Sharon Martin8 min read

Why Does My Competitor's Blog Outrank Mine With the Same Advice?

Two posts give the same advice and one ranks on page one. Here's what Google's E-E-A-T guidelines actually say, and a worked fix for the gaps that usually separate them.

You searched for something you've written about and found a competitor's post near the top of Google. You read it. It says roughly what yours says, maybe less. Yours is on page three. So what does Google see in theirs that it doesn't see in yours?

Sometimes the answer is technical: your page isn't indexed, or its title doesn't match the search. But when both pages are indexed and say much the same thing, the difference is often in what surrounds the advice: who wrote it, whether they've visibly done the work, and whether the business behind it looks real and accountable. Google sums that up as E-E-A-T.

The quick answer

  1. Put a real, named person on the post, with a short bio that says why they know the subject.
  2. Add proof you've done the work: your own photos, a real job, a specific result.
  3. Make the business behind the page easy to check: a proper About page, phone number and address.
  4. Link your facts to their sources, and keep the page up to date.
  5. First, rule out the technical causes (see below), because none of this helps a page Google hasn't indexed.

First, rule out the boring reasons

Before you rework anything, check that the comparison is fair:

  • Is your page indexed? Paste its address into the search bar at the top of Google Search Console (the URL Inspection tool). If it isn't on Google, that's the problem.
  • Does the title match the search? A post titled "Plumbing Tips #4" won't compete with "How to Stop a Toilet From Running". See our title tag guide.
  • Is their site simply stronger overall? An older site with more local links and reviews has an edge on everything it publishes. That's fixable, but slowly.

If those check out, read on.

What E-E-A-T actually is

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. It comes from Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines, the handbook for the people Google pays to grade its search results. Google added the first E, for Experience, in December 2022.

It is not a score or a setting, and Google is clear about that. From its guide to creating helpful content:

  • "While E-E-A-T itself isn't a specific ranking factor, using a mix of factors that can identify content with good E-E-A-T is useful."
  • "Search raters have no control over how pages rank. Rater data is not used directly in our ranking algorithms."

So the raters don't move your page up or down. Google uses their grades, in its own words, "as a restaurant might get feedback cards from diners", to check whether its automated systems are surfacing trustworthy pages. What matters for you is that those systems look for the same things the raters do. You can't switch E-E-A-T on, but you can make those signals obvious.

The two plumbers: a worked fix

Picture two plumbers in the same town, each with a post called "How to Stop a Toilet From Running". The steps in both are almost identical: check the flapper, adjust the float, replace the fill valve. Here's what tends to separate them.

Plumber A (page three):

  • Byline: "admin".
  • A stock photo of a shiny bathroom.
  • Generic steps, no mention of what the writer has seen go wrong.
  • The About page is two sentences. No address. A contact form, no phone number.
  • Last updated years ago.

Plumber B (page one):

  • Byline: a named plumber, linking to a bio with their license and years in the trade.
  • Their own photos of a worn flapper next to a new one.
  • A paragraph on which part tends to fail in the older homes they work on and how to tell the difference, the kind of detail you only know from doing the job.
  • A real About page, the business address and phone number in the footer, and plenty of reviews on their Google Business Profile.
  • A note when the post was last checked.

Plumber A can close most of that gap in an afternoon. The fix, in order:

  1. Swap "admin" for a name. Google's helpful content guide asks: "Is it self-evident to your visitors who authored your content?" and "Do bylines lead to further information about the author?" Add a bio with the person's role, years of experience and any license or certification that matters. Don't invent credentials; Google calls fabricated author profiles deception.
  2. Replace the stock photo with your own. A phone photo of the actual part beats a polished stock image.
  3. Add one thing only someone who does the job would know. A common mistake you see, how long it usually takes, when it's not worth fixing yourself.
  4. Fix the About and contact details. Who runs the business, how long it's been going, where it is, how to reach a person.
  5. Link the facts. If you quote a code, a cost or a manufacturer's instruction, link to it.
  6. Date it. Add "last reviewed" and revisit it once a year.

None of these are tricks. They're the same things a cautious customer checks before they call you.

The four letters, briefly

Experience asks whether the writer has done the thing. Google's announcement describes valuing content "produced by someone who has first-hand, life experience on the topic at hand". This is where small businesses win: you do the work every day, and content mills can't fake that.

Expertise is knowledge and skill. Formal credentials matter most where mistakes are costly, like legal, medical or financial advice. Elsewhere, years of hands-on work count.

Authoritativeness is reputation: whether others treat you as a go-to source. It mostly lives off your site, in reviews, local press, industry directories and other sites linking to you. That's where earning good backlinks and your Google Business Profile come in.

Trust is the one Google ranks above the others: "Of these aspects, trust is most important. The others contribute to trust, but content doesn't necessarily have to demonstrate all of them." Is the page accurate, honest and safe to use? Is it clear who's accountable for it? An expert writer can't rescue a page that's wrong, anonymous or hard to verify.

When the bar is higher: "Your Money or Your Life"

Google holds some topics to a stricter standard. It calls them YMYL, "Your Money or Your Life": topics that could "significantly impact the health, financial stability, or safety of people". For these, Google says its systems "give even more weight to content that aligns with strong E-E-A-T".

More small business content falls into this than you'd think. A financial adviser's blog is obvious. So is an HVAC company writing about carbon monoxide, an electrician on DIY wiring, or an IT company on protecting your bank login. If a post touches money, health or safety, give it your most careful fact-checking and your most qualified author.

Basic trust signals every site needs

  • HTTPS. Your address should start with https and show a padlock. Google made HTTPS a ranking signal in 2014, describing it then as "very lightweight", but a site without it looks neglected to visitors. Most hosts include a free certificate.
  • Real contact details in the footer of every page.
  • An About page that names the people and says how long you've been doing this.
  • Reviews. Ask recent happy customers to review you on your Google Business Profile, and reply to the reviews you already have, good and bad.
  • Accurate, current content. Stale prices and out-of-date advice tell readers nobody's minding the shop.

Your E-E-A-T audit

  1. Check the padlock on your homepage and a few inner pages.
  2. Read your About page as a stranger would. Does it say who you are, how long you've done this and why you're qualified?
  3. Check the footer for a phone number and address.
  4. Put a name on every post and give that person a short bio page.
  5. Add proof of real work to your top three service pages: your own photos, a short case, a specific result.
  6. Link or delete every statistic you can't source.
  7. Flag YMYL pages and give them the most careful review.
  8. Set a reminder to review your most important pages every quarter.

When to get help

You can do almost all of this yourself. Get help if your pages aren't indexed at all, if you've done the work above and a page still hasn't moved after a couple of months (the gap may be links or site structure, not content), or if traffic dropped sharply after a Google update and you can't see why. If you'd like someone to look at it with you, that's what our SEO and marketing service does.

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