The 2023 Search Quality Rater Guidelines are here, and SEOs need to make sure they’re paying attention. These 172 pages outline what Google expects from search results, and what types of content deserve to rank higher in the SERPs. The Guidelines are a handbook for Google’s human Quality Raters, who review live and experimental search results and assign them a Page Quality rating to help Google engineers refine their algorithms. We’ll walk you through the key points of the guidelines, so you can make sure your own content is up to snuff.
The first section of the guidelines focuses on how to rate a search result’s Page Quality. This includes a rundown of the criteria that Quality Raters use to evaluate a site, including E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) and YMYL (Your Money or Your Life).
To score high on this, make sure your content is clearly labeled as such, that it’s written by someone who knows what they’re talking about, and that you’re citing trustworthy sources when appropriate. Avoid hidden content or ad overload, and provide contact information on your site when relevant (particularly for YMYL topics or online stores).
Another key factor is how well the search result meets the needs of the query. This involves evaluating whether the answer is helpful and satisfying, but it’s also important to consider how useful the results are on different devices. This is especially important for mobile, where Google’s search engine algorithm has been adapted to ensure the user experience is as good as possible on the device being used.
Google also expects search results to be accurate and up-to-date, so they should reflect the current state of knowledge on a subject. It’s important to keep this in mind when building your own content, as old or outdated information may give searchers a bad experience or cause them to miss out on the answers they need.
Finally, the guidelines encourage us to focus on creating unique and valuable content. This is one of the biggest SEO trends we’ve seen in recent years, and it’s here to stay. Average content with the right keywords thrown in isn’t going to cut it anymore, and it’s time to invest in content that offers genuine value.