Let’s assume you’re looking for alternatives to a product like VEED, and you type “veed alternatives” into Google.
This is what comes up:
If you’re in the majority of searchers who focus on the top search results, which of the first two would you click on?
As a rational searcher (if there’s such a thing), you’d most likely click on the first result, but you have to admit the second one seems more intriguing.
Why is that, and what does a company like Sendspark try to achieve in this case?
This is what we’ll cover coming up, as well as why adding experience to your content is becoming increasingly important in today’s search world.
The Increasing Role of Experience in Today’s Content
Google recently announced the latest addition to its E-A-T factors, which is an extra “E” indicating experience, in what we now call E-E-A-T; a set of guidelines Google uses to determine whether content demonstrates enough:
- Experience
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trust
In order for it to be high-quality, valuable, and accurate for users (especially for YMYL content, this can be crucial).
In this piece, we’ll focus more on the new E, rather than the older factors.
In fact, according to Google, the new factor indicates whether the content is produced with a degree of personal and first-hand experience on a certain matter.
Going back to the example of the veed alternatives query we saw earlier, it’s now clearer why the result from Sendspark is more intriguing.
A title like…
…which includes “tried” indicates exactly what Google mentions above; content that’s produced by someone who has first-hand, life experience on the topic at hand, since whoever wrote the piece has actually tested those alternatives.
This, of course, makes the content appear more trustworthy for the user, and the personal touch makes it stand out in the SERPs.
Especially with the rise of generative AI and tools like ChatGPT, some of our predictions include that AI content will result in more inaccurate and outdated content and less valuable content in general.
Plus, the SERPs for certain keywords will look increasingly similar; something we’re already witnessing in the SaaS industry, but if a large number of people use ChatGPT to come up with their title tags, this phenomenon will escalate.
For instance, if we use the tool to come up with a title for a list post on “email marketing platforms”, these are some of the ideas it comes up with:
As you can see, they’re not too different from each other, and none of them demonstrate something unique, especially experience or expertise.
As we see things, it’s clear that Google will start favoring content that showcases experience, so topical authority and expertise, combined with experience on a topic, is something marketers should pay close attention to.
This is something that can also be achieved through original content, which refers to truly unique content that also showcases experience on a certain matter through:
- Surveys
- Data studies
- Contrarian content
- Invented concepts
And more formats.
For example, the following piece by Ahrefs features an original content format (data study), that demonstrates experience at the same time through “studied”.
Image Source: Ahrefs
Obviously, this doesn’t only benefit content marketers but also searchers who will get more high-quality results.
So how can you add more experience to your content in order to stand out?
How to Add Experience to Your Content
In the SaaS industry, especially for comparison and alternative keywords, the SERPs are becoming increasingly saturated, with the search results looking more or less the same.
If we actually search for the keyword we saw earlier, this is the SERP that comes up:
As you can see, almost all results are list posts, and they look very similar to each other.
So how can one of the results above make itself stand out and demonstrate more experience and expertise on email marketing platforms?
This can often be done by turning the content from a simple list post into an actual review and by adding the right verb form to the title that indicates experience.
In this case, the only result that has used this tactic is the one from Moosend, which has added “reviewed” in its title.
Image Source: Moosend
This allows them to showcase that the email marketing services have been critically examined and not simply listed.
Of course, “review” is only one of the many verbs that indicate experience, with some of the others including:
- Try
- Use
- Explore
- Enroll
- Learn
- Look
You can use these yourself in your own content.
If you’d like to explore our full list of 200 verbs indicating experience (with examples), you can make a copy of it here.
By creating content based on them and adding verb forms like these to your titles, you’ll demonstrate first-hand experience that searchers will get value from, and you’ll satisfy search engines at the same time, considering E-E-A-T will matter more and more.
So far, we believe that the importance of adding experience to your content has been made clear.
Let’s have a look at a few examples of websites that have leveraged this tactic for their own benefit.
Examples of Companies Adding Experience to Their Content
Although we briefly saw the examples of Sendspark and Moosend earlier, there are many more notable cases of companies that have added experience to their content.
Example #1: ElegantThemes
Our first example is from ElegantThemes, a WordPress page builder which created a list post called:
As you can see, “reviewed” and “compared” have been added to show experience and the fact that the AI design tools have been critically examined and contrasted.
On the other hand, the rest of the results are simply listing the tools without showing any first-hand experience with them.
Example #2: Serious Eats
Adding experience to your content doesn’t only apply to the SaaS industry.
It’s important to do so regardless of your industry, and the following case by Serious Eats is a good example.
Image Source: Seriouseats
By adding “tested,” we can see that the author has evaluated the performance of each cast iron skillet, which shows first-hand experience.
Plus, the content differentiates itself from the rest of the search results, which are simply listing the products.
Let’s have a look at one last example.
Example #3: Datapad
Datapad is one of the best KPI tracking tools out there and has done an excellent job in attracting organic traffic through its content.
A certain piece worth mentioning is the following:
Adding “reviewed” shows clear experience of testing the various eCommerce reporting tools and presenting readers the findings, such as key features, pricing, and the pros and cons of each one.
This gives them an all-around view of each tool for them to make a solid decision, and the content manages to stand out from the rest.
All in all, based on Google’s recent announcements, we believe that this is where things are heading; expertise on certain topics and content that shows first-hand experience.
Now Over to You
With the rise of AI content and the saturation of a large number of topics and keywords, it’s hard to make your content unique enough for searchers to click on.
Of course, things are even more difficult with Google’s algorithm becoming more and more complicated and demanding, in a way that content should be helpful and people-first.
However, adding experience to your content and showing expertise can play a key role in creating valuable content that will serve both users and search engines.
Once again, don’t hesitate to explore our list of verbs indicating experience to use in your own content!
