E-E-A-T Your Motorcycle Website and Boost SEO Performance

E-E-A-T Your Motorcycle Website and Boost SEO Performance

If you want people to spend money with your motorcycle business, they need to trust you. This can be hard to do in a world of online shopping. It’s great because riders all over the country and the world can potentially be your customers. However, this also means that your website is their first and only impression of your business. Google understands this, which is why it applies E-E-A-T when analyzing your website. Depending on how your motorcycle website performs can impact your motorcycle business’ online performance.

What Is E-E-A-T? 

Obviously, it’s yet another acronym that Google has come up with. Just what you need, another mash-up of letters in the alphabet soup that is online marketing. E-E-A-T is an update to a previous acronym that Google used to use. It stands for:

What Is YMYL? 

Before diving into E-E-A-T, we have one more acronym to learn. YMYL stands for “your money or your life.” It stands for a set of principles that Google uses to classify websites. The idea is to identify websites that impact vital areas of people’s lives.

Your motorcycle website probably qualifies. If you sell items on your website, you have an e-commerce site, and they all qualify. There is a monetary transaction that falls under the “finances” umbrella. It could also be argued that motorcycles are dangerous, and that would qualify a motorcycle business website that doesn’t sell products online. Long story short, it’s highly likely that your motorcycle website qualifies.

How Does E-E-A-T Impact SEO Performance?

Don’t throw everything you know about SEO out the window. E-E-A-T isn’t a replacement or end-all-be-all of optimizing SEO performance. Instead, it’s a way of rewarding websites that prioritize the qualities that Google wants to promote. Motorcycle websites that embody E-E-A-T qualities will tend to perform better than those that don’t when everything else is equal. 

Google has Search Quality Raters, real people who act as quality control for the search result algorithm. They check websites to make sure they are the type and quality of results that Google wants to deliver. If your motorcycle website does a great job at accomplishing E-E-A-T, they will take note, and it will contribute to your motorcycle website’s overall SEO performance.

Experience 

The newest addition to the original E-A-T acronym is the second E for experience. The idea is that content created by people with direct personal experience will create higher quality and more informative content. This is perfect for you; you probably have plenty of personal motorcycle experience if you have made it to having your own motorcycle business. Show experience by including personal stories. Create content that highlights the product in use. Showcase user-generated content.

Expertise

There is a difference between experience and expertise. Someone can have experience, but that doesn’t mean they are an expert. For example, you could have experience riding a motorcycle on track day, but that doesn’t mean you have expertise in riding a motorcycle in a MotoGP race. You could have experience changing your motorcycle oil, but that doesn’t mean you have expertise in motorcycle repair. 

Showing expertise highlights the experience, education, and credentials that make you an expert. Depending on your motorcycle business type, expertise could be not so crucial to your success at E-E-A-T. If you are making and selling safety gear, you better know what you are talking about. The standard could be more lax if you sell lifestyle products with a motorcycle theme. 

Show expertise by creating how-to guides that troubleshoot common issues. Generate in-depth product reviews highlighting your expertise by evaluating the product beyond whether it is good. If you lack expertise, get someone with the necessary motorcycle expertise to guest appear in your content. Leverage their expertise.

Authoritativeness

Authority is all about who you are and what you represent. Google Raters look at a few things to figure this out: content, website, and author. Take a look around the motorcycle community and look at your reputation. Do other people in the industry link to your website and reference your company? A good indication of authority is other well-known and respected people in the industry reference you. Or your motorcycle business has its products or services reviewed and used by other prominent people. It could also be that other websites dedicate a feature or page to your company, product, or service.

Trustworthiness

Trust is the main element of this whole pyramid. We are lucky in the motorcycle world; a certain amount of trust comes with just being a part of the community. However, you need to work on building more. We’ve all been to sketchy websites and immediately noped out of there. Don’t let a poorly designed or operating website represent your motorcycle business. 

How to Improve Your Motorcycle Website’s E-E-A-T

So far, we’ve talked a lot about heavy SEO stuff. E-E-A-T is a bit abstract and fuzzy. Let’s get to the important part: some actionable advice on what you can do to improve your motorcycle website.

Do a Website Audit 

The first thing to do is a website audit. Take a hard look at your website and give it an honest review. There are things you can do better.

About Us Page

The first is to create an About Us page that is complete with more information than the basics.  Talk about how you started riding motorcycles and why you started the business. This is the perfect place to include your company’s code of ethics and morals. Let your motorcycle brand’s personality shine here. You aren’t going to appeal to everyone, but that’s okay; as riders, we aren’t worried about everyone liking us. Those who do like you will identify with you, develop trust, and be more engaged.

Motorcycle Company Bios

If applicable, consider adding bios. Maybe your motorcycle business is small, and you can have one for everyone. Maybe your business is large, and you only have bios for the top people. Whatever you decide, bios make your business more trustworthy by putting a face to the brand. Bios are also about building trust and authority. So leave out the unrelated info and stick to motorcycle riding and industry facts.

Motorcycle Website Policy Pages

Finally, it’s time to deal with the boring stuff like policies. Make sure your motorcycle website’s policies are easily found. For most of us, this is more than one page. You probably have a business policy page. Then, you have a website privacy policy page. Make sure website visitors easily find both.

Refresh Motorcycle Content

This type is a basic one but worth repeating. You can’t create motorcycle content for your website, post it, and forget it. Eventually, it becomes old and outdated. You need to go back and refresh it every once in a while. 

You also need to review and ensure the content you’ve already posted is complete and correct. Let’s face it: content marketing and marketing, in general, tends to be a bit scattered for most small businesses. Maybe you started and stopped your efforts. Perhaps you hired someone who wasn’t totally qualified. Then there is the dreaded low-quality content mill stuff. Whatever the reason, you probably have content on your motorcycle website that could be improved.

Create High-Quality Motorcycle Content 

Nothing can replace great content. Stop trying to cut corners and focus on creating original, high-quality content. You want to promote your motorcycle product or service but not in an overly salesy way. Skip the cheap content mills that provide low-quality generic content. Don’t waste your time with AI that can’t craft personalized or unique content. 

Cite Motorcycle Industry Sources 

If you are the top expert in your area of the motorcycle industry, then by all means, rev your engine. However, there is probably someone who is more well-known and has more experience than you. This is actually a good thing. Referencing and citing those well-respected sources on your motorcycle website builds trust and authority for you. It’s also important to back your claims up with quantifiable data. Don’t just say your product or service is better. Show why and how it’s better. Do this with research and data.

Embrace Rider-Created Content 

Don’t be afraid to embrace customer-generated content. Your customers are motorcycle riders and owners. This means they have precisely what Google is looking for: personal experience. Your potential target market is also much more likely to trust another rider who says your products are great than you saying your products are great.

Don’t Forget About Backlinks

If you get reputable websites in the motorcycle industry to backlink to your motorcycle website, it’s like they vouch for you. This gives you internet street cred. For example, a backlink from the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) or a motorcycle manufacturer would be impactful. These are well-established organizations within the motorcycle organization that are authoritative and trustworthy. So if they trust you, you are also trustworthy. Think of it like networking; sometimes, it isn’t what you know but who.

Start Creating High-Quality Motorcycle Content 

As a content writer with real-world motorcycle riding and owning experience, I can help you write high-quality content. I like to add a personal touch to make my content more engaging. This doesn’t always mean telling a personal story or identifying myself. It could simply mean adding unique knowledge or advice gained from my experience.