Incorporate global EEAT to succeed on a local level

Ed says: “Global EEAT needs to be a local strategy.

I’m going to cover actionable steps for how you can implement EEAT across multiple markets and, specifically, how you can dive into locality – from things like compliance in certain areas to how emojis mean different things around the world.

I’ll explain how that can impact your content and also how you can make your content work hardest for you across all the markets that you work in.”

Why should EEAT be a local strategy and how do you make it happen?

“With EEAT, in general, I always prioritise the trust element. In this case, the trust element is compliance. When you think of GDPR in the UK, CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) in the US, or the POPI Act (Protection of Personal Information Act) in South Africa, these essentially mean the same thing.

However, you have to make sure that information is front and centre, and available on your website. That obviously needs to be localised for each market, as they each have their own jurisdictions, legislations, rulings, etc. It’s okay to use existing content as it will be largely similar, but you really need to localise it for that audience.

Additionally, if you have anything related to local VAT registrations or tax coding that needs to be present on your website, make sure to include those on your website, especially in alternative markets. Have your business registration details, and the GDPR, CCPA, or POPI Act ruling present – and any kind of partnerships with local bodies, governing bodies, and industrial bodies.

Surface that information so the user can see that trust element, showing that you are affiliated with these industries or regulatory bodies. Also, streamline that information and make it much more accessible so that, when somebody lands on your website, they’re seeing content that is relevant to them in their respective geolocation instead of just generalised content that could be rolled out across the board.

Without localising that content, you are almost a ‘jack-of-all-trades, master of none’ because you’re not making content that is hyper-relevant for the audience that you’re targeting at that time.”

Is there a measurable impact from localising your compliance?

“The impact is in areas like continuous growth and even the maintenance of your organic visibility. They’re the kind of metrics that you can’t really measure unless you go into the ‘share of search’ side of things.

What it does do is future-proof your strategy and create longevity, because you’re satisfying all of these metrics while producing content that users will feel safe reading. On top of that, when they’re crawling your website and your competitors, search engines can pick out the common themes in the level of content on the websites that rank prevalently in that geolocation. You’re satisfying a minimum requirement and legal compliance at the same time.

That’s not to say that this won’t directly impact your ranking, though. Ultimately, if two websites start on the same day and one has all of this additional information and these regulations ticked but the other doesn’t, the website that does is likely to rank higher or be picked up in search results far quicker.

It satisfies both the EEAT requirements and the legal compliance side, making it a more trustworthy website, which gives you a step up on your competitors – especially in the short term.”

Is there a relatively easy way to ensure that you are always up to date with your compliance globally?

“I like to do this quite manually as it gives me total control over all of these different areas of the content.

Being so passionate about EEAT anyway, I always think that the About Us page is one of the most crucial pages on your website. Make sure that you surface all the content there, laid out perfectly, saying which bodies you’re part of and how you comply with these regulatory bodies.

Then, there are your policy pages such as your privacy policy or your shipments and returns policies, and how those policies can differ by location. Include that in your website footer for the respective market, whether it’s in a subfolder structure or you have a totally separate domain for the additional markets that you’re in. Make sure that content is listed.

Things like your VAT registration and company registration shouldn’t change, it’s just a case of making sure that you frequently review and update it as and when required – but also that it’s surfaced in the first place and readily available for users and search engines to see.”

What do emojis have to do with EEAT?

“Emojis can be used quite conversationally and, dependent on the industry that you’re in, you’ll find that some may use them a lot more. In FinTech, I tend to use the cash emoji and the moneybag emoji, for example.

Studies have shown that having an emoji in a meta title or description can influence a higher click-through rate just because of differentiation on the search engine results page. When you look at the organic blue listings, and then you see a pop of colour or something a little bit different, it’s naturally eye-catching.

What’s interesting to note is how they can mean different things in different locations. For instance, the ‘okay’ hand sign is something that we take to mean ‘that’s fine’. However, in places like Brazil, that hand sign is actually deemed to be quite an insult.

Make sure that you tailor your content, and you don’t just blanket roll out and reuse the same content as standard in all markets. Emojis can be a key focus in how you surface content that is relevant and appropriate for that audience. They may not seem like such a large factor but, if it’s something that your business uses and relies on in communications, then make sure that it’s tailored for the market you’re in, and appropriate for that user base.

It’s an EEAT requirement because it shows that you’re trustworthy and you’re giving content that people can use and rely on. It also shows that you’re an authority in the geolocation because you’re serving reliable content that’s suitable for that audience.”

If emojis in page titles positively influence click-through rate, are you potentially seeing an increase in trust as well?

“I would say so. Ultimately, your website is getting more engagement. I believe Rand Fishkin ran an experiment where having his result clicked multiple times in a short space of time actually promoted it by a place within the same day. I think it moved from position 2 to position 1.

Anything that can influence click-through rate, while also having relevant and suitable content that’s appropriate for your audience on your website so that they then further engage, will signal that the content is highly authoritative.

If you’re also seen as an expert, dependent on the purpose of that page, then that increased engagement shows your authority and the trustworthiness that can be attributed to your website as a whole.”

Do you need to have an individual strategy for each country instead of tweaking aspects of what you’ve got already?

“What’s nice is that you can make your content work as hard as possible for you.

We are in FinTech, and a lot of the business finance products that people use are ultimately the same, whatever the location. It boils down to business funding, debt financing, equity, grants, and things like commercial mortgages or equipment financing.

They’re the same core products, but the way that you go about them may be different in certain locations. That could be the required documentation, the business and personal credit scores, etc. In the US, you might need a personal credit score of over 500 to be eligible for certain things, for example. Although that seems like a big part of the content, realistically it’s only a small tweak that you need to make when you put that landing page together.

It’s perfectly fine to use the content you’ve already got, make it relevant for the audience, and then have a local expert review it. If you’ve paid £500 for a single piece of content, and you’re operating in 10 markets, you can make that content stretch across those 10 markets. You just have to drill down on the geo-specifics within that piece of content for each market.

Instead of creating 10 unique pieces, you have 1 piece of content that has been used and edited 10 times to make it relevant for each market. This allows you to reduce the costs of your overall content production, speed up the content production process, and scale up the content that you put out.

It’s a lot easier to get 20 pieces of content written per month than 200 pieces for each respective market that you have.”

After trust, what’s the second area of EEAT that you tend to focus on?

“That would be the expertise side of things.

That includes the criteria that you have for writers as well as the editorial policies that users and search engines can crawl to understand the process for the content being produced. Show how you verify its accuracy and how regularly you review it to ensure that you’re serving the best and most relevant content at all times, with a high level of accuracy.

Having expertise will mean sourcing writers that have a lot of experience within your niche or, best case scenario, a lot of experience within your niche in that specific market. If you don’t have a writer with expertise within that market, then you need to produce the content with the perspective of someone who is an authority and expert within the industry as a whole.

You would need to have a local expert. That could be a member of your organisation, or you could use a freelancer who is an expert within that field to review and verify that information. It’s fine to have multiple authors or contributors and use a little tagline saying that the content was written by expert A and reviewed by expert B to ensure factual accuracy.

Displaying that expertise makes a more trustworthy piece. If you’re trustworthy and demonstrating expertise, with firsthand experience where possible, you become the authority within the industry. It’s a Venn diagram. All these elements overlap to produce a perfect piece of content that is suitable for that audience. That’s how you can use this global EEAT strategy to further your SEO and provide longevity for your campaign.”

How do you measure the degree of expertise that someone has?

“Ultimately, by searching the author on Google and seeing what kind of information you can surface. Where have they been featured? Are they consistently talking about this topic?

You may find someone has a lot of experience across a variety of topics but, when you dive into their profile, how much are they talking about the specific topics you’re surfacing on your website? You really want their whole profile to be dedicated to 1 or 2 particular areas.

Again, use the experts that you have available within your organisation. If you’ve got a dedicated content writer or content team internally, that’s fantastic. They will have first-hand experience writing that content within that industry. If you rely on external experts or content production, then make sure that you verify that information.

Use the people that are available to you. That could even be your CEO or your Head of Marketing – anyone who has the industry experience to show that the content is trustworthy.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time doing what you suggest in 2025?

“Instead of focusing on publishing hundreds of pages that are unique each time, publish a smaller quantity of pages that are higher quality. Then, they can be repurposed globally. One piece of written content can be used 5-10 times, depending on how many markets you’re in.

Doing that, along with focusing on localisation as opposed to complete overhauls of content, will mean that you get a high level of output from much less input.

When it comes to reporting on ROI, if one piece of content is used globally and results in leads, then all of that generated revenue is actually coming from one article that’s just been repurposed, as opposed to high levels of investment and work publishing, reviewing, and creating unique content pieces for each market.”

Edward Ziubrzynski is Global SEO and Content Manager at Swoop Funding, and you can find him over at SwoopFunding.com.