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Who do you trust on the Internet?
How do you decide whether or not to trust a website with your time, your money, your health, or even your beliefs about the world?
As the dissemination of false information erodes people’s faith in the Internet as a whole, Google and other search engines struggle to reclaim a measure of trust.
The dawn of AI (artificial intelligence) in both writing and art is also complicating the search engine’s reputation as a trustworthy source of knowledge.
And as more businesses, influencers, and app developers stake their claim on mainstream narratives, Google is placing increased emphasis on an entity’s position as an authority.
Future-proof your business by building thought leadership today. Here's how to get started.
What Is “Authority” In Search Engine Optimization? And Why Does It Matter?
In business, thought leadership influences industry positioning.
In SEO, authority can influence search engine results.
The two concepts, thought leadership and authority, share DNA, so it can be helpful to examine the link between them.
To understand how thought leadership can potentially influence SEO, we have to start with EEAT.
Google Search Quality Raters use EEAT (formerly EAT) guidelines to determine quality.
This acronym stands for:
Experience | Expertise | Authority | Trust
Interestingly, Google’s rater guidelines (which are available to the public) do not actually offer a definition of “authority.” SEOs are left to make inferences and educated guesses.
To understand authority, I would personally point out that the EEAT terms are connected in a specific semantic way:
In other words, I believe an entity’s authority is based on its experience (as in, longevity), expertise (as in, formal knowledge), and trustworthiness (as in, reviews). Additionally, expertise, trust, and experience are also intrinsically linked.
To create accurate quality ratings, Google gathers data about an entity from across the web. Websites, social media pages, and articles are not discrete—that is, they do not stand alone.
Instead, they are evaluated as a whole. Google can track entities across the web in order to assess their authority.
What Authority Is Not
Sometimes, you may hear SEOs talk about domain authority. Domain authority can be a helpful metric in some situations as an indication of authority within a given space.
Domain authority is not the same as true authority based on experience, expertise, and trust.
Google has said (on repeat) that it does not use domain authority to evaluate websites; however, it does appear to have its own internal metrics that may be similar.
My personal feeling is that a business concerned with SEO would do well to worry less about authority scores and more about becoming a true thought leader.
What Are The Advantages of Being A Thought Leader or An Authority Online?
There are countless obvious benefits to thought leadership and SEO authority—too many to list.
However, it’s worth highlighting a few commonly overlooked advantages of true thought leadership.
The snowball effect. The higher a company’s perceived authority, the more people will seek it out for experience and opinions; each time that happens, the authority grows. Over time, authority can take on a life of its own, making it a kind of passive marketing strategy.
Better positioning in search engine results. Establishing a position of authority can indicate to Google that one business is “more authoritative” than another. This means certain websites appear higher in rankings than others. Being seen as authoritative can improve traffic rates and even conversions (since the scales tip toward the first company to offer helpful information during the research process).
Unmatched trust. The trustworthiness imbued by authority can yield more leads and conversions. Advertisements are increasingly regarded with distrust; “naturally” occurring information derived from organic search is perceived as more trustworthy.
Cost savings. Traffic from organic search is 8.5 times more likely to convert than traffic from ads—which means good SEO content marketing can cost significantly less than ad spending (with potentially superior results).
Authoritative content lifespan. While advertisements only last as long as their associated fees, and social media posts are forgotten almost as soon as they go live, authoritative content and good PR have long shelf lives. This, in turn, means good content can cost less over time (in both dollars and employee hours spent trying to think up social media posts).
Authority And Popularity
Google appears to be fine-tuning its ability to evaluate the distinction between popularity and authority.
For example, a wildly popular influencer might not have a lot of authority if he or she is spreading false information.
Or a business might have a sizeable budget for PPC ads, and lots of traffic—but not an established paper trail of credibility that would influence organic search results.
In spite of the complexities of the interconnection between popularity and authority, augmenting popularity online can only help in establishing authority. Google recognizes that entities establish their authority by their prominence (over their audience).
9 Strategies To Establish Thought Leadership (And Authority) In Your Industry or Space
To my eye, establishing SEO authority starts with thought leadership, with becoming the voice of a given industry.
By focusing on true thought leadership, and using SEO best practices as a vehicle for sharing that leadership, companies may gain competitive advantages inside SERPs and beyond.
To achieve this, businesses require two distinct capabilities:
1. An SEO: Who can drill down into keyword research, evaluations of the competitive landscape, and hard data.
2. A content strategist (digital marketer): Who can take that SEO data and use it to leverage deeper engagement across channels and increase authority positioning.
(And here’s a hint: if you’re looking for a person who can do both, you can start here.)
Here are a few avenues to explore to increase thought leadership:
Build your website into an online resource. By offering high-value, actionable content to your readers, you can become the authority potential customers turn to when they are in the research phase.
Think outside of the field. Claiming more authority than your competitors within your field can generate new leads; however, you may want to consider generating authority outside of your field as well.
Google looks at the whole of the web—not just the subset of businesses in your industry. By pursuing good-quality, relevant media opportunities with mainstream news outlets, a business may see an increase in authority (not to mention web traffic).
Attend the events that matter in your industry. Being seen in all the right places can help demonstrate authority to search engines—but only if event organizers actually promote your company’s specific activity online. From an SEO standpoint, asking organizers about link potential is a key first step in deciding which functions your representative should attend.
Local? Put on a talk in your niche. Again, request that your host link to your website. Create a high-quality press release that includes appropriate information links as well.
Cultivate social proof. If your business is good at what it does, promote that experience by requesting reviews on key platforms in your field.
Make yourself available for interviews. Connect with knowledgeable experts with journalists—who often need a quick response for late-breaking stories. Ask your PR team or SEO to strategize ways to demonstrate your availability to speak as an authority on your niche subject.
Link to demonstrate credibility. Although I haven’t seen any studies on this, I believe that it’s important to be verifiable as an expert, whenever possible. Link to sources that support claims.
Treat your website as part of the web, not a stand-alone entity. Brand guidelines are key in order to demonstrate cohesiveness, especially if your enterprise is represented by multiple entities across channels.
Designate a credible representative. If your business is going to be represented by the name of an individual employee, that person should (ideally) carry some professional authority in the field. If your representative does not currently have personal authority, he or she should try to establish a reputation in the industry in question. Education, online networking, personal blogging, and article writing…these things can help your personal representative gain authority.
How Long Does It Take To Build A Brand’s Authority?
Authority can’t be built quickly. The work of building authority is distinctly frontloaded, with much of the effort happening in the early stages of the process.
As an entity gains authority, marketers may find that reaching new audiences becomes increasingly simpler over time.
That said, just as reputation can’t be neglected online, neither can authority. Some level of careful cultivation will always be necessary if a brand intends to grow.
Want help establishing your business as a thought leader? Reach out.
Have a question about authority? Post it in my comments section.
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