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Google had a big issues years ago, every Google algorithm update was about PageRank and subsequently DA (which is something Google doesn't even have) - it was all about links. Google knew that was an issue. But in the past year or two, espesially since the Medic Update, SEOs have been obsessing around EAT - the messaging within the Google search quality raters guidelines.
EAT is not new, it has been in the quality raters guidelines since 2014. I believe Google took notice of the interest amongst SEOs with these documents, and decided in 2015 to release the guidelines publicly.
Slowly but surely, SEOs began doing deep dives on the document. We know the document doesn't exactly spell out how the Google ranking algorithms work, but it does explain what type of sites Google wants the algorithm to rank the highest in the search results. So forget PageRank, look at this document, make your sites fit the document model and you should do well. Google dropped hints with the Fred update and many others.
It took years but after the Medic Update, Google began really encouraging SEOs and webmasters with ranking issues to reference the quality raters guidelines. In fact, they keep doing that. They are liking tweets from SEOs that reference it when it comes to ranking issues, they are retweeting it and even sharing it in their communication when discussing ranking updates.
It is a no brainer for Google. Instead of having SEOs obsess about PageRank, links, spam, content ratios, meta tags, etc - they can obsess about these quality raters guidelines. It really is a win - win and something Google can point people to.
Pedro Dias makes a pretty funny joke:
With so much EAT, the next Google ranking factor will be called DIET!
— Pedro Dias (@pedrodias) October 26, 2018
Are you optimizing so much for EAT you will need to go on a DIET soon?
We're e-a-t-ing above our possibilities :P
— Aleyda Solis (@aleyda) October 26, 2018
John's response is funny too:
Our algorithms run day & night.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) October 26, 2018
Anyway, I think Google and the SEO community is in a better spot now and I do think it was all part of Google's *evil* plan since releasing these guidelines in 2015.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
