{"id":136108,"date":"2021-10-21T11:00:28","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=136108"},"modified":"2023-05-15T03:27:38","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T08:27:38","slug":"google-quality-raters-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-quality-raters-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s Quality Raters Guidelines Demystified for&nbsp;SEOs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"intro-txt\">Every SEO guide ventures to solve the mystery of Google\u2019s algorithm. But what if Google had a document telling you how it wants its algorithm to behave?<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/static.googleusercontent.com\/media\/guidelines.raterhub.com\/en\/\/searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf\">Google\u2019s Quality Rater Guidelines<\/a>&nbsp;is that document. Unfortunately, it\u2019s 172 pages long. So in the interest of saving your sanity, I decided to read the entire thing and just tell you what you need to&nbsp;know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll learn in this&nbsp;guide:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"#what-are-gqrs\">What are Google quality raters?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#what-are-gqr-guidelines\">What are Google\u2019s quality guidelines?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#need-to-know\">What do SEOs need to&nbsp;know?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"What are Google quality raters?\" data-section=\"what-are-gqrs\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What are Google quality raters?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Google\u2019s quality raters are a team of anywhere from 10-100k people that Google has hired. They determine how well Google\u2019s search results solve a user\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Google uses their feedback to help understand the impact of algorithmic tweaks. The guidelines don\u2019t directly affect the algorithm or rankings, but Google said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2018\/09\/17\/google-tests-changes-to-its-search-algorithm-how-search-works.html\">CNBC interview<\/a>&nbsp;that the guidelines \u201cfundamentally show what the algorithm should do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"What are Google\u2019s quality guidelines?\" data-section=\"what-are-gqr-guidelines\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What are Google\u2019s quality guidelines?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Google\u2019s quality guidelines tell quality raters exactly how to evaluate a search result. These are all laid out in the 172-page document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The document has three main sections:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Page Quality Rating Guidelines<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 This section explains the main factors that quality raters should look for in the search results. These include the purpose of the page, <a href=\"\/blog\/eeat-seo\/\" data-ahr=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/eat-seo\/\">E-A-T<\/a>&nbsp;signals, content quality, ownership of a website, and the website\u2019s reputation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Understanding Mobile User Needs <\/strong>\u2013This section&nbsp;breaks down how Google views mobile interaction.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Needs Met Rating Guidelines<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 This scale evaluates how well a search result solves mobile user&nbsp;needs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"QRGs demystified: What do SEOs need to know?\" data-section=\"need-to-know\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">QRGs demystified: What do SEOs need to&nbsp;know?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Not every section of the 172-page document is helpful for SEOs. And the sections that are helpful aren\u2019t obvious. But dig deeper into what Google says about each topic, and you can extract valuable intel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So here are the main takeaways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pay attention to what other sites say about&nbsp;you<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>With a mix of cynicism and wit, Google lets raters know that \u201cmany websites are eager to tell users how great they are.\u201d So Google directs its quality raters to evaluate reputation not only on the site itself but also by looking off-page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The guidelines instruct raters to look for mentions of a site or author in external \u201cnews articles, Wikipedia articles, blog posts, magazine articles, forum discussions, and ratings from independent organizations,\u201d so you should too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A quick search for your site on Google <code>-your domain<\/code> will show you what others have written about your&nbsp;brand:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/1-site-search.png\" alt=\"Google search of Ahrefs\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>You can also check the backlinks to your site using <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Site Explorer<\/a>&nbsp;to understand how and where other sites are mentioning your&nbsp;brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This exercise is not only useful for seeing how others view your site\/brand but also for uncovering weaknesses in your products or services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Address positive and negative reviews<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Another big piece of <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/online-reputation-management\/\">online reputation management<\/a>&nbsp;is keeping tabs on review sites like Yelp, Better Business Bureau, Amazon, and Google Shopping. Google mentions these specific sites in the quality rater guidelines as ones that raters should use to judge reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of ignoring negative remarks and reviews, address them head&nbsp;on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Negative reviews can prove to be an invaluable source of information on ways to improve your customer service, information on your site, or your product offering overall. This is likely to help SEO and increase the odds of you retaining and attracting new customers over&nbsp;time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Show off your expertise<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This may come as no surprise to most SEOs, but Google talks about E-A-T a lot in the guidelines. E-A-T, which stands for expertise, authority, and trust, is one of the primary signals of quality content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I find Google\u2019s instructions for quality raters to be the clearest directive for&nbsp;SEOs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote>Think about the topic of the page. What kind of expertise is required for the page to achieve its purpose well?<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>If you properly answer the \u201cexpertise\u201d question, you should naturally cover authority and trust as well. Depending on the industry, this may mean formal expertise, like a medical degree if you\u2019re giving medical advice, or hands-on expertise, like years of experience helping clients to rank websites if you\u2019re giving SEO advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of demonstrating that expertise, here are a few actionable tips Google alludes to in <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2019\/08\/core-updates\">this great post<\/a>&nbsp;about E-A-T:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Provide clear sourcing for information<\/li>\n<li>Provide background information for the author or website with links to an \u201cauthor\u201d page or \u201cabout\u201d page (more on this&nbsp;below)<\/li>\n<li>Demonstrate your expertise or enthusiasm in your content<\/li>\n<li>Ensure your content is free from easily verified factual errors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>But be careful because not all industries are the same. If you are unsure what \u201cexpertise\u201d looks like in your industry, look to top-ranking sites to understand how they are showing off their expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Clarify who is responsible for information on the&nbsp;page<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Google admits that not every kind of website requires the same expertise. But it does require quality raters to confirm \u201cwho is responsible for the information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For blog posts and other informational content, you can do this by specifying the author of each page and adding a short bio, as we&nbsp;do:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/2-author-bio.jpg\" alt=\"Author bio of Patrick Stox\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Remember that although a page author may not need \u201cformal\u201d education in the field, it should be clear why they are writing about a specific topic and why you should trust&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Update your \u201cabout\u201d&nbsp;page<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Not every site has a blog or needs author bios to show who is responsible for the information. If your site doesn\u2019t have a place for an author, be sure to update your \u201cabout\u201d page. This way, users can find out things like who you are and how to contact you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdph.ca.gov\/\">California Department of Public Health<\/a>&nbsp;doesn\u2019t have a clear place for a blog or authors, but its&nbsp;\u201cabout\u201d page contains this information. The reader can clearly tell who the information is coming from and why they are trustworthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/3-about-page.png\" alt=\"About page of California's public health department  \"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Add extra E-A-T signals for YMYL&nbsp;sites<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Google specifies a type of page or site as Your Money, Your Life (or YMYL). These are sites that \u201cimpact a person\u2019s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety.\u201d These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Health + fitness<\/li>\n<li>Safety<\/li>\n<li>Shopping<\/li>\n<li>Finance<\/li>\n<li>Government or&nbsp;law<\/li>\n<li>News<\/li>\n<li>Groups of people (specialized groups like disability, nationality, veterans)<\/li>\n<li>College<\/li>\n<li>Jobs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Google\u2019s quality guidelines ask raters to pay closer attention to the quality of information from these&nbsp;sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, fact-checking articles and displaying review processes are widely used best practices in the health and medical space. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthline.com\/health-news\/new-covid-19-restrictions-are-making-unvaccinated-people-more-and-more-isolated\">Healthline<\/a>\u2019s articles have author names\u2014which link to bio pages\u2014and fact-checking signifiers to help prove their&nbsp;E-A-T.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/4-fact-check.png\" alt=\"Author's name on Healthline article\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>You can and should also back up your claims with other expert opinions\u2014especially with YMYL topics. Take this example from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.housebeautiful.com\/home-remodeling\/a25588413\/working-with-home-contractors\/\">House Beautiful<\/a>&nbsp;below in the home remodeling space. House Beautiful does have good E-A-T signals, but it also added an expert quote to the article to help enhance its information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/5-expert-quote.png\" alt=\"House Beautiful's expert quote\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ensure your site features work after a few clicks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Google tells quality raters that a&nbsp;high-quality page isn\u2019t just one that \u201clooks good.\u201d Some sites have features that look great or work well on the surface but fall apart a few clicks later. So Google encourages quality raters to spend time clicking through features on each&nbsp;site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You should do the same and ensure that your site actually functions as intended across multiple devices. Here are a few ways to do&nbsp;that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Test your interactive content. <\/strong>Use any tools or calculators on your site and make sure they&nbsp;work.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Watch embedded videos.<\/strong>&nbsp;Videos are a common source of UX issues. Make sure any video embeds play as expected and don\u2019t negatively impact the user experience in other&nbsp;ways.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Go through your checkout. <\/strong>Add products to your cart and go through the checkout process to ensure everything works as expected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Avoid any low-quality practices<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You can sum up most of the negative guidelines with this directive, which I found on Page 19 of the quality raters guidelines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote>Websites or pages without some sort of beneficial purpose, including pages that are created with no attempt to help users, or pages that potentially spread hate, cause harm, or misinform\/deceive users should receive the lowest rating.<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>There are also a few additional low-quality practices later in the guidelines that are worth pointing out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Overly shocking or exaggerated post titles (when the page title elicits a click but then still leaves the user confused).<\/li><li>Copied main content or scraped content (read up on Google\u2019s guidelines on <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/2721312\">scraped content<\/a>. This isn\u2019t to be confused with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/content-syndication\/\">syndicated content<\/a>,&nbsp;which Google says is OK if done correctly).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ensure your ads don\u2019t distract from your content<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Without ads, Google would have no business model. Google acknowledges that ads on a site are fine and are, in fact, integral to monetizing certain types of&nbsp;sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, it does expect websites to take ownership of the types of ads displayed on a site and how they affect the content experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So spend time browsing your site.&nbsp;Understand the types of ads that get displayed and how they affect the overall experience for your&nbsp;users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do ads cover the text on the page? Are they overly graphic or violent? These are all signals of low quality for raters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even on sites where the ads are less obvious, it\u2019s important to disclose when\/where your content is displaying ads. A highly authoritative site like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nerdwallet.com\/article\/insurance\/understanding-homeowners-insurance?trk=nw_gn_5.0\">Nerdwallet<\/a>&nbsp;displays this type of information right at the top of the&nbsp;page:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/7-ads-disclosure.png\" alt=\"nerdwallet's ad disclosure\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Make your 404 pages informative<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Google doesn\u2019t have any technical recommendations for dealing with 404 pages. But it does mention the importance of maintaining their appearance and usefulness in the quality rater guidelines. The guidelines even call out <a href=\"https:\/\/guidelines.raterhub.com\/images\/PQ.3.6.6.jpg\">this Amazon 404 page<\/a>&nbsp;specifically, giving it a \u201cmedium\u201d score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A 404 page that simply tells the visitor the page couldn\u2019t be found isn\u2019t that useful. So spend some time customizing your 404 page. You should at the very least offer a search bar or related links to help visitors find what they were looking for or something similar on your&nbsp;site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here at Ahrefs, you might have noticed that our 404 currently says&nbsp;this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/8-ahrefs-404-page.png\" alt=\"Ahrefs' 404 page\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>We recently changed our 404 to this after making a significant change to our site structure that broke many users\u2019 bookmarks. Anticipating the influx of frustrated users hitting our 404 page, we updated it to explain how to solve&nbsp;this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, you can\u2019t please everyone with your 404 page. So whatever you include there, it\u2019s always a non-optimum solution. The optimum solution is to minimize how often visitors are likely to see your 404\u2014which you can do by redirecting 404s to relevant resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can use <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Site Explorer<\/a>&nbsp;in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/webmaster-tools\">Ahrefs Webmaster Tools<\/a>&nbsp;to find all the broken pages on your site for free. Just enter your domain, go to the <strong>Best by links<\/strong>&nbsp;report, then add a 404 filter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/9-top-pages.jpg\" alt=\"Best by links report results\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Redirect these pages to working, relevant URLs where appropriate\u2014especially the ones with backlinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pay attention to keyword intent and freshness<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Google explains to raters in the <strong>Mobile User Needs<\/strong>&nbsp;section that <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/search-intent\/\">search intent<\/a>&nbsp;can change over time or based on the searcher\u2019s location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, the term \u201cfootball\u201d means something completely different in the U.S. vs the rest of the world. The below is taken directly from the quality rater guidelines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/10-quality-rater-guidelines.png\" alt=\"Two stickmen think different thoughts about football\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>For SEOs, be sure to consider the changing meaning of your keywords and make sure that your results maintain relevance (aka quality) at any given&nbsp;time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are a website that sells hats, you need to know that a search for \u201chats\u201d in the summer in the U.S. may yield a baseball cap, whereas the same search in the winter may yield knit caps. So you\u2019ll either want to swap out inventory accordingly or create unique pages for&nbsp;each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a post about marketing conferences, users will most likely want the most <em>recent<\/em>&nbsp;marketing conferences, so you\u2019ll want to keep your post up to&nbsp;date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Google includes this in the <strong>Mobile User Needs<\/strong>&nbsp;section because it is pushing every site to be <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/mobile-first-indexing\/\">mobile-first<\/a>,&nbsp;but it\u2019s worth noting that aligning your content with search intent is important across all devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Final thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Google isn\u2019t hiding much in these quality rater guidelines. As a result, you\u2019ll find that most of what I\u2019ve talked about overlaps with <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/advanced\/guidelines\/overview\">quality guidelines<\/a>&nbsp;that Google lists for Webmasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, after reading 172 pages, a few things were abundantly clear to&nbsp;me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Google wants its algorithm to reward high-quality content and avoid malicious or thin content.<\/li>\n<li>High-quality content isn\u2019t content that just \u201clooks good\u201d; it also needs to be helpful.<\/li>\n<li>Site reputation doesn\u2019t stop at the site level\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/seo\/glossary\/off-page-seo\" data-ahr=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/off-page-seo\/\">off-page factors<\/a>&nbsp;likely play a bigger role in Google\u2019s algorithm than we thought.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Lastly and most importantly, by hiring human beings as quality checkers, Google understands that it\u2019s still important to maintain a human element in your content workflow. It can be easy to fall prey to scaling content with cheap talent or AI-generated copy. But at the end of the day, the content that Google wants its algorithm to reward is content created by human beings for human beings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google\u2019s Quality Rater Guidelines&nbsp;is that document. Unfortunately, it\u2019s 172 pages long. So in the interest of saving your sanity, I decided to read the entire thing and just tell you what you need to&nbsp;know. Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll learn in this&nbsp;guide:<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":136110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[335],"tags":[],"coauthors":[426],"class_list":["post-136108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-seo","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Google&#039;s Quality Raters Guidelines Demystified for SEOs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Google\u2019s quality guidelines tell quality raters exactly how to evaluate a search result.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-quality-raters-guidelines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Google&#039;s Quality Raters Guidelines Demystified for SEOs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We read it. Here&#039;s what you need to know.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-quality-raters-guidelines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SEO Blog by Ahrefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Ahrefs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-21T16:00:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-15T08:27:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/fb_google_quality_rater_guidelines.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Vince Nero\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"We read it. 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