Google Guidelines For Quality Raters
Google Guidelines For Quality Raters
Document version: 2.1, April 6th 2007
Hello and thank you for taking the time for downloading this document.
I will use just the first page for a short introduction: you will find the original
document leaked by Google, without any further modification (but the
“Original Source” footnote), from the second page on.
My name is Maurizio Petrone (a.k.a. Petro), and I am an SEO, based in Italy.
I found this document for the first time on March 12th, 2008 at this URL:
http://vizualbod.com/f/spam-guidelines.htm (URL no longer works).
Before such date, it wasn’t available to the public, but it was already circulating
in the SeoBlackHat.com private forum. Aaron Wall also wrote a post about it,
then Brian Ussery, from Beu Blog, spread the document at the very same time
of me. When SearchEngineLand posted the news, it finally gone mainstream.
I personally wrote an analysis of the Quality Rater Guidelines in my SEO Blog,
and saved a PDF copy of such document on my servers, with the aim to make
it available to anyone for future reference.
This is a genuine Google Document. I don’t know how and when it was leaked.
Reading this guidelines document will help you to gain a better understanding
of how Search Engine Ranking (posizionamento nei motori di ricerca, in Italian)
works – well, at least, you will understand how Google wants it to work, and
what a Quality Rater main tasks are. A true SEO goldmine!
Enjoy reading!
Maurizio Petrone
Page Last Revision: july 12th 2008
General Guidelines
Version 2.1 (April 6, 2007)
Part 1: Rating Guidelines …………….. 2
1. The Role of the Quality Rater ………….. 2
2. Researching and Understanding the Query ……………. 2
3. Query Types …………….. 4
4. Rating Scale …………….. 5
5. Non-Rating Categories ………. 10
6. Spam Labels …………. 13
7. Flags…………… 13
Part 2: Using EWOQ ………………….. 14
1. Introduction ……………. 14
2. Accessing the EWOQ Rating Interface ……… 14
3. Rating…………. 14
4. Rating Home Screenshot……………… 15
5. Rating Home Screenshot – after clicking on the show Tasks available link ……… 16
6. Rating Task Screenshot……………….. 17
7. Resolving Tasks (Re-rating Unresolved Tasks) / Moderators …….. 20
8. Managing Your Task List…………….. 23
9. Commenting Etiquette………. 24
Part 3: Rating Examples……………. 25
1. Introduction ……………. 25
2. Named Entities ………. 25
3. Informational Queries ………… 28
4. Targeted Information Queries ……….. 30
5. Queries That Ask for a List ……………. 31
Part 4: Webspam Guidelines ………………… 32
1. PPC Pages ……………… 33
2. Parked Domains …………………. 34
3. Thin Affiliates…………. 34
4. Hidden Text and Hidden Links ………. 36
5. JavaScript Redirects………….. 37
6. Keyword stuffing………………… 37
7. 100% frame …………….. 38
8. Sneaky redirects ………………… 38
Part 5: Quick Guide to Quality Rating ……………….. 40
Part 6: Quick Guide to Webspam Recognition………………. 42
Proprietary and Confidential – Copyright 2007 1