Google Updated Quality Raters Guidelines On July 20th – Info SEO

Google has updated the search quality raters guidelines PDF document on July 20th. Jennifer Slegg, who always does an awesome job digging into what has changed, published the changes once again with this update.

Jamie, a cool SEO, pulled out a section around the most important page quality content factors on a page:

New @googlewmc Search Quality Rater Guidelines lay out the most important factors in page quality. pic.twitter.com/t3dvGG1nKi

— Jamie ???????? (@Jammer_Volts) July 23, 2018

Now, again, as we said so many times, these quality raters guidelines is NOT how the Google algorithm works. It is how Google tests their search results to make sure their algorithms are working as intended. They have something similar for Google voice raters as well.

Google use to keep these guidelines secret but back in 2011 the document was leaked and it has been leaked numerous times since. So Google in 2015 released the document publicly to all.

Jennifer said:

One of the big changes is that not only are raters looking at the reputation of just the website, raters are tasked with investigating the reputation of the content creator – such as the author of the article or landing page being rated. This will put a greater emphasis on sites needing to have author information and author bios on their articles, especially for those sites that do not use bylines on their content when it isn’t clear on the site itself who authors the articles.

Google has also added the concept of “beneficial purpose” to the Quality Rater Guidelines, where raters are not just asked to rate the quality of the content, but also consider whether the page has a beneficial purpose or use to being on the site. What would a visitor to the site gain?

There is also a new emphasis on titles again, specifically targeting clickbait titles where the title is sensationalized tabloid style, yet fails to deliver up to the expectations when someone clicks through.

Lastly, a pretty significant change to the coverage of Your Money, Your Life sites.

Jennifer goes through the changes in super detail, so check it out on her blog.

Forum discussion at Twitter.