Google updates search quality raters guidelines with a focus on spam

Google has pushed a routine update to its search quality raters guidelines PDF (accessible here). This is a routine update to its guidelines document, where the updates primarily focused on spam.

What changed. Google posted the following details in its change log in the document:

• Updated Page Quality Lowest and Low sections to better align with Google Search Web Spam Policies; added illustrative examples
• Expanded guidance on assessing minor interpretations and intents for Needs Met ratings and added illustrative examples
• Minor changes throughout (updated rating ranges, removed outdated examples; fixed typos; updated browser requirements; etc.)

This update also refreshes some language for clarity and provides additional useful examples to help raters.

Previous updates. The last update was over 10 months ago on March 5. Before that was Nov. 16, 2023 and then before that Dec. 15, 2022. Google normally refreshes these guidelines every year or so.

What the quality raters do. Google’s quality raters are used by outside consultants hired by Google to assess the quality of the Google search results. They do not directly influence the search results and quality raters cannot downgrade or upgrade a specific site in Google Search. Google said:

• “As a reminder, these guidelines are what are used by our search raters to help evaluate the performance of our various search ranking systems, and their ratings don’t directly influence ranking. The guidelines share important considerations for what content is helpful for people when using Google Search. Our page on how to create helpful, people-first content summarizes these concepts for creators to help them self-assess their own content to be successful in Google Search.”

Why we care. Although search quality evaluators’ ratings do not directly impact rankings, they do provide feedback that helps Google improve its algorithms. It is important to spend some time looking at what Google changed in this updated version of the document and compare that to the previous version of the document to see if we can learn more about Google’s intent on what websites and webpages Google prefers to rank. Google made those additions, edits, and deletions for a reason.