisation.
How does AI generated content factor into EEAT?
Some businesses simply don’t have the time and resources to generate this high-quality content and rely on AI models like ChatGPT or Google’s own Gemini. The question though is does this work?
The issue with using AI generated content is that AI models lack the necessary real-world experience in EEAT. Creating content rooted in first-hand experience is something that AI isn’t able to replicate effectively and would struggle to meet the EEAT criteria. While using AI content isn’t against their guidelines, Google’s focus is on rewarding original high-quality content created and reviewed by humans.
How Can Mental Marketing Support You?
When working in the mental healthcare sector, SEO work for therapists can feel like a full-time job in itself. Being able to write the volume of EEAT themed content requires a lot of time you may not have.
Mental Marketing specialises in providing digital marketing services for therapists, healthcare providers and cosmetic companies. With your consultation, our team can create tailored high-quality content that will improve your overall online visibility, and help you reach more clients in need. We also offer:
- SEO Strategy – We create a structured program aimed at consistently growing your practice online
- Website Design – We build fully optimised websites with a fast, user-friendly design
- Continuous Support – We schedule regular reviews and updates
With our support, we can put the right plan in place that fits you so you can stop worrying about growing your practice and focus on caring for your patients.
Final Thoughts
The key aim from EEAT is to build credibility and trust. Being able to demonstrate each of the principles of EEAT is crucial for demonstrating your professional credibility, as well as improving your visibility online. Creating authentic, original content that resonates with patients is essential for this.