Google has updated its Search Quality Raters’ guidelines. This update is small compared to the December 2022 update. The latest updates to Search Quality Rater Guidelines include a simplified “needs met scale” and more examples.
What Are Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines?
Quality Raters are third-party consultants hired by Google to evaluate the quality of the content appearing in the search results. While they are used to determine the reliability of the search results, they do not have a direct impact indexing or ranking.
The Quality Raters’ Guidelines are the parameters used by the Search Quality Raters to evaluate the search ranking system. They can provide important information on what content is considered helpful and relevant to the search.
What Are the Updates in Quality Raters Guidelines?
- The Needs Met Scale definitions have been simplified and guidance has been added for specific types of Needs Met ratings.
- Examples for popular platforms and video formats have been included and outdated and redundant examples have been removed.
- Minor changes have been made throughout, such as expanded rating guidance for forum pages, updated language, examples, and explanations for consistency across sections, fixed typos and so on.
According to Google, none of these updates represent any significant or foundational shifts in their guidelines.
Why We Care
The search quality evaluators ratings may not directly affect the website ranking in search engine result page, but they play an important role in improving Google’s algorithms by providing valuable feedback to their engineers. SEO’s and content marketers can use the Quality Rater Guideline to better inform their content production approach. The Quality Rater Guidelines also include important messaging about how EEAT (expertise, experience, authority and trust) signals are evaluated, which may be beneficial when optimizing content for search.
Our content team is well-versed in writing content that satisfies Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines. Need help improving your website content?
