What are Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines?
The Search Quality Rater Guidelines are a long document Google publishes that tells its external search quality raters how to judge results. Raters look at pages returned for sample queries and score them for page quality and for how well they meet the searcher's need.
The key point is what the ratings are used for. Google uses rater feedback to evaluate whether proposed changes to its systems make results better. A rater marking your page as low quality doesn't demote it. That makes the guidelines a description of what Google is trying to reward, not a list of ranking factors.
Two ratings raters give
- Page Quality asks how well a page achieves its purpose. Raters look at the main content, the reputation of the site and its creators, and the page's E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust. Trust is treated as the most important of the four.
- Needs Met asks how well a result satisfies the query, which ties closely to search intent. A perfectly good page can still fail Needs Met for a query it doesn't answer.
Raters also get extensive examples of lowest-quality pages: deceptive pages, pages copied from elsewhere, and content with little effort or originality.
Concepts SEO borrowed from it
Much of the vocabulary SEOs use comes from this document. YMYL, short for Your Money or Your Life, describes topics where poor information could harm someone's health, finances or safety, and raters hold those pages to higher standards. "Main content", "supplementary content" and "reputation research" also come from here.
Google revises the guidelines periodically. Recent editions added guidance on generative AI content and examples involving AI Overviews, so check which version an article is quoting before relying on it.
Using it as a self-check
The guidelines are most useful as a checklist you run on your own site, especially after a core update:
- Is it clear who wrote each page and why they are qualified? An author box and a real About page help.
- What would a stranger find if they researched your site's reputation?
- Does the main content show first-hand experience, or does it repeat what everyone else says?
- Would a YMYL page survive scrutiny from someone qualified in the field?
None of these are toggles in an SEO plugin. They are about the content and the people behind it.
Common questions
Do quality raters affect my rankings?
Not directly. Their ratings are used to evaluate changes to Google's systems, not to adjust individual pages.
Is E-E-A-T a ranking factor?
Not a single measurable one. It is a framework raters use. Google's systems look for signals that align with it, but there is no E-E-A-T score.
Where can I read the guidelines?
Google publishes them as a free PDF on its How Search Works site, along with an overview of how rater feedback is used.