Quality raters are external evaluators who assess the quality and relevance of search results for Google. Working through third-party companies, these professionals provide essential human feedback that helps validate algorithm updates and improve search quality.
Quality raters follow detailed guidelines provided by Google to evaluate search results. They examine factors like expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) of pages appearing in search results. According to Search Engine Land, these evaluators do not directly influence rankings but rather provide data that helps Google's engineers refine their algorithms.
Google employs over 16,000 quality raters worldwide, as reported by Marie Haynes. These raters assess search results by comparing them against comprehensive quality guidelines that outline specific criteria for different types of content and queries.
Quality raters serve as a crucial human element in Google's largely automated search system. Their feedback helps validate algorithm updates before they're rolled out globally and identifies potential issues with search quality. The assessments they provide help ensure that Google's algorithms align with real human perceptions of quality and relevance.
Their work is particularly important for evaluating YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content, where accuracy and expertise are critical. Raters help ensure that content in sensitive categories like health, finance, and safety meets high standards.
Raters evaluate search results through specialized platforms, examining both individual pages and overall search quality. They consider factors such as:
Raters assess the primary content's accuracy, depth, and expertise. They evaluate whether the content achieves its intended purpose and provides value to users.
The overall user experience, including layout, functionality, and accessibility, is evaluated to ensure content is presented effectively.
Raters carefully examine the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness signals present in the content and its source.
While quality raters don't directly affect rankings, their feedback influences Google's algorithm updates. Understanding their evaluation criteria provides valuable insights for content creators and SEO professionals. The Search Quality Rater Guidelines serve as a window into how Google defines quality content.
According to SEO Zoom, successful websites often align naturally with quality rater guidelines by focusing on user experience, expertise, and comprehensive content coverage.
This represents a typical quality rater assessment for a medical article, showing how raters evaluate E-A-T signals and YMYL content quality.
{
"page_evaluation": {
"url": "healthadvice.com/diabetes-treatment",
"page_type": "YMYL",
"quality_metrics": {
"expertise": {
"score": 4.8,
"factors": [
"Author credentials clearly displayed",
"Citations to medical research",
"Recent publication date"
]
},
"authoritativeness": {
"score": 4.5,
"factors": [
"Hospital affiliation verified",
"Professional certifications listed",
"Peer reviews present"
]
},
"trustworthiness": {
"score": 4.7,
"factors": [
"Clear editorial policy",
"Transparent update history",
"Contact information available"
]
}
},
"overall_rating": "High quality"
}
}
Quality raters evaluate search results and provide feedback to Google on their quality and relevance. They follow detailed guidelines to assess factors like expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of pages appearing in search results.
No, quality raters do not directly influence search rankings. Their feedback is used to help Google's engineers refine algorithms and validate updates before they're implemented globally.
According to Marie Haynes, Google employs over 16,000 quality raters worldwide through third-party companies to evaluate search results.
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