What Google Really Looks for in Education Websites: E-E-A-T, Content Relevance, & Link Quality Explained

For education websites, online visibility is key to success. To attract students or parents to your education website, you need to have a strong position on search engine results pages (SERPs). This is how you increase traffic to your website, enhance brand awareness, position yourself as an authoritative source, and build trust with your target audience. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an effective way to improve your search engine ranking, but you need to know what Google looks for and values in education websites. There are three main factors that you need to be aware of: E-E-A-T, content relevance, and link quality. This post will tell you all you need to know.

What is E-E-A-T & Why Does it Matter?

First, it is helpful to break down E-E-A-T and why it is so important when it comes to search engine ranking. Essentially, these are the quality guidelines that Google uses to assess the quality and relevance of content, which is particularly important in a field like education, where misinformation can be a serious issue. Here are the key elements and their importance:

Experience: First, Google wants to see that the content creator has first-hand experience or real-life knowledge of the subject matter. This is why it is helpful to have teachers, academics, or qualified experts authoring your content.

Expertise: Google will also assess the depth of knowledge behind the content. If the author is considered an expert in the field, it will have a big impact on the credibility and relevance of the content.

Authoritativeness: Your education website should also be authoritative and a trusted source of information in your niche. If other reputable websites reference or link to your content, this is a strong signal for Google.

Trustworthiness: Finally, you need to make sure that your website is trustworthy. This means having positive reviews, transparent privacy policies, contact information, and secure connections (HTTPS).

Why E-E-A-T Matters

E-E-A-T matters because this is how Google assesses the quality and relevancy of your content. It is a particularly strong ranking factor in the education sector as this content falls under “Your Money or Life” (YMYL) content, which is assessed to a higher standard as the content can impact the reader’s life.

Content Relevance to Engage Target Audience

Demonstrating credibility is key, but your content must also be highly relevant to your target audience. Statistics show that 72% of marketers state that relevant content is the most effective SEO tactic.

This means having a strong understanding of the search queries that your target audience uses and creating content that addresses the user intent. By creating content that answers common questions, you not only engage your target audience online but signal to search engines that your content is highly relevant - this will help you climb the rankings and boost organic traffic.

So, how can you make sure that your content is highly relevant to your target audience? Here are a few of the best methods:

Research user intent: Start by performing keyword research to determine what your target audience is searching for. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords, which will then inform your content strategy.

Create high-quality content: You can then create high-quality content that satisfies search intent, including blog posts, how-to guides, infographics, videos, and other forms of content. Topic clusters can also be a great way to organise content by grouping related pages around a theme or topic, which can be particularly effective with educational content.

Use structured data: Schema markup can make it easier for Google to understand the context and type of content, which improves the chances of rich snippets.

Keep content up to date: The education sector is going through continuous change with tech developments, trends, changing curricula, and policies. Be sure to keep your content up to date to make sure that it remains relevant and accurate.

Leverage Credibility with Link Quality

Link building is one of the most effective SEO tactics. Essentially, this involves obtaining backlinks (links to your website) from other websites to build your credibility in the eyes of search engines. These days, it is not just about the number of links you have, though. Google is increasingly rewarding websites with backlinks from highly relevant and quality websites. Therefore, backlinks from reputable websites allow you to leverage this credibility to improve your own search engine ranking.

So, what defines link quality? These are the main factors:

Source authority: Links from websites that are highly established and trusted, such as .edu sites, government websites, and other reputable organisations in the education sector.

Relevance: Backlinks should come from websites in the education sector.

Diversity: It is helpful to have backlinks from a range of sources, such as blogs, directories, news websites, academic journals, forums, etc.

Anchor text: Anchor text should always be descriptive and relevant so that Google understands what the linked page is about.

Blogger Outreach

Buy Now

How to Obtain Quality Links

Obtaining quality backlinks is challenging, particularly if you do not have a preexisting network. Therefore, it is wise to use the services of an experienced digital marketing agency that specialises in link building for education.

At Digitally Unique, we have a preexisting network of relevant and credible publishers and create high-quality content that will help you quickly build a strong backlink profile. By using the services of an experienced digital marketing agency, you can maximise your SEO efforts and leapfrog the competition. Keep in mind that all your competitors will be utilising SEO in 2025, so you want to have a team of experts working on your behalf to achieve the best results online.

To improve your search engine ranking and increase organic traffic to your website, you need to understand how Google ranks education websites. E-E-A-T, highly relevant content, and quality backlinks are the key factors that can boost your SEO efforts and help you climb the SERPs. In turn, this will increase organic traffic, improve your credibility, and build trust. This is key to success in the education sector, where you need to have a strong online presence but also demonstrate your expertise.