If you aren’t familiar with what Google’s “Quality Raters” do and the importance of their role, there is no time like the present for upgrading your knowledge in this regard.
In short, Quality Raters are individuals that Google hires through third-party companies, to assess the quality of search results. There are thousands of such people who manually review websites, and they are required to adhere to certain guidelines to evaluate how effectively search results satisfy the needs of users.
While Google Quality Raters don’t have any direct influence on the search rankings of individual webpages they may come across, these individuals do provide feedback to assist Google’s refinement of its algorithms.
What impacts do recent Quality Rater guidelines have in relation to ‘helpful content’?
Although Google places a strong emphasis on “EEAT” – encompassing the Expertise and Experience of authors, as well as the Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness of sites – the latest Quality Rater guidelines don’t start and end with EEAT.
That’s because the guidelines also set out instructions for determining the quality of a page. This is a vital aspect to be mindful of for business owners looking to optimise the search engine performance of their sites, given that a “helpful content” component now exists in the core Google search algorithm.
Further insights are provided on this in the most recent guidelines, published on 23rd January 2025. Here are some of them:
- Effort and originality
The current Google guidelines state that when Quality Raters are looking over a particular webpage, they should determine what the goal of the page is. This should be followed by evaluating the effectiveness of the page content in achieving the goal.
Raters are asked to come up with a quality rating of a given page’s main content, based on both effort and originality.
Effort concerns whether the page provides positive experiences to users. Originality, meanwhile, relates to whether new content has been added, instead of the page simply repurposing what already exists.
- Accuracy
There is repeated focus in the latest Google Quality Rater guidelines on what the search titan describes as “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) topics. These are subjects that impact on a person’s health, safety, financial stability, and wellbeing.
The guidelines set out an expectation that Quality Raters more closely scrutinise YMYL pages, making sure they are factually accurate and in line with the statements of experts.
- Placement
Another suggestion in the most recent guidelines from Google, is that owners and creators should display the most essential and helpful content in a prominent position – near the top of the page – to allow human visitors to quickly access it.
There may be content on a given page that supports the page’s purpose, without necessarily directly contributing to the goal. The guidelines indicate that such content should be placed in a lower, less immediately noticeable position.
Discuss with Piranha Designs how we can help optimise your brand’s online presence
There are various other elements in the current Quality Rater guidelines that could impact on your approach to your brand’s online shopfront and broader digital marketing activities. We would be pleased to talk to you about them in greater detail when you enquire to our team.
With our knowhow and experience in search engine optimisation, website design, ecommerce, graphic design, and CRM systems in Gibraltar, the UK, and Spain, we will be strongly placed to help your organisation fulfil its online goals throughout later 2025 and beyond.
