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The Secret World of SEO

Looking into and understanding Google Ratings

Last week the SEO world was a buzz after Google released a 125 page document now considered the official guide for search engine application. There’s not really any big news flash here, and no big SEO secret we all need to know. It’s more of a training manual of what you need to know to stay in Google’s good books. So let’s look at a summary of what this new Google guideline is all about.

First let’s start by learning what a quality rater is. This is simply Google’s people whose sole purpose is making sure the algorithm is working as it should. Data from the quality raters is used as quality control for the SERPs that already exist, and validation of algorithm changes that might occur. It’s an important job – just think, Google tested more than 13,000 last year alone.

The quality raters will check sites in their query and then evaluate those sites for relevance. Quality raters will also flag any sites that seem to be spam. Remember the algorithm is only part of Google’s quality control but without the quality raters it would be lost. So let’s have a look at what the human side of Google is looking for.

1. Spam and Relevance Are Not Related

Spam is a flag and relevance is a rating. In Google’s world, a website might have spam but still be useful. On the other hand, a site be spam free but have irrelevant content. You can see at least in part what the algorithms job –  spam is related to intent and tactics, whereas content is simply relevant or irrelevant.

2. The Ongoing Relevance Issue

Google has a very sophisticated view of relevance. There are 5 options raters must use to define relevance – vital, useful, relevant, slightly relevant, non relevant. When quality raters are rating sites, there will always be a subjectivity element.

3. Rules of Intent

There are ambiguous queries. For example, the word “apple” can mean a number of things and yet have no real context. A Google rater will generally use what’s referred to as the dominant interpretation. With the example, of “apple” the dominant interpretation would be for “Apple Computers.” Other interpretations of the word would then receive a lower rating.

4. Non Vital Generic Queries

A domain that’s a match for a query does not automatically make it a vital query. There are a number of inherently generic matches. For example, a search for “Walmart” returns “Walmart.com,” and that’s a relevant query. Then again a search for “jewelry” returns “Jewelry.com,” and that would be considered a generic or not vital query response.

5. Being Useful Goes Far Beyond Being Relevant

This is open to a lot of interpretation. However, what Google is saying is that those pages that rank well need to be more than relevant. They must also be authoritative, current, entertaining, and satisfying to the viewer. The rater will use his/her own discretion in making this determination. No site must meet all the set out criteria, but it is important for web masters to recognize that it’s not just about relevance.

We’ve touched on 5 key points of the Google document. There are more. It would be worth your time to become familiar with the entire document so that you can use the information to your advantage. After all-knowing what the expectations are is really half the battle. If you’re looking to get a web design on the gold coast.

 

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