General Guidelines JAN 2025

General Guidelines January 23, 2025 General Guidelines Overview 5 Introduction to Search Quality Rating 6 0.0 The Search Experience 6 0.1 The Purpose of Search Quality Rating 6 0.2 Raters Must Represent People in their Rating Locale 7 0.3 Browser Requirements 7 0.4 Ad Blocking Extensions 7 0.5 Internet Safety Information 7 0.6 The Role of Examples in these Guidelines 8 Part 1: Page Quality Rating Guideline 9 1.0 Introduction to Page Quality Rating 9 2.0 Understanding Webpages and Websites 9 2.1 Important Definitions 9 2.2 Understanding the Purpose of a Webpage 10 2.3 Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) Topics 11 2.4 Understanding Webpage Content 13 2.4.1 Identifying the Main Content (MC) 13 2.4.2 Identifying the Supplementary Content (SC) 14 2.4.3 Identifying Advertisements/Monetization (Ads) 14 2.4.4 Summary of the Parts of the Page 14 2.5 Understanding the Website 15 2.5.1 Finding the Homepage 15 2.5.2 Finding Who is Responsible for the Website and Who Created the Content on the Page 16 2.5.3 Finding About Us, Contact Information, and Customer Service Information 18 3.0 Overal Page Quality Rating 19 3.1 Page Quality Rating Considerations 19 3.2 Quality of the Main Content 21 3.3 Reputation of the Website and Content Creators 22 3.3.1 Reputation of the Website 22 3.3.2 Customer Reviews as Reputation Information 23 3.3.3 How to Search for Reputation Information about a Website 23 3.3.4 Reputation of the Content Creators 25 3.3.5 What to Do When You Find No Reputation Information 25 3.4 Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-E-A-T) 26 3.4.1 YMYL Topics: Experience or Expertise? 28 4.0 Lowest Quality Pages 29 4.1 Types of Lowest Quality Pages 31 4.2 Harmful to Self or Other Individuals 32 4.3 Harmful to Specified Groups 33 4.4 Harmful y Misleading Information 34 4.5 Untrustworthy Webpages or Websites 35 4.5.1 Inadequate Information about the Website or Content Creator for the Purpose of the Page 35 Copyright 2025 1 4.5.2 Lowest E-E-A-T and Lowest Reputation of the Website or Content Creator 36 4.5.3 Deceptive Page Purpose, Deceptive Information about the Website, Deceptive Design 36 4.5.4 Deliberately Obstructed or Obscured MC 38 4.5.5 Suspected Malicious Behavior 38 4.6 Spammy Webpages 39 4.6.1 Cannot Determine a Purpose, No MC, Little MC, Lowest Quality MC or No Added Value MC 39 4.6.2 Hacked, Defaced, or Spammed Pages 39 4.6.3 Expired Domain Abuse 40 4.6.4 Site Reputation Abuse 41 4.6.5 Scaled Content Abuse 42 4.6.6 MC Created with Little to No Effort, Little to No Originality, and Little to No Added Value for Website Visitors 42 4.6.7 How to Determine if Content is Copied 43 4.7 Examples of Lowest Quality Pages 45 5.0 Low Quality Pages 59 5.1 Lacking E-E-A-T 60 5.2 Low Quality Main Content 60 5.2.1 MC is Created with Low Effort, Low Originality and Low Added Value for Website Visitors 61 5.2.2 Fil er as a Poor User Experience 62 5.3 Distracting Ads/SC 62 5.4 Mildly Negative Reputation of the Website or Content Creator 62 5.5 Unsatisfying Amount of Information about the Website or Content Creator 63 5.6 Exaggerated or Mildly Misleading Information about the Website or Content Creator 63 5.7 Examples of Low Quality Pages 64 6.0 Medium Quality Pages 68 6.1 Types of Medium Quality Pages 69 6.2 Examples of Medium Quality Pages 69 7.0 High Quality Pages 71 7.1 High Quality Main Content 72 7.2 Positive Reputation 72 7.3 High Level of E-E-A-T 73 7.4 Examples of High Quality Pages 74 8.0 Highest Quality Pages 77 8.1 Very High Quality MC 78 8.2 Very Positive Reputation 78 8.3 Very High Level of E-E-A-T 78 8.4 Examples of Highest Quality Pages 79 9.0 Page Quality Criteria for Specific Types of Pages 85 9.1 Ratings for Encyclopedia Pages 85 9.2 Ratings for Pages with Error Messages or No MC 85 9.3 Ratings for Forums and Q&A Pages 87 10.0 Page Quality Rating Tasks 91 10.1 Instructions for Rating Page Quality Tasks 91 11.0 Page Quality Rating FAQs 92 Part 2: Understanding Search User Needs 94 12.0 Understanding Search Users, Queries, and Results 94 Copyright 2025 2 12.1 Important Rating Definitions and Ideas 94 12.2 Understanding the Query 95 12.3 Locale and User Location 96 12.4 Queries with an Explicit Location 97 12.5 Queries with Multiple Meanings 98 12.6 Query Meanings Can Change Over Time 101 12.7 Understanding User Intent 101 12.7.1 Know and Know Simple Queries 102 12.7.2 Do Queries 103 12.7.3 Website Queries 104 12.7.4 Visit-in-Person Queries and User Location 105 12.7.5 Queries with Multiple User Intents 107 12.8 Understanding Result Blocks 108 12.8.1 Web Search Result Block Examples 108 12.8.2 Special Content Result Block Examples 109 Part 3: Needs Met Rating Guideline 113 13.0 Rating Using the Needs Met Scale 113 13.1 Rating Result Blocks: Block Content and Landing Pages 114 13.1.1 Landing Page Needs Met Ratings and Block Content Needs Met Ratings 117 13.2 Ful y Meets (Ful yM) 118 13.2.1 Examples of Ful y Meets (Ful yM) Result Blocks 118 13.2.2 Examples of Queries that Cannot Have Ful y Meets Results 122 13.3 Highly Meets (HM) 123 13.3.1 Examples of Highly Meets (HM) Result Blocks 123 13.4 Moderately Meets (MM) 130 13.4.1 Examples of Moderately Meets (MM) Result Blocks 130 13.5 Slightly Meets (SM) 132 13.5.1 Examples of Slightly Meets (SM) Result Blocks 132 13.6 Fails to Meet (FailsM) 134 13.6.1 Examples of Fails to Meet (FailsM) Result Blocks 134 14.0 The Relationship between Page Quality and Needs Met 141 15.0 Rating Porn, Foreign Language, and Did Not Load Results 143 15.1 Porn Flag 143 15.2 Needs Met Rating for Porn Results 143 15.2.1 Needs Met Rating for Clear Non-Porn Intent Queries 143 15.2.2 Needs Met Rating for Possible Porn Intent Queries 144 15.2.3 Needs Met Rating for Clear Porn Intent Queries 144 15.3 Reporting Il egal Images 145 15.4 Foreign Language Flag 145 15.4.1 Using the Foreign Language Flag 145 15.4.2 Needs Met Rating for Foreign Language Results 146 15.5 Did Not Load Flag 148 15.5.1 Using the Did Not Load Flag 148 15.5.2 Needs Met Rating and the Did Not Load Flag 148 15.6 Additional Flags in Some Rating Tasks 150 16.0 Many Types of Helpful Results 151 Copyright 2025 3 16.1 Rating Queries with Both Website and Visit-in-Person Intent 151 17.0 Specificity of Queries and Landing Pages 153 18.0 Needs Met Rating and Freshness 157 19.0 Misspel ed and Mistyped Queries and Results 159 19.1 Misspel ed and Mistyped Queries 159 19.2 Name Queries 160 20.0 Non-Ful y Meets Results for URL Queries 160 21.0 Product Queries: Importance of Browsing and Researching 162 22.0 Rating Visit-in-Person Intent Queries 163 22.1 Examples Where User Location Does (and Does Not) Matter 164 23.0 Rating English Language Results in Non-English Locales 166 23.1 Examples of English (and Non-English) Results in Non-English Locales 167 24.0 Rating Dictionary and Encyclopedia Results for Dif erent Queries 171 Appendix: Using the Evaluation Platform 174 25.0 Overview 174 26.0 Acquiring Tasks 174 27.0 Rating Tasks Using the Rating Interface 174 28.0 Releasing Tasks 175 29.0 Understanding the User Location on the Task Page 177 30.0 Reporting Duplicate Results in Tasks 177 30.1 Pre-Identified Duplicates 177 30.2 Rater-Identified Duplicates 178 30.3 Reporting Duplicate Results 179 31.0 Simplified Needs Met Tasks 180 Appendix 2: Guideline Change Log 181 Copyright 2025 4 General Guidelines Overview Welcome to the Search Quality Rating Program! As a Search Quality Rater, you wil work on many dif erent types of rating projects. The General Guidelines primarily cover Page Quality (PQ) rating and Needs Met (NM) rating; however, the concepts are also important for many other types of rating tasks. For brevity, we refer to “Search Quality Raters” as “raters” in these guidelines. Copyright 2025 5 Introduction to Search Quality Rating 0.0 The Search Experience The World Wide Web is a vast col ection of online information and content. Internet search engines provide a powerful way to explore this online universe. There are many ways people search: people may type words into a search box in a browser, speak to a mobile phone or assistant device, use search engine autocomplete features, etc. People search the Internet for a variety of purposes, ranging from accomplishing a quick task to researching a topic in depth. A search may be part of a long-term project, such as a home remodel or vacation planning. A search may be done when someone is bored and looking for entertainment, such as a search for [funny videos]. A search may be a single question asked during a critical moment of a person's life, such as [what are the symptoms of a heart attack?]. Search engines exist to help people find what they are looking for. To do that, search engines must provide a diverse set of helpful, high quality search results, presented in the most helpful order. Dif erent types of searches need very dif erent types of search results. Medical search results should be high quality, authoritative, and trustworthy. Search results for [cute baby animal pictures] should be adorable. Search results for a specific website or webpage should have that desired result at the top. Searches that have many possible meanings or involve many perspectives need a diverse set of results that reflect the natural diversity of meanings and points of view. People al over the world use search engines; therefore, diversity in search results is essential to satisfy the diversity of people who use search. Final y, search results should help people. Search results should provide authoritative and trustworthy information, not lead people astray with misleading content. Search results should al ow people to find what they're looking for, not surprise people with unpleasant, upsetting, of ensive, or disturbing content. Harmful, hateful, violent, or sexual y explicit search results are only appropriate if the person phrased their search in a way that makes it clear that they are looking for this type of content, and there is no other reasonable interpretation of the words used in their search. 0.1 The Purpose of Search Quality Rating As a Search Quality Rater, you wil help evaluate search engine quality around the world. Good search engines give results that are helpful for people in their own specific language and locale. No single rating can directly impact how a particular webpage, website, or result appears in Google Search, nor can it cause specific webpages, websites, or results to move up or down on the search results page. Using ratings to position results on the search results page would not be feasible, as humans could never individual y rate each page on the open web. Instead, ratings are used to measure how ef ectively search engines are working to deliver helpful content to people around the world. Ratings are also used to improve search engines by providing examples of helpful and unhelpful results for dif erent searches. As part of your role in the search quality rating program, it is important that you are familiar with and comfortable using a search engine. We encourage you to be an expert in search! For example, experiment with using operators (e.g., quotes or a hyphen) in your searches or try using advanced search options. Copyright 2025 6 0.2 Raters Must Represent People in their Rating Locale It is very important for you to represent people in the locale you evaluate. You must be very familiar with the task language and location in order to represent the experience of people in your locale. If you do not have the knowledge to do this, please inform your employer/company. Unless your rating task indicates otherwise, your ratings should be based on the instructions and examples given in these guidelines. Ratings should not be based on your personal opinions, preferences, religious beliefs, or political views. Always use your best judgment and represent the cultural standards of your rating locale. 0.3 Browser Requirements Check with your employer/company for browser requirements. You may use helpful browser add-ons or extensions, but please do not use add-ons or extensions that interfere with or alter the user experience of the page. 0.4 Ad Blocking Extensions Do not use add-ons or extensions that block ads for Needs Met rating or Page Quality rating. These add-ons or extensions may cause you to give incorrect ratings. As a rater, only use an ad blocking extension or add-on if specifical y instructed to do so in the project-specific instructions. Important : Some browsers such as Chrome automatical y block some ads. As a rater, you are required to turn of any ad blocker capabilities of the browser you use to view webpages for rating tasks. Check your browser settings before rating tasks to ensure your ratings accurately reflect how people experience the page without ad blocking settings and extensions. For more information about Chrome Ad Blocking, see Chrome Support Page for Ad Blocking Settings . 0.5 Internet Safety Information In the course of your work, you wil visit many dif erent webpages. Some of them may harm your computer unless you are careful. Please do not download any executables, applications, or other potential y dangerous files, or click on any links that you are uncomfortable with. It is strongly recommended that you have antivirus and antispyware protection on your computer. This software must be updated frequently or your computer will not be protected. There are many free and for-purchase antivirus and antispyware products available on the web . See here for a Wikipedia page on antivirus software and here for a Wikipedia page on spyware. We suggest that you only open files with which you are comfortable. The file formats listed below are general y considered safe if antivirus software is in place. ● .txt (text files) ● .ppt or .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint) ● .doc or .docx (Microsoft Word) ● .xls or .xlsx (Microsoft Excel) ● .pdf (PDF files) (Adobe Acrobat) If you encounter a page with a warning message, such as “Warning-visiting this web site may harm your computer,” or if your antivirus software warns you about a page, you should not try to visit the page to assign a rating. Copyright 2025 7 0.6 The Role of Examples in these Guidelines The rating concepts in these guidelines apply to al types of content. The examples throughout these guidelines are very important to il ustrate how the concepts defined in each section should be applied in rating tasks for dif erent types of webpages and dif erent types of content. Please view each example and keep the fol owing in mind: ● Webpages and websites change rapidly, so we use images or "snapshots" of webpages in most of our examples. ● Because some types of content are dif icult to view in "snapshot" form, a description of the webpage is provided for each example. ● The information in the examples was accurate at the time it was added, but content and websites may change over time. ● Some examples show pages on desktop and some show pages on mobile devices. Copyright 2025 8 Part 1: Page Quality Rating Guideline 1.0 Introduction to Page Quality Rating A Page Quality (PQ) rating task consists of a URL and a grid to record your observations as you explore the landing page and the website associated with the URL. The goal of PQ rating is to evaluate how wel the page achieves its purpose. Here's what you'l need to be a successful Page Quality rater: ● Your experience using the web as an ordinary user in your rating locale. ● In-depth knowledge of these guidelines. ● And most importantly—practice doing PQ rating tasks! 2.0 Understanding Webpages and Websites Page Quality rating requires an in-depth understanding of websites. We'l start with the basics. Along the way, we'l share important information about Page Quality rating, so please read through this section even if you are a website expert! 2.1 Important Definitions Here are some important definitions: A search engine is a tool to help people find or interact with content available on the Internet. In these guidelines, the word " user " refers to a person trying to find information or accomplish a task on the Internet. Users are people from many dif erent backgrounds, whose experiences and needs may dif er from your own: people of al ages, genders, races, religions, political af iliations, etc. A webpage is connected to the World Wide Web and can be viewed or "visited" using a web browser (e.g., Chrome), a browser on your phone, or a search app. In the 1990s, webpage content was mostly text and links. Today, webpage content includes many forms of media (such as images, videos, etc.) and functionality (such as online shopping features, email, calculator functionality, online games, etc.). A URL is a string of letters, numbers, and punctuation that your web browser uses to “find” and display a webpage. Page Quality rating doesn't require you to have in-depth understanding of the structure of URLs, i.e., you don’t need to know the dif erence between host, domain, etc. But if you are interested, see here to read more. A website or site is a group of World Wide Web pages usual y containing hyperlinks to each other and made available online by an individual, company, educational institution, government, or organization. Popular websites include Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo, YouTube, etc. Note : In these guidelines, we wil use the word “website” to refer to a col ection of pages owned and control ed by a single entity (individual, business, etc.). But we wil also use “website” to refer to major “independent” sections (or hosts) of some websites that were created to achieve separate purposes. For example, the Yahoo website is organized into dif erent sections (or hosts), such as Yahoo Finance ( finance.yahoo.com ), Yahoo Mail ( mail.yahoo.com ), Yahoo Sports ( sports.yahoo.com ), etc. Each of these has its own purpose. It’s OK to refer to each of these sections as a website; for example, the Yahoo Finance website and the Yahoo Sports website. You may also refer to pages on Yahoo Finance or Yahoo Sports as belonging to the Yahoo website. A homepage of a website is the main page of the site. It is usual y the first page that users see when the site loads. For example, http://www.apple.com is the homepage of the Apple site, http://www.yahoo.com is the homepage of the Yahoo company site, and http://finance.yahoo.com is the homepage of Yahoo Finance. You can usual y find the homepage of a website by clicking on a “home” link or logo link on subpages of a website. A website owner is the person, company, or organization who is responsible for a website. Copyright 2025 9 A content creator is the individual(s) or entity (business, organization, etc.) who created the content on a webpage. Generative AI is a type of machine learning (ML) model that can take what it has learned from the examples it has been provided to create new content, such as text, images, music, and code. Learn more here . Dif erent tools leverage these models to create generative AI content. Generative AI can be a helpful tool for content creation, but like any tool, it can also be misused. Important : You must be very comfortable exploring websites, both by clicking links and modifying URLs in the address bar of your web browser. Become a website detective and explorer! 2.2 Understanding the Purpose of a Webpage The purpose of a page is the reason or reasons why the page was created. Every page on the Internet is created for a purpose, or for multiple purposes. Most pages are created to be helpful for people, thus having a beneficial purpose. Some pages are created merely to make money, with little or no ef ort to help people. Some pages are even created to harm users. The first step in understanding a page is figuring out its purpose. Why is it important to determine the purpose of the page for PQ rating? ● The goal of PQ rating is to determine how wel a page achieves its purpose. In order to assign a rating, you must understand the purpose of the page and sometimes the website. ● By understanding the purpose of the page, you'l better understand what criteria are important to consider when evaluating that particular page. ● Websites and pages should be created to help people. If that is not the case, a rating of Lowest may be warranted. More on this later. As long as the page is created to help people, we wil not consider any particular page purpose or type to be higher quality than another. For example, encyclopedia pages are not necessarily higher quality than humor pages. Important : There are highest quality and lowest quality webpages of al dif erent types and purposes: shopping pages, news pages, forum pages, video pages, pages with error messages, PDFs, images, gossip pages, humor pages, homepages, and al other types of pages. The type of page does not determine the PQ rating—you have to understand the purpose of the page to determine the rating. Common helpful or beneficial page purposes include (but are not limited to): ● To share information about a topic. ● To share a personal experience, perspective, or feelings on a topic. ● To share pictures, videos, or other forms of media. ● To demonstrate a personal talent or skil . ● To express an opinion or point of view. ● To entertain. ● To of er products or services. ● To al ow people to post questions for other users to answer. ● To al ow people to share files or to download software. ● To al ow people to support a charity or other cause they care about. Here are a few examples where it is easy to understand the purpose of the page: Type of Page Purpose of the Page News website homepage To inform users about recent or important events. Shopping page To sel or give information about the product. Video page To share a cute video of a cat. Currency converter page To calculate equivalent amounts in dif erent currencies. Copyright 2025 10 Here is an example (OmNomNomNom Page) of a helpful page where the purpose of the page is not as obvious. At first glance, this page may seem pointless or strange. However, it is a page from a humorous site that encourages users to post photos with mouths drawn on them. The purpose of the page is humor or artistic expression. This page has a helpful or beneficial purpose. Even though the About page on this website is not very helpful, the website explains itself on its FAQ page. 2.3 Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) Topics Pages on the World Wide Web are about a vast variety of topics. Some topics have a high risk of harm because content about these topics could significantly impact the health, financial stability, or safety of people, or the welfare or wel -being of society. We cal these topics “Your Money or Your Life” or YMYL. YMYL topics may significantly impact or harm one or more of the fol owing: ● the person who is directly viewing or using the content ● other people who are af ected by the person who viewed the content ● groups of people or society af ected by the actions of people who viewed the content YMYL topics can directly and significantly impact people’s health, financial stability or safety, or the welfare or wel -being of society, because of the fol owing reasons: ● The topic itself is harmful or dangerous . For example, there is clear and present harm directly associated with topics related to self-harm, criminal acts, or violent extremism. ● The topic could cause harm if the content is not accurate and trustworthy . For example, mild inaccuracies or content from less reliable sources could significantly impact someone's health, financial stability, or safety, or impact society, for topics like: symptoms of a heart attack, how to invest money, what to do if there is an earthquake, who can vote, or needed qualifications for obtaining a driver’s license. To determine whether a topic is YMYL, assess the fol owing types of harm that might occur: ● YMYL Health or Safety : Topics that could harm mental, physical, and emotional health, or any form of safety such as physical safety or safety online. ● YMYL Financial Security : Topics that could damage a person's ability to support themselves and their families. ● YMYL Society : Topics that could negatively impact groups of people, issues of public interest, trust in public institutions, etc ● YMYL Othe r: Topics that could hurt people or negatively impact welfare or wel -being of society. It's possible to imagine a hypothetical harmful page for any non-harmful topic, such as the science behind rainbows or shopping for pencils: for either of these topics, someone could build a page that has a malicious computer virus download. However, for a specific topic to be YMYL, the topic itself must potential y impact people’s health, financial stability, or safety, or the welfare or wel -being of society. Many or most topics are not YMYL and do not require a high level of accuracy or trust to prevent harm . Because YMYL assessment is a spectrum, it may be helpful to think of topics as clear YMYL , definitely not YMYL or something in between. Pages on clear YMYL topics require the most scrutiny for Page Quality rating. Copyright 2025 11 Type of Topic Clear YMYL Topic May be YMYL Topic Not or Unlikely YMYL Topic Evacuation routes for a Weather forecast Music award winners tsunami Information Explanation : In most Explanation : This topic is Explanation : Inaccurate situations, slightly inaccurate unlikely to cause harm. Could significant harm result information on evacuation information about the weather from inaccurate information? routes could cause significant forecast will not cause harm. harm to people. People often ask family members "what's the weather today". When to go to the How often to replace a How frequently to wash emergency room toothbrush jeans Advice about an activity Explanation : Bad advice on Explanation : This is a casual Explanation : This topic is Could significant harm result when to go to the emergency health topic people commonly unlikely to cause harm. from poor advice? room could cause significant discuss with friends. A slightly harm. imperfect suggestion is unlikely to significantly impact health or safety. Personal opinion about why Personal opinion about why Personal opinion about why a racial group is inferior an exercise is inferior a rock band is inferior A personal opinion Explanation : Pages on this Explanation : While there may Explanation : This topic is What impact could this opinion topic have been used to justify be a health concern if the unlikely to cause harm, have on other people and or incite violence against exercise is extreme or risky, although there may be strong society? groups of people. most discussions of jogging vs opinions involved! swimming, etc. involve personal preference. News about current events News about ongoing News about a car accident News about a local high violence school basketball game Could this topic significantly Explanation : The accident impact people and society? Explanation : People need itself may have been harmful, Explanation : This topic is accurate information to stay but there is likely little risk of unlikely to cause harm. For societal impact, consider safe. Society may also be future harm from small issues such as elections and impacted by information about inaccuracies in reporting trust in public institutions that ongoing violence, as citizens about an incident. benefit society. and governments make civic decisions accordingly. Sharing on social media A tide pod challenge post A hot sauce challenge A music video Could the social media post Explanation : This harmful Explanation : While some Explanation : This type of cause significant harm? social media challenge was people may experience some content generally has little risk Could it hurt individuals? responsible for deaths. discomfort by tasting various of harm. Could it damage society if hot sauces, it is unlikely that widely shared? sharing about such challenges would cause significant harm. Online commerce and Purchasing prescription Review of a type of car Purchasing pencils product reviews drugs Explanation : While cars are Explanation : Pencils and Consider the product. Could Explanation : Prescription big purchases, many people other everyday items are the product cause significant drugs have the potential to ask friends and family about unlikely to cause harm. harm? cause harm and require cars. purchase from licensed pharmacies. Copyright 2025 12 If you are having trouble deciding whether a topic is YMYL, consider the fol owing questions: 1. Would a careful person seek out experts or highly trusted sources to prevent harm ? Could even minor inaccuracies cause harm? If yes, then the topic is likely YMYL. 2. Is the specific topic one that most people would be content with only casual y consulting their friends about? If yes, the topic is likely not YMYL. Important : For pages about clear YMYL topics, we have very high Page Quality rating standards because low quality pages on such topics could potential y negatively impact a person’s health, financial stability, or safety, or the welfare or wel -being of society. 2.4 Understanding Webpage Content All of the content on a webpage can be classified as one of the fol owing: Main Content (MC), Supplementary Content (SC), or Advertisements/Monetization (Ads). In order to understand the purpose of a webpage and do PQ rating, you wil need to be able to distinguish among these dif erent parts of the page. Webpage design can be complicated, so make sure to click around and explore the page. See what kind of content is behind the tabs and test out the interactive page features. Content behind the tabs may be considered part of the MC, SC, or Ads, depending on what the content is. 2.4.1 Identifying the Main Content (MC) Main Content is any part of the page that directly helps the page achieve its purpose. MC can be text, images, videos, page features (e.g., calculators, games), and it can be content created by website users, such as videos, reviews, articles, comments posted by users, etc. Tabs on some pages lead to even more information (e.g., customer reviews) and can sometimes be considered part of the MC. The MC also includes the title at the top of the page ( example ). Descriptive MC titles al ow users to make informed decisions about what pages to visit. Helpful titles summarize the MC on the page. Type of Page and Purpose MC Highlighted in Yellow News website homepage: the purpose is to inform users about recent or important events. MC - News Homepage News article page: the purpose is to communicate information about an event or news topic. MC - News Article Store product page: the purpose is to sell or give information about the product. ● Content behind the Reviews, Shipping, and Safety Information tabs are considered to be MC - Shopping Page part of the MC. Currency converter page: the purpose is to calculate equivalent amounts in different currencies. MC - Currency Converter Blog post page: the purpose is to share music used on a TV show. MC - Blog Post Page Search engine homepage: the purpose is to allow users to enter a query and search the Internet. MC - Search Engine Homepage Bank login page: the purpose is to allow users to log in to bank online. MC - Bank Login Page Copyright 2025 13 2.4.2 Identifying the Supplementary Content (SC) Supplementary Content contributes to a good user experience on the page, but does not directly help the page achieve its purpose. SC is an important part of the user experience. One common type of SC is navigation links that al ow users to visit other parts of the website. In some cases, content behind tabs may be considered part of the SC. Sometimes the easiest way to identify SC is to look for the parts of the page that are not MC or Ads. Type of Page and Purpose SC Highlighted in Blue News article page: the purpose is to communicate information about an event or news topic. SC - News Article Store product page: the purpose is to sell or give information about the product. SC - Shopping Page Blog post page: the purpose is to share music used on a TV show. SC - Blog Post Page 2.4.3 Identifying Advertisements/Monetization (Ads) Ads may contribute to a good user experience. Advertisements/Monetization (Ads) is content and/or links that are displayed for the purpose of monetizing (making money from) the page. The presence or absence of Ads is not by itself a reason for a High or Low quality rating. Without advertising and monetization, some webpages could not exist because it costs money to maintain a website and create high quality content. There are many dif erent ways to monetize a webpage, including advertisements and af iliate programs. See here for more information on website monetization. Note that monetization on mobile pages may be more subtle than monetization on desktop pages. The most common type of monetization is advertisements. Ads may be labeled as "ads," "sponsored links," “sponsored listings,” “sponsored results,” etc. Ads may change when you reload the page, and dif erent users may see dif erent Ads on the same page. Website owners can choose to display Ads on their page (such as by joining an advertising network ), but they may not always directly control the content of the Ads. However, we wil consider a website responsible for the overal quality of the Ads displayed. Important: For the purpose of these guidelines, we wil consider monetized links of any type to be “Ads.” See here for dif erent types of website monetization. Type of Page and Purpose Ads Highlighted in Red News article page: the purpose is to communicate information about an event or news topic. Ads - News Article Blog post page: the purpose is to share music used on a TV show. Ads - Blog Post Page Store product page: the purpose is to sell or give information about the product. No ads – Shopping Page 2.4.4 Summary of the Parts of the Page Let's put it al together. ● Main Content (MC) is any part of the page that directly helps the page achieve its purpose. MC is (or should be!) the reason the page exists. The quality of the MC plays a very large role in the Page Quality rating of a webpage. ● Supplementary Content (SC) is also important. SC can help a page better achieve its purpose or it can detract from the overal experience. ● Many pages have advertisements/monetization (Ads) . Without advertising and monetization, some webpages could not exist because it costs money to maintain a website and create high quality content. The presence or absence of Ads is not by itself a reason for a High or Low quality rating. On some pages, user reviews and comments may be considered MC, and on other pages they may be considered SC. Use your best judgment and think about the purpose of the page. Copyright 2025 14 Do not worry too much about identifying every little part of the page. Think about which parts of the page are the MC. Next, look for the Ads. Anything left over can be considered SC. Type of Page and Purpose MC, SC, & Ads Highlighted News article page: the purpose is to communicate information about an event or news topic. Summary - News Article Store product page: the purpose is to sell or give information about the product. Summary - Shopping Page Currency converter page: the purpose is to calculate equivalent amounts in different currencies. Summary - Currency Converter Blog post page: the purpose is to share music used on a TV show. Summary - Blog Post Page Bank login page: the purpose is to allow users to log in to the bank online. Summary - Bank Login Page 2.5 Understanding the Website Pages often make more sense when viewed as part of a website. Some of the criteria in Page Quality rating are based on understanding the website that the page belongs to. To understand a website, start by finding out who is responsible for the website and who created the content on the page (more information provided in Section 2.5.2 ). Then, look for information about the website and/or content creators on the website itself. Websites and content creators are usual y very eager to tel you al about themselves! You must also look for reputation information about the website and/or content creators. What do outside, independent sources say about them? When there is disagreement between what the website or content creators say about themselves and what reputable independent sources say, trust the independent sources. 2.5.1 Finding the Homepage The homepage of a website usual y contains or has links to important information about the website. Website owners usual y make it easy to get to the homepage from any page on the site. Here's how to find the homepage of a website: 1. Examine the landing page of the URL in your PQ rating task. 2. Find and click on the link labeled with the name or logo of the website (occasional y labeled as “home" or “main"), which usual y appears at the top of the page. Sometimes, you may be given a webpage or website that appears to have no navigation links, no homepage link, and no logo or other means to find the homepage. Even some High or Highest quality pages lack a way to navigate to the homepage. If you can't find a link to the homepage, modify the URL by removing everything to the right of “.com,” “.org,” “.net,” “.fr,” etc. and refresh the page. Occasional y, your rating task wil include a URL for which there are two or more justifiable “homepage” candidates. For example, you may not be sure whether the homepage of the URL https://finance.yahoo.com/calendar is http://finance.yahoo.com or http://www.yahoo.com . Important : When you have more than one homepage “candidate,” please use whichever one of ers the most information about the specific webpage in the rating task. Use your judgment. The goal is to understand the webpage and the website(s) it is associated with, not find the one unique, correct homepage. Copyright 2025 15 In the fol owing examples, we have included the URL of the page to be evaluated in the rating task, as wel as the URL of its associated homepage. We have also included an image that shows where to click on the landing page to navigate to the homepage. In the image, you wil see a red box around the link or logo you would click to navigate to the homepage. URL of the Task Page Homepage of the Website Where to click to get to the Homepage Williams-Sonoma Homepage http://www.williams-sonoma.c om/products/shun-premier-7- http://www.williams-sonoma.com piece-knife-block-set This “WILLIAMS-SONOMA” logo shown in the upper center of the page is clickable and takes users to the homepage of the website. http://hms.harvard.edu Harvard Medical School Facts and Figures Page In this case, we will consider the Harvard Medical School page at http://hms.harvard.edu to be the http://hms.harvard.edu/about- homepage, rather than http://www.harvard.edu hms/facts-figures (which is the homepage of Harvard University). Clicking the logo at the top of This “Harvard Medical School” logo in the upper http://hms.harvard.edu/about-hms/facts-figures left part of the page is clickable and takes users takes users to http://hms.harvard.edu , not to to the homepage of the Harvard Medical School http://www.harvard.edu . website. 2.5.2 Finding Who is Responsible for the Website and Who Created the Content on the Page Every page belongs to a website, and it should be clear: ● Who (what individuals, company, business, organization, government agency, etc.) is responsible for the website. ● Who (what individuals, company, business, organization, government agency, etc.) created the content on the page you are evaluating. Note that for pages on websites such as forums and social media platforms, people may post content using an alias or username in order to avoid sharing personal y identifiable information online. In these cases, the alias or username is an acceptable way to identify the content creator. Websites are usual y very clear about who is responsible for the website and who created the content on the page. There are many reasons for this: ● People may want to showcase their own personal talent, experiences, and perspectives. ● Artists, authors, musicians, and other original content creators may want to be known and appreciated. ● Commercial websites may have copyrighted material they want to protect. ● Businesses and organizations may want people to know who they are and what they do. ● Stores want customers to feel comfortable buying their products online. Most websites have “contact us” or “about us” or “about” pages that provide information about who owns the site. Many companies have an entire website or blog devoted to who they are and what they are doing, what jobs are available, etc. Here are some examples: ● Google Of icial Blog ● Marriott Blog ● Southwest Airlines Blog ● Netflix Tech Blog Copyright 2025 16 In PQ rating tasks, you wil need to identify who created the MC on the page. To help you do so, the table below describes the primary content creators for common webpage types. These types can overlap (e.g., a page may have multiple articles, some written by individual authors or journalists and others written by the website owner). Webpage Type Examples Primary Content Creator(s) The website owner created the page ● Homepage of a business The website itself can be viewed as the and much of the MC on the page website primary content creator. Website owners ● Introductory page on a may have content created on their behalf The page may have comments, reviews, personal website (e.g., a smal business may hire a or other content posted by users, but the ● Product page on an online professional web developer to build their page itself is the responsibility of the merchant website website), but they are ultimately website. responsible for the MC. User comments and reviews may play a significant role on the page. As long as the website creates and actively maintains the page, the website is considered to be the primary content creator. The website owner created the page, ● Newspaper opinion piece The primary content creators are the and the MC is produced by authors or written by the editorial journalists, scientists, etc. listed as other content creators identified by board authors of the content. Often the content the website ● Magazine article written by creators are individuals, but an an individual journalist organization, company, or institution may The website decides what to publish and ● Scientific journal paper also be the content creator. is responsible for the content, but there written by a team of are distinct authors or content creators academic researchers User comments may be present, but they who provide the MC on the page. typical y are not the focus of the page. The webpage consists of social media ● Social media post The primary content creator is the person post(s) from a single account ● Local business profile or organization who created the account representing an individual content page on a social media and is posting the MC. There may be creator or organization website information about the content creator on ● Video channel on a video a profile page found on the website. The social media website owner enables sharing website people and organizations to create Other user comments and reactions such accounts to post text, images, videos, as "likes" may be considered part of the and other types of content under their MC. account. The webpage is created by multiple ● Forum discussion thread The people posting are the content users engaging in discussion or ● Q&A question page creators. posting on social media ● Search results page on a social media website There is no single primary content The website owner enables people to showing content from creator, and people may be identified post text, images, and videos or have many dif erent users only by aliases or usernames. conversations with other users of the website. Copyright 2025 17 2.5.3 Finding About Us, Contact Information, and Customer Service Information Many websites are interested in communicating with their users. There are many reasons that users might have for contacting a website, from reporting problems such as broken pages, to asking for content removal. Many websites of er multiple ways for users to contact the website: email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, web contact forms, etc. Sometimes, this contact information is even organized by department and provides the names of individuals to contact. The types and amount of contact information needed depend on the type of website. Contact information and customer service information are extremely important for websites that handle money, such as stores, banks, credit card companies, etc. Users need a way to ask questions or get help when a problem occurs. For shopping websites, we'l ask you to do some special checks. Look for contact information—including the store’s policies on payment, exchanges, and returns. Sometimes this information is listed under “customer service.” Some kinds of websites need fewer details and a smal er amount of contact information for their purpose. For example, humor websites may not need the level of detailed contact information we would expect from online banking websites. Occasional y, you may encounter a website or content creator with a legitimate reason for anonymity. For example, personal websites may omit personal contact information such as an individual’s home address or phone number. Similarly, websites with user-generated content may al ow the author to identify themself with an alias or username only. To find contact or customer service information for a website, start with the homepage. Look for a “contact us” or “customer service” link. Explore the website if you cannot find a “contact us” page. Sometimes you wil find the contact information on a “corporate site” link or even on the company’s of icial social media page. Be a detective! Note that dif erent locales and dif erent social media platforms may have their own conventions and standards for what information should be available on the website. Please use your judgment and knowledge of your locale. Copyright 2025 18 3.0 Overall Page Quality Rating Now that you are an expert in understanding websites and webpages, here are the high-level steps of Page Quality rating: 1. Assess the true purpose of the page. If the website or page has a harmful purpose or is designed to deceive people about its true purpose, it should be rated Lowest . 2. Assess the potential of the page to cause harm as described in these guidelines. Websites or pages that are harmful to people or society, untrustworthy, or spammy as defined in these guidelines should be rated Lowest . 3. Otherwise, the PQ rating is based on how wel the page achieves its purpose as described in these guidelines. Important : There are harmful pages that are seemingly “of icial”, “expert”, or “authoritative”. Any type of website may have pages with harmful MC, from user-uploaded videos and forum posts to harmful products sold online to pages to pages that mimic the look of scientific papers or encyclopedia entries. All pages should be evaluated for harm—including pages on government websites, academic institutions, reputable online stores, charities, or other types of general y helpful websites. On Page Quality rating tasks, you wil use the Page Quality sliding scale (slider) to assign the overal PQ rating. The slider looks like this: You may also use the in-between ratings of Lowest+ , Low+ , Medium+ , and High+ . Please interpret the “+” as “+ ½,” meaning that the Lowest+ rating is halfway between Lowest and Low , Low+ is halfway between Low and Medium , etc. Identifying Lowest and Low quality pages can be the most dif icult part of PQ rating. The guidance in the sections on Lowest and Low is more extensive to help you rate accurately. High and Highest quality pages are typical y easier to identify, but be sure to apply the standards and examine the examples throughout these guidelines to help calibrate your ratings. As might be expected, Medium quality pages are commonly found online. 3.1 Page Quality Rating Considerations The fol owing table summarizes the things that you should consider in Page Quality rating. Upcoming sections of these guidelines wil elaborate on these considerations and explain how they apply to pages across the PQ rating scale. Consideration Why it's Important for Page Quality Rating The purpose of the page If the page has a harmful purpose, or if it is designed to deceive people about its true purpose or who is responsible for the content, it should be rated Lowest . Otherwise, PQ rating is the process of determining how wel a page achieves its purpose. The potential for the page or website Websites or pages that are harmful to people or society, untrustworthy, or to cause harm as described in these spammy as described in these guidelines should be rated Lowest . guidelines The topic of the page and the extent The topic of the page helps determine the standards for your overal PQ to which that topic is YMYL assessment. Pages on YMYL topics have higher standards than pages on non-YMYL topics. Copyright 2025 19 Consideration Why it's Important for Page Quality Rating The type of website Dif erent types of websites and webpages have dif erent expectations for PQ rating. For example, PQ expectations may dif er for: ● Smal hobbyist websites vs. large corporate websites ● Websites involving financial transactions vs. websites that do not require payment or col ect personal information ● Websites with content created by ordinary people on a volunteer basis vs. websites with content created by professionals Information provided by the website While the information that websites and content creators provide about and content creator themselves isn't always trustworthy, it can provide an important starting point. Quality of the MC Consider the extent to which the MC is satisfying and helps the page achieve its purpose. The title of the page The title of the page is considered part of the MC. Descriptive MC titles that summarize the page al ow people to make informed decisions about what pages to visit. The role of Ads and SC on the page Consider the ways in which the Ads and SC contribute to how people experience the page. Remember : Many websites need monetization to share content with users. The presence or absence of Ads alone is not a consideration for PQ rating. Reputation of the website and content Research the reputation of the website and the content creator to learn about creator how others view the website and who is behind it. Trustworthiness of the page: E-E-A-T Assess how trustworthy the page is. Experience, Expertise and Authoritativeness can help with your assessment of Trust. Some types of pages require a high level of Trust. Important : These considerations overlap. For example, while examining the quality of the MC, you may notice factual inaccuracies that lower your assessment of Trust. While conducting reputation research, you may find information about the expertise of the content creator which increases your level of Trust. This is how PQ rating is designed to work! Copyright 2025 20 3.2 Quality of the Main Content The quality of the Main Content (MC) is one of the most important considerations for PQ rating. The MC plays a major role in determining how wel a page achieves its purpose. The unifying theme for evaluating the quality of the MC is the extent to which the MC al ows the page to achieve its purpose and of ers a satisfying user experience. For most pages, the quality of the MC can be determined by the amount of effort , originality , and talent or skill that went into the creation of the content. For informational pages and pages on YMYL topics, accuracy and consistency with wel established expert consensus is important. Effort : Consider the extent to which a human being actively worked to create satisfying content. Effort may be direct, such as a person translating a poem from one language to another. Effort may go into designing page functionality or building systems that power a webpage, such as the creation of a page that of ers machine translation as a service to users. On the other hand, the automatic creation of thousands of pages by running existing freely available content through existing translation software without any oversight, manual curation, etc., would not be considered to have ef ort. For pages like social media posts or forum discussions, the level of participation and depth of conversation is an important part of ef ort. Contributions from multiple individuals on such pages can add up to a significant amount of total human ef ort. Originality : Consider the extent to which the content of ers unique, original content that is not available on other websites. If other websites have similar content, consider whether the page is the original source. Talent or Skill : Consider the extent to which the content is created with enough talent and skil to provide a satisfying experience for people who visit the page. Accuracy : For informational pages, consider the extent to which the content is factual y accurate. For pages on YMYL topics, consider the extent to which the content is accurate and consistent with wel -established expert consensus. The purpose of the page, topic of the page, and type of website al play a role in how to evaluate the quality of the MC. For example, consistency with wel -established expert consensus is important for medical advice. Skil is important for how-to videos. Talent and originality is important for artistic expression. The amount of ef ort expected for a short video shared on social media is less than for a ful -length, professional y produced documentary on a streaming video website, but both need suf icient ef ort to create satisfying content for their purpose. Think about what ef ort, originality, talent, or skil looks like for the type of page that you are evaluating. For each page you evaluate, spend a few minutes examining the MC before drawing a conclusion about it. Read the article, watch the video, examine the pictures, use the calculator, play the online game, etc. Remember that MC also includes page features and functionality, so test the page out. For example, if the page is a product page on a store website, put at least one product in the cart to make sure the shopping cart is functioning. If the page is an online game, try to play the game yourself. Do your best to imagine that you are someone who's very interested in the topic, functionality, or purpose served by the page, then think about how satisfying the MC would be for that person. High and low quality MC comes in al formats (e.g., text, audio, video, images) and al lengths (e.g., short-form videos and ful -length professional documentaries). High and low quality content also exists on al types of websites, from smal personal sites to large corporate sites, from forums and social media to websites that handle financial transactions. Think careful y about what helps the page achieve its purpose and what makes the MC satisfying for users. Copyright 2025 21 3.3 Reputation of the Website and Content Creators An important part of PQ rating is understanding the reputation of the website. If the website is not the primary creator of the MC, it’s important to research the reputation of the content creator as wel . Reputation research should be performed according to the topic of the page. For example, if the page contains medical information, research the reputation of the website and content creator for providing medical information. It's possible for a website to be a go-to source for one type of content (e.g., humorous videos), but an untrustworthy source for a dif erent type of content (e.g., financial information). A website's or content creator's reputation can also help you understand what a website or content creator is best known for. For example, newspapers may be known for high quality, independent investigative reporting while satire websites may be known for their humor. An individual journalist (content creator) may be known for the clarity of their scientific articles while a food blogger (content creator) may be known for the deliciousness of the recipes they post online. Note that a company or person may create content on many dif erent websites. For example, a newspaper might have their own website, upload their video content to a video sharing website, post updates on social media, and contribute content to a TV channel. An expert on a topic might publish research papers, have a lengthy blog, and share short updates on social media. In these cases, you should research the underlying company or content creator. Reputation research is especial y important for detecting untrustworthy websites and content creators. Content may look great on the surface, but reputation research can expose scams, fraud, or other signs of harm. You never know what you wil find unless you look! Therefore, reputation research is required for al PQ rating tasks. 3.3.1 Reputation of the Website A website's reputation is based on the experience of real users and the opinions of people who are experts. Websites may represent real companies, organizations, and other entities. Reputation research applies to both the website and the actual company, organization, or entity that the website is representing. Many websites are eager to tel users how great they are. Your job is to independently evaluate the Page Quality of the website, not just accept information that appears on one or two pages of the website without further verification. Be skeptical of claims that websites make about themselves, particularly when there is a clear conflict of interest. Instead, look for independent reviews, references, recommendations by experts, news articles, and other sources of credible information about the website. Look for information written by a person or organization, not statistics or other machine-compiled information. News articles, Wikipedia articles, blog posts, magazine articles, forum discussions, and ratings from independent organizations can al be great sources of reputation information. For YMYL topics, the reputation of a website should be judged by what experts in the field have to say. Recommendations from expert sources, such as professional societies, are strong evidence of a positive reputation. Sources of reputation information wil also vary according to the topic or type of company/organization/entity that the website represents. For example, you might find that a newspaper (with an associated website) has won journalistic awards. Prestigious awards or a history of high-quality original reporting are strong evidence of positive reputation for news websites. Note that some types of information about a website is not related to its reputation. For example, websites like Similarweb have information about Internet traf ic to the website, but do not provide evidence of positive or negative reputation. You can ignore this type of information since it's not helpful for PQ rating. Copyright 2025 22 3.3.2 Customer Reviews as Reputation Information Customer reviews can be helpful for assessing the reputation of a store, business, or any website that of ers products or services to users. You may consider a large number of detailed, trustworthy, positive user reviews as evidence of positive reputation for a store or business. However, you should interpret customer reviews with care, particularly if there are only a few. Keep the fol owing in mind: ● Be skeptical of both positive and negative reviews. Anyone can write them, including the website owner or someone whom the store or business hires for this purpose. ● Try to find as many reviews as possible. Any store or business can get a few negative reviews—this is completely normal and expected. Large stores and companies receive thousands of reviews, and most receive some negative ones. ● Read the reviews because the content of the reviews matter, not just the number or star rating. Credible, convincing reports of fraud and financial wrongdoing is evidence of extremely negative reputation. On the other hand, a single encounter with a rude clerk or the delayed receipt of a single package should not be considered negative reputation information. Please use your judgment. 3.3.3 How to Search for Reputation Information about a Website Here is how to research the reputation of the website: 1. Identify the “homepage” of the website. For example, for the IBM website, ibm.com is the homepage. You may need to identify the content creator, if it is dif erent from that of the overal website. 2. Using ibm.com as an example, try one or more of the fol owing searches on Google: ● [ibm -site:ibm.com] - A search for IBM that excludes pages on ibm.com. ● [“ibm.com” -site:ibm.com] - A search for “ibm.com” that excludes pages on ibm.com. ● [ibm reviews -site:ibm.com] - A search for reviews of IBM that excludes pages on ibm.com. ● [“ibm.com” reviews -site:ibm.com] - A search for reviews of “ibm.com” that excludes pages on ibm.com. Note : When searching for reputation information, try to find sources that were not written or created by the website or the company itself. For example, IBM might have of icial social media pages that it closely maintains, which would not be considered independent sources of reputation information about the company. See here for a Wikipedia article on identifying and using independent sources. 3. Look for articles, references, recommendations by experts, and other credible information written by people about the website. High quality news articles and informational articles may be good sources of reputation information. Search for such articles. For example, try [ibm site:en.wikipedia.org]. News articles and informational articles can help you learn about a company and may include information specific to reputation, such as awards and other forms of recognition, or also controversies and issues. Note that some informational articles include a message warning users that there are disagreements on some of the content, or that the content may be outdated. This may be an indication that additional research is necessary. 4. Make sure the information you find is appropriate for judging the reputation of the website. For example, reputation information for YMYL topics should come from sources that have expertise in the associated YMYL topic. Copyright 2025 23 Here are some examples of reputation information: Website Reputation Information About the Website Description Search results for [annualcreditreport.com Positive reputation information : Users in the U.S. -site:annualcreditreport.com] can obtain free credit reports on this website by providing their Social Security Number. Note that annualcreditreport.com Wikipedia article about annualcreditreport.com the Wikipedia article tells us that “AnnualCreditReport.com is the only federally Reputable article about annualcreditreport.com mandated and authorized source for obtaining a free credit report.” Search results for [clevelandclinic.org] Positive reputation information : According to Wikipedia, the Cleveland Clinic “is currently clevelandclinic.org Wikipedia article about clevelandclinic.org regarded as one of the top 4 hospitals in the United States” which can be confirmed by reputable news Reputable article about the best hospitals in the articles cited in the references section. Users can U.S. trust medical information on this website. Positive reputation information : Notice the Search results for [csmonitor.com highlighted section in the Wikipedia article about -site:csmonitor.com] The Christian Science Monitor newspaper, which csmonitor.com tells us that the newspaper has won several Wikipedia article about The Christian Science prestigious awards. From this information, it can be Monitor inferred that the csmonitor.com website has a positive reputation. Positive reputation information : According to the Wikipedia article, “Kernel.org is a main repository of Search results for [kernel.org –site:kernel.org] source code for the Linux kernel, the base of the kernel.org popular Linux operating system. It makes all Wikipedia article about kernel.org versions of the source code available to all users. It also hosts various other projects, like Google Android. The main purpose of the site is to host a repository for Linux kernel developers.” Search to find reputation information Extremely negative reputation information : This website appears to be a perfectly fine-looking store; Search to find reviews however, much evidence of negative reputation can Site selling children’s Negative review on a business review page 1 be found. The business has a very low rating on a jungle gym business review site. There is a news article about Negative review on a business review page 2 financial fraud. There are many reviews on different Negative news article websites describing users sending money and not receiving anything. Search to find reputation information Extremely negative/malicious reputation Negative review on a business review page information : This website engaged in criminal Site selling products behavior such as physically threatening users. related to eyewear Wikipedia article Article about business' criminal behavior Negative review 1 Extremely negative reputation information : There are many detailed negative articles on news Organization serving the Negative review 2 sites and charity watchdog sites about this hospitalized veteran organization describing fraud and financial community Negative review 3 mishandling. Negative review 4 Copyright 2025 24 3.3.4 Reputation of the Content Creators For individual authors and content creators, biographical information articles and online discussions can be a good source of reputation information. Expect to find more formal reputation information about people who create content in a journalistic, scientific, academic, or other traditional y professional capacity, as they often need online credibility for professional success. Educational degrees, peer validation, expert co-authors, and citations can be evidence of positive reputation information for professionals who publish their work. Employment history can also support a positive reputation for topics where training, credentials, or experience are important. Influencers and other individual content creators who earn income on social media platforms often have reputation information available as wel , ranging from from biographical details or news articles to less formal reputation sources such as comments by other influencers in their fields. For non-professional content creators including ordinary people who post on social media or forums, you may find informal reputation information on the page itself such as comments by other people about the creators. For example, you may find comments or posts from other users helpful to see what other people think about a particular content creator. 3.3.5 What to Do When You Find No Reputation Information You should expect to find some reputation information for large websites and wel -known content creators. People or businesses who create content in a professional capacity typical y have some reputation information available. However, smal websites may have little or no reputation information. This is not indicative of high or low quality. Many smal local businesses or community organizations have a smal “web presence” and rely on word of mouth. Furthermore, many ordinary people participate in forum discussions or post on social media websites in a personal capacity. People may use an alias or username to post in order to avoid sharing personal y identifiable information online. There may be no reputation information available for some individuals. A lack of reputation about people who post personal content is neither a positive nor a negative sign in your assessment of the page. Final y, remember that there are several important considerations involved in PQ rating (refer back to Section 3.1 ). Reputation is important, but if reputation information is not available for a website or content creator, pay extra attention to other PQ considerations, especial y when assessing pages on YMYL topics. Copyright 2025 25 3.4 Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-E-A-T) Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust (E-E-A-T) are al important considerations in PQ rating. The most important member at the center of the E-E-A-T family is Trust. Trust : Consider the extent to which the page is accurate, honest, safe, and reliable. The type and amount of Trust needed depends on the page, for example: ● Online stores need secure online payment systems and reliable customer service. ● Product reviews should be honest and written to help others make informed purchasing decisions (rather than solely to sel the product). ● Informational pages on clear YMYL topics must be accurate to prevent harm to people and society. ● Social media posts on non-YMYL topics may not need a high level of Trust, such as when the purpose of the post is to entertain its audience and the content of the post does not risk causing harm. Experience , Expertise and Authoritativeness are important concepts that can support your assessment of Trust: Experience : Consider the extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic. Many types of pages are trustworthy and achieve their purpose wel when created by people with a wealth of personal experience. For example, which would you trust: a product review from someone who has personal y used the product or a "review" by someone who has not? Expertise : Consider the extent to which the content creator has the necessary knowledge or skil for the topic. Dif erent topics require dif erent levels and types of expertise to be trustworthy. For example, which would you trust: home electrical rewiring advice from a skil ed electrician or from an antique homes enthusiast who has no knowledge of electrical wiring? Authoritativeness: Consider the extent to which the content creator or the website is known as a go-to source for the topic. While most topics do not have one of icial, Authoritative website or content creator, when they do, that website or content creator is often among the most reliable and trustworthy sources. For example, a local business profile page on social media may be the authoritative and trusted source for what is on sale now. The of icial government page for getting a passport is the unique, of icial, and authoritative source for passport renewal. Experience , Expertise , and Authoritativeness may overlap for some page types and topics (for example, someone may develop Expertise in a topic due to first-hand Experience accumulated over time), and dif erent combinations of E-E-A may be relevant to dif erent topics. You should consider the purpose, type, and topic of the page, then ask yourself what would make the content creator a trustworthy source in that context. Copyright 2025 26 Trust is the most important member of the E-E-A-T family because untrustworthy pages have low E-E-A-T no matter how Experienced, Expert, or Authoritative they may seem. For example, a financial scam is untrustworthy, even if the content creator is a highly experienced and expert scammer who is considered the go-to on running scams! When it comes to Page Quality rating, your assessment of E-E-A-T should be informed by one or more of the fol owing: ● What the website or content creators say about themselves: Look at the "About us" page on the website or profile page of the content creator as a starting point. Is the website or content creator a trustworthy source based on this information? ● What others say about the website or content creators: Look for independent reviews, references, news articles, and other sources of credible information about the website or content creators. Is there independent, reliable evidence that the website or content creator is experienced, has expertise, is authoritative, or is otherwise considered trustworthy? Is there independent, reliable evidence that the website or creator is untrustworthy? ● What is visible on the page, including the Main Content and sections such as reviews and comments: For some types of pages, the level of experience and expertise may be clear from the MC itself. What evidence can you gather from examining the MC or testing the page out? For example, you may be able to tel that someone is an expert in hair styling by watching a video of them in action (styling someone's hair) and reading others' comments (commenters often highlight expertise or lack thereof). Important : The website or content creator may not be a trustworthy source if there is a clear conflict of interest. For example, product reviews by people who own the product and share their experiences can be very valuable and trustworthy. However, "reviews" by the product manufacturer ( "Our product is great!" ) or "reviews" from an influencer who is paid to promote the product are not as trustworthy due to the conflict of interest. Final y, there are many aspects of Trust, some which are not captured by Experience, Expertise and Authoritativeness. Please consider other aspects in your overal Trust assessment, such as customer service information for online stores or peer-reviewed publications for academic authors. If a page is untrustworthy for any reason , it has low E-E-A-T. Copyright 2025 27 3.4.1 YMYL Topics: Experience or Expertise? Pages on YMYL topics can be created for a wide variety of dif erent purposes. If the purpose of a page on a clear YMYL topic is to give information or of er advice, a high level of expertise may be required for the page to be trustworthy. However, sometimes pages on YMYL topics are created to share personal experiences, often regarding dif icult life chal enges. People turn to each other in times of need to share their own experience, seek comfort or inspiration, and learn from others. Factual information from experts and authoritative sources may not satisfy this need. Pages that share first-hand life experience on clear YMYL topics may be considered to have high E-E-A-T as long as the content is trustworthy, safe, and consistent with wel -established expert consensus. In contrast, some types of YMYL information and advice must come from experts. Here are some examples: YMYL Topic Valuable sharing of life Experience Information or advice best left to Experts Sleep chal enges when Safe and non-medical tips and tricks for Sleep medications that are safe during pregnant sleeping in the last trimester of pregnancy, pregnancy provided by people who have personal y (YMYL Health or Safety) struggled with this chal enge, for example: how to use pil ows to sleep comfortably in a position that is safe for babies Liver cancer treatment A sincere and respectful forum discussion Dif erent treatment options for liver cancer where people are describing how they're and the associated life expectancies (YMYL Health or Safety) coping with liver cancer treatment under each treatment Fil ing out tax forms A humorous video from a non-expert Instructions on how to fil out tax forms content creator about the frustration of (YMYL Financial Security) doing taxes Saving for retirement Reviews of retirement saving services by Advice on how to invest for retirement: people with first-hand experience using how much to save, what kinds of assets to (YMYL Financial Security) these services invest in, how much money you wil need to retire by a specific age, etc. How to vote A social media post by an ordinary citizen Information about who is eligible to vote or describing why they personal y believe it's how to register to vote (YMYL Society) important to vote in local elections Copyright 2025 28 4.0 Lowest Quality Pages Lowest quality pages are untrustworthy, deceptive, harmful to people or society, or have other highly undesirable characteristics. The considerations for Lowest quality include quality of the MC, reputation, E-E-A-T, etc., but there are special checks you wil need to complete first. As a reminder, here are the steps for doing PQ rating: 1. Assess the true purpose of the page. If the website or page has a harmful purpose or is designed to deceive people about its true purpose, it should be rated Lowest . 2. Assess the potential of the page to cause harm as described in these guidelines. Websites or pages that are harmful to people or society, untrustworthy, or spammy as specified in these guidelines should receive the Lowest rating. 3. Otherwise, the PQ rating is based on how wel the page achieves its purpose using the criteria outlined in these guidelines. Steps 1 and 2 are a screening process to quickly detect harmful content before other PQ considerations are applied. To identify Lowest quality pages, start by considering the fol owing: Initial Consideration Lowest Quality Pages The purpose of the page The Lowest rating is required if the page has a harmful purpose, or if it is designed to deceive people about its true purpose or who is responsible for the content on the page. The Lowest rating is required if the page is created to benefit the owner of the website (e.g. to make money) with very little or no attempt to benefit website visitors or otherwise serve a beneficial purpose. The potential for the page to cause harm as The Lowest rating is required if the MC is harmful to self or others, described in these guidelines harmful to specified groups, or contains harmful y misleading information. The topic of the page, the type of website, and A page on any topic or any type of website may qualify for Lowest. the extent to which YMYL standards apply Give special scrutiny to pages or websites needing a high level of trust, such as online stores, medical websites, or news coverage of major civic issues. Copyright 2025 29 Next, assess the page to determine if any of the criteria for Lowest apply: Lowest Page Quality Assessment Any one of the fol owing is justification for Lowest Quality of the MC ● The page is hacked, defaced, or spammed. ● The page is gibberish or otherwise makes no sense. ● The MC is created with little to no ef ort, has little to no originality and the MC adds no value compared to similar pages on the web ● The MC is created with so little ef ort, originality, talent, or skil that the page fails to achieve its purpose. The title of the page The page title is extremely misleading, shocking, or exaggerated. The role of Ads and SC on the page The MC is deliberately obstructed or obscured due to Ads, SC, interstitial pages, download links or other content that is beneficial to the website owner but not necessarily the website visitor. Information provided by the website and A complete lack of information about who is responsible for the content creator website and its content for YMYL pages or other pages requiring trust. Reputation of the website and content creator A very negative reputation, including a reputation for malicious or harmful behavior. Trustworthiness of the page: E-E-A-T ● The page or website is highly untrustworthy. ● The lack of experience, expertise, authoritativeness or trust causes the page to fail to achieve its purpose. Copyright 2025 30 4.1 Types of Lowest Quality Pages There are many dif erent shapes and forms that Lowest pages can take. To help you keep track, the table below organizes Lowest pages into three broad categories: Harmful, Untrustworthy, and Spammy. These categories can overlap (e.g., pages that contain Harmful y Misleading Information are also Untrustworthy). Type of Lowest Page Description Reference Section Harmful to Self or Pages that encourage, depict, incite or directly cause physical, mental, Other Individuals emotional or financial harm to self or other individuals. Examples include: Section 4.2 ● Detailed instructions on how to commit suicide ● Detailed, realistic, and serious instructions written with the intent to help someone commit murder Harmful to Specified Pages that promote, condone, or incite violence or hatred against a Groups Specified Group of people (as defined in Section 4.3). Examples include: ● Content that encourages violence or il treatment towards a Section 4.3 Specified Group ● Content with extremely of ensive/dehumanizing stereotypes of a Specified Group Harmful y Misleading Pages that misinform people in a way that could cause harm. Information Examples include: ● Clearly inaccurate harmful information that can easily be Section 4.4 refuted by straightforward and widely accepted facts ● Harmful unsubstantiated theories/claims not grounded in any reasonable facts or evidence Untrustworthy Pages or websites that are deceptive or have untrustworthy Webpages characteristics. Examples include: ● Pages or websites with deceptive purpose or design Section 4.5 ● Pages or websites designed to manipulate people into actions that benefit the website or other organization while causing harm to self, others or Specified Groups Spammy Webpages Pages with characteristics of webspam as defined in the Google Search Essentials Guidelines and/or Section 4.6 of these guidelines. Examples include: Section 4.6 ● Pages deliberately created with no MC or gibberish MC ● Hacked, defaced, or spammed pages Important : There is lots of content that many people would find controversial, one-sided, of -putting, or distasteful, yet does not meet the criteria for Lowest as described in these guidelines. Use your judgment to fol ow the standards outlined throughout Section 4.0 rather than relying on personal opinions. Copyright 2025 31 4.2 Harmful to Self or Other Individuals Use the Lowest rating for pages with content that encourages, depicts, incites, or directly causes harm to self or other individuals. Harm includes physical, mental, emotional, or financial harm to people. Pages should be considered Harmful to Self or Other Individuals if they directly attempt to harm people; encourage behavior that may result in harm; depict extremely violent or gory content without a beneficial/educational purpose; or otherwise are severely traumatic to people who view the page. Pages do not have to be harmful to al people to be considered Harmful to Self or Other Individuals. Dif erent people have dif erent levels of vulnerability to scams, awareness of potential dangers (e.g., dangerous feats depicted in stunt videos), and tolerance for viewing violent/disturbing content. If there is a reasonable possibility that viewing a particular page would cause harm to those who are most vulnerable, it should be considered harmful . Pages created with a beneficial purpose that report on, discuss, or inform about harmful actions or events (e.g., fictional entertainment, reputable news, education) should typical y not be considered Harmful to Self or Other Individuals. For example, advocacy aimed at drawing attention to harmful, real-world actions or events (such as a webpage describing a protest against domestic violence) would not be considered Harmful to Self or Other Individuals. Here are some examples of content that is vs. is not considered Harmful to Self or Other Individuals: Harmful to Self or Other Individuals NOT Harmful to Self or Other Individuals ● Incitement of violence towards Other Individuals ● Depictions of violence in an action movie ● Serious death threats or realistic-sounding threats ● A news story about violent events ● Exposing personal information belonging to others ● Educational content that may depict violence or with malicious intent to target them or promote gross imagery harassment towards them (i.e., “doxxing”) ● An explanation of scams meant to raise ● How-to information that describes how to commit awareness about them violent acts in an easy-to-replicate way ● Portrayals of dangerous activities in a manner that ● Advocating for, glorifying, or trivializing violence discourages others from attempting the same feat and atrocities, or to disparage victim(s) of (such as by clearly explaining the risks, describing violence/atrocities the expertise and equipment required, etc.) ● Depicting or promoting information that facilitates or leads to serious harm to people, or discussions that attempt to justify abuse of people ● Encouraging unsafe behavior or substantial y downplays the risks of dangerous activities (e.g., consuming household cleaning products) ● Suicide promotion or pro-anorexia content that encourages people to engage in behavior that can result in hospitalization or death ● Health-related advice that contradicts wel -established expert consensus and could result in serious harm or could prevent someone from undertaking a life-saving treatment Copyright 2025 32 4.3 Harmful to Specified Groups Use the Lowest rating for pages that promote, condone, or incite hatred against a Specified Group of people. For the purposes of Search Quality rating, a Specified Group is a group of people that can be defined on the basis of: ● Age (e.g., older adults) ● Caste (e.g., Dalits) ● Disability (e.g., people who are blind) ● Ethnicity (e.g., Roma) ● Gender Identity and Expression (e.g., transgender people) ● Immigration Status (e.g., student visa holders) ● Nationality (e.g., Italians) ● Race (e.g., Asians) ● Religion (e.g., Christians) ● Sex/Gender (e.g., men) ● Sexual Orientation (e.g., lesbians) ● Veteran Status (e.g., Marines) ● Victims of a major violent event and their kin (e.g., victims of the Holocaust) ● Any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization (e.g., refugees, people experiencing homelessness) The tone of the harmful content must be either serious (i.e., not joking or satirical) or mean-spirited (i.e., with an intent to demean or promote intolerance) to be considered Harmful to Specified Groups. Comedy or artistic expression related to a Specified Group should not be considered harmful unless it is clearly mean-spirited or has other clear harmful impact. Criticism of objects, philosophies, and ideas are general y not considered Harmful to Specified Groups. For example, negative criticism of a religious doctrine should not be considered targeted at the Specified Group that fol ows that religion. Remember that the content must promote, condone, or incite hatred of people to be considered Harmful to Specified Groups. Educational pages (e.g., definitions, research, academic papers), news stories, or other pages that have a beneficial purpose of informing society should not be considered Harmful to Specified Groups. Similarly, historical documents/videos that aim to capture the beliefs of dif erent eras should not be considered Harmful to Specified Groups. Here are some examples of content that is vs. is not considered Harmful to Specified Groups: Harmful to Specified Groups NOT Harmful to Specified Groups ● Encourages violence or il treatment towards a ● A historical documentary of WWII featuring Specified Group speeches from Nazi leaders ● Promotes intolerance by demonstrating a staunch ● A stand-up comedy routine that plays of of unwil ingness to al ow for the views, beliefs, or stereotypes in a way that is not mean-spirited behavior of a Specified Group ● A newspaper article about a hate organization ● Implies that one Specified Group is superior or ● The dictionary definition of a slur inferior to another ● A discussion about a particular religious text and ● Contains extremely of ensive/dehumanizing its views on women stereotypes of a Specified Group. Note that stereotypes can be negative or positive. Copyright 2025 33 4.4 Harmfully Misleading Information Use the Lowest rating for pages that mislead people in ways that can cause harm to people and society. Misleading pages may have been produced with the intent to misinform people, or the content creator may believe that the inaccurate information they are sharing is true. There is an especial y high standard for accuracy on clear YMYL topics or other topics where inaccurate information can cause harm. Be sure to research consequential facts or claims as necessary and to the extent the task time al ows. Pages should be considered to contain Harmful y Misleading Information when they contain at least one of the fol owing: Type of Harmfully Description Examples Misleading Information Harmful and clearly Content that can be refuted by ● False claims that a world leader died inaccurate information straightforward and widely accepted facts ● False dates for an election Harmful claims that contradict Content that is inconsistent with positions, ● Claims that lemons cure cancer wel -established expert facts, or findings that are widely agreed ● Claims that buying lottery tickets is a consensus upon by authorities in the relevant field guaranteed way to save for retirement Harmful unsubstantiated Content that is not grounded in any ● Claims that the 9-11 attacks were theories/claims reasonable facts or evidence, especial y planned by the U.S. government those that could erode confidence in ● Claims that world leaders are lizard public institutions. This includes people unsubstantiated theories that have been thoroughly debunked or are too outlandish to be given credence. Harmful y Misleading Information can occur from any websites or content creators - even seemingly "expert", "authoritative" or "of icial" ones. Any type of page with Harmful y Misleading Information should be rated Lowest, regardless of the source. However, note that some types of information are subjective, debatable, unverifiable, or inconsequential. For example, pages should not be considered to contain Harmful y Misleading Information if they exclusively contain: ● Non-YMYL content created with a clear entertainment purpose, containing no hard claims of factual accuracy and are not harmful to people or society. Examples include many types of fiction, satire or parody, astrology, folklore, myths, and urban legends. ● Reviews expressing personal preferences, opinions, or value-based judgments about a product, restaurant, book/movie/TV show, etc. ● Claims or statements that are reasonably debatable when there is not a single established correct answer or truth (e.g., discussions about the relative ef ectiveness of dif erent healthcare systems) ● Insignificant errors or inaccurate information about a trivial topic (e.g., inaccuracies in the height of a celebrity) Pages that aim to persuade others that a certain position or perspective is correct are fairly common on the Internet. Pages with one-sided/opinionated/controversial/polarizing content should not be considered to contain Harmful y Misleading Information unless they could create harm to individuals or Specified Groups (as described above) and contain clearly inaccurate information, contradict wel -established expert consensus, or are not grounded by reasonable facts/evidence. A webpage may be considered to have Harmful y Misleading Information based on the MC or on other characteristics of the page or information about the content creator (e.g., the title of an article is harmful y misleading, even if the article on its own is not; a creator blatantly misrepresenting their medical credentials for a video on medical topics). Harmful y Misleading Information can be especial y hard to identify because it may require research from outside sources. Reputable fact-checking websites can't always keep up with the volume of unsubstantiated theories/claims produced by Copyright 2025 34 the Internet, and some theories may even claim that debunking information is inaccurate. You should attempt to find high-quality, trustworthy sources to check accuracy and seek out the consensus of experts if you are unsure. Please research theories and claims to the extent the task time al ows. If a theory/claim seems wildly improbable and can't be verified by independent trustworthy sources, you should consider it unsubstantiated. 4.5 Untrustworthy Webpages or Websites The Lowest rating should be used for pages or websites you strongly suspect are engaging in deceptive or malicious practices. Some untrustworthy pages are created to benefit the website or organization rather than helping people. Some untrustworthy pages may even exist to cause harm to people who engage with the page, such as scams or malicious downloads. Your assessment of untrustworthiness may be based on the content of the page, information about the website, information about the content creator, and the reputation of the website or content creator. Your assessment may also be based on a lack of critical y important information. For example, any website involving financial transactions or sensitive information should have comprehensive information about who is responsible for the site and a way to contact the site if something goes wrong. If some aspect of a page or website makes you suspect deception or maliciousness, please look for information about the site. If you cannot find reputation information to confirm your suspicion, careful y explore the site. Sometimes a single page on an unknown website in isolation may seem odd but subsequent exploration shows no concern. However, if you see a pattern of what appears to be deception or manipulation or become concerned about your own safety, please use the Lowest rating and leave the website immediately. Pages with the fol owing characteristics should be considered Untrustworthy: ● Multiple or significant factual inaccuracies on an informational page which would cause users to lose trust in the webpage as a reliable source of information ● Inadequate information about the website or content creator for its purpose ● Lowest E-E-A-T or Lowest reputation ● Deceptive purpose, deceptive page design, or deceptive intent ● Deliberately obstructed or obscured MC ● Characteristics of scams, malicious downloads, or other harmful behavior ● Any webpage or website designed to manipulate people into actions that benefit the website or other organization while causing harm to self, others, or Specified Groups Important : Highly untrustworthy pages should be given the Lowest rating even if you are unable to "prove" the webpage or site is harmful. Because many people are unwil ing to use a highly untrustworthy page, an untrustworthy page or website fails to achieve its purpose. 4.5.1 Inadequate Information about the Website or Content Creator for the Purpose of the Page For pages that require a high level of trust, information about who created the content and who is responsible for the content is critical. As discussed in Section 2.5.3 , we expect most websites to have some information about who (e.g., what individual, company, business, foundation, etc.) is responsible for the website and who created the MC and some contact information, unless there is a good reason for anonymity. As you wil see in the examples below, many types of Lowest pages such as malicious downloads and scams typical y have no information or fake information about who is responsible to prevent recourse by people who are harmed. Copyright 2025 35 Any site that handles personal, private or sensitive data must provide extensive contact information. This includes sites that ask users to create passwords, share personal information, or conduct financial transactions. YMYL pages or websites that handle sensitive data with absolutely no information about the website or content creator should be rated Lowest . 4.5.2 Lowest E-E-A-T and Lowest Reputation of the Website or Content Creator If the E-E-A-T of a page is low enough, people cannot or should not use the MC of the page. If a page on YMYL topics is highly inexpert, it should be considered Untrustworthy and rated Lowest . Use the Lowest rating if the website and content creator have an extremely negative reputation, to the extent that many people would consider the webpage or website untrustworthy. Here are some examples original y shown in Section 3.3.3 . All pages on these websites should be rated Lowest because of the credible extremely negative or malicious reputation of these websites, making them untrustworthy. Note : These website examples may be considered Harmful in some form as wel . Sometimes reputation research exposes information that may not meet the criteria for considering a website harmful but does cause it to be untrustworthy. Website Description Evidence of fraudulent behavior : There are many reviews on websites describing how users Site selling children’s jungle gym sent money and did not receive anything in return. There is also a news article about this business engaging in financial fraud. Site selling products related to Evidence of criminal behavior : This website engaged in criminal behavior such as physically eyewear threatening users. Organization serving the Evidence of fraudulent behavior : There are many detailed negative articles on news sites and hospitalized veteran community charity watchdog sites describing fraud and financial mishandling about this organization. 4.5.3 Deceptive Page Purpose, Deceptive Information about the Website, Deceptive Design All pages or websites using deception of any type should be rated Lowest because they are Untrustworthy. Here are some types of deception to look for during Page Quality rating. Type of Deception Description Deceptive Purpose The page or the website superficial y appear to have one purpose, but in fact exist for a dif erent reason. Deceptive Information about The website has deliberately inaccurate or misleading information about the website or the Website or Content content creators to make the website appear trustworthy. Creators Deceptive Design The page or content is deliberately designed to look like one type of page or content but in fact functions as another. Note : No list of deceptive page types wil be complete—deceptive websites continue to evolve as people and search engines figure out how they are being tricked. Copyright 2025 36 Please see below for some examples. Deceptive purpose: ● A webpage with deliberately inaccurate information to promote products in order to make money from clicks on monetized links. Examples include a product recommendation page on a website falsely impersonating a celebrity blog, or a product recommendation based on a false claim of personal, independent testing when no such testing was conducted. ● A webpage claims to offer an independent review or share other information about a product, but is in fact created to make money for the owner of the website without attempting to help users. For example, the MC may contain intentional y misleading or inaccurate information created with the sole purpose of getting users to click on monetized links or buy the product. Deceptive information about the website or content creators: ● A webpage or website that impersonates a different site e.g., copied logo or branding of an unaf iliated site, URL that mimics another site's name, etc. ● A non-satirical social network profile made by an impersonator . ● A webpage or website that looks like a news source or information page, but in fact has articles to manipulate users in order to benefit a person, business, government, or other organization political y, monetarily, or otherwise. ● A website claims to be the personal website of a celebrity, but the website is actually created to make money for the owner of the website without the permission of the celebrity. For example, the page may have false testimonials for a product and is created for the sole purpose of getting users to click on monetized links or buy the product. ● A webpage or website with deceptive business information. For example, a website may claim to have a physical "brick and mortar" store but in fact only exists online. While there is nothing wrong with being an online business, claiming to have a physical "brick and mortar" (e.g. fake photo, fake physical store address) is deceptive. ● A webpage or website with "fake" owner or content creator profiles. For example, AI generated content with made up "author" profiles (AI generated images or deceptive creator descriptions) in order to make it appear that the content is written by people. ● Factually inaccurate and deceptive information about creator expertise. For example, an author or creator profile inaccurately claims to have credentials or expertise (e.g. the content creator claims falsely to be a medical professional) to make the content appear more trustworthy than it is. Deceptive design: ● Pages that disguise Ads as MC . Actual MC may be minimal or created to encourage users to click on the Ads. For example, fake search pages ( example ) that have a list of links that look like a page of search results. If you click on a few of the links, you wil see that the page is just a col ection of Ads disguised as search engine results. A “search box” is present, but submitting a new query just gives you a dif erent page of Ads disguised as search results. ● Pages that disguise Ads as website navigation links . For example, fake directory pages ( example ) that look like a personal y curated set of helpful links, possibly with unique descriptions. In reality, the links are Ads or links to other similar pages on the site. Sometimes the descriptions of the links are unrelated to the page. ● Pages with deceptively designed buttons or links . For example, buttons or links on pop ups, interstitials or on the page are designed to look like they do one thing (such as close a pop up) but in fact have a dif erent result which most people would not expect, e.g. download an app. ● Pages with a misleading title or a title that has nothing to do with the content on the page. People who come to the page expecting content related to the title wil feel tricked or deceived. Take a good look at the page and use your judgment. If you believe the true purpose of the page is not what it appears to be, the page should be rated Lowest. If you believe the page was deliberately created with the primary purpose to manipulate users to click on Ads, monetized links, questionable download links, etc., rather than to help people, the page Copyright 2025 37 should be rated Lowest. If the website has any form of deceptive or significantly misleading information about itself, or if the page or website uses deception in any form even if not described here, the page should be rated Lowest. 4.5.4 Deliberately Obstructed or Obscured MC Pages are untrustworthy if the MC is deliberately obstructed or obscured due to Ads, SC, interstitial pages, download links or other content that is beneficial to the website owner but not necessarily the website visitor. Attempts to manipulate or coerce users away from the MC is evidence of untrustworthiness. Here are some examples of pages with deliberately obstructed or obscured MC that should be rated Lowest : ● Ads that continue to cover the MC as the website visitor scrol s down the page. The Ads are virtual y impossible to close without clicking on the Ad ● Pop-ups that obscure the MC and cannot be closed without taking an action that benefits the website ● An interstitial page that attempts to coerce a download or click that does not benefit the website visitor ● Ads that push the MC down so far that many users would not notice the MC ● MC in white-on-white text or MC presented so that it is dif icult for a human being to read Logins or paywal s on otherwise trustworthy sites should not be considered untrustworthy, deceptive, or coercive. Many high quality sites such as newspapers or magazines cannot exist without monetization through subscriptions and paywal s. Some types of MC should be login protected, such as pages with personal information online banking websites or private pages on social network websites. MC may be inaccessible for non-deliberate or non-coercive reasons, such as content that doesn't load or content that is unavailable in a country or region. These are not reasons for Lowest . Use your judgment to assess whether the page is designed to manipulate or coerce users into taking actions that benefit the website. If you are unsure, look at other pages on the same website, conduct reputation research, etc. Important: Remember that many websites need monetization to share content with users. The presence of Ads alone is not enough for Lowest . 4.5.5 Suspected Malicious Behavior It may be dif icult to prove that a page causes harm without experiencing harm yourself. For this reason, you may use the Lowest rating if you strongly suspect a page is malicious or harmful even without having proof. Any of the fol owing should be considered untrustworthy: ● Pages or websites that you strongly suspect are scams (see these links for more information about Internet scams: Avoid Scams 1 , Avoid Scams 2 , Internet Fraud ). ● Pages that ask for personal information without a legitimate reason (for example, pages that ask for name, birthdate, address, bank account, government ID number, etc.). ● Pages that appear to “phish” for passwords to Facebook, Gmail, or other popular online services. See here for information about “phishing” fraud. ● Pages with links that you strongly suspect are malware downloads. Important : Do not continue to interact with the page if you observe these characteristics. If you do click on a link and encounter a malware warning from your browser or antivirus software ( example ), please do not continue to that page. You can assume that the page is malicious for the purpose of rating and use Lowest . Note that not al warnings your browser may display are related to malware (e.g., other types of browser warnings include certificate acceptance requests, content filtering warnings, etc.). If you are unsure or hesitant to continue to the page for any reason, you can release the task. Copyright 2025 38 4.6 Spammy Webpages Pages and websites should exist for the benefit of people who visit the website. There are many types of webpages that can benefit visitors, such as online shopping or banking services, videos of ering entertainment, or personal pages sharing a perspective or experience. Some of these pages depend on advertising and monetization to maintain the website and create high quality content while stil benefiting visitors. However, some pages are created to benefit the website owner or other organizations and with little to no attention paid to the experience of the people who visit. When such pages use deceptive techniques to appear near the top of search results, it may disincentivize the creation of high quality content by crowding out pages created with ef ort, originality, talent, or skil that is helpful for visitors. This section describes characteristics of spam or spam-like pages that should be rated Lowest . The Google Search Web Spam Policies page is a good reference to learn more about dif erent spam techniques. If you recognize any of these spam techniques on a page, please use the Lowest rating. You do not need to develop expertise to recognize al types of spam techniques described in the Google Search Web Spam Policies . However, with practice, we do expect you to recognize the techniques described in this section. 4.6.1 Cannot Determine a Purpose, No MC, Little MC, Lowest Quality MC or No Added Value MC All pages should be created with suf icient MC quality so that the page can achieve its purpose. However, some pages are so lacking in MC that the purpose of the page itself is unclear or you may suspect the page is not actual y created for people. If any of the fol owing are true, the page should be rated Lowest : ● Despite your best ef orts, the purpose of the page cannot truly be understood because the MC is gibberish or otherwise unusable for people ● The page deliberately has no MC ● The page is deliberately created with so little MC that it fails to achieve any purpose ● The page is deliberately created with such low quality MC that it fails to achieve any purpose ● The MC is created with little to no ef ort, has no originality and the MC adds no value compared to similar pages on the web 4.6.2 Hacked, Defaced, or Spammed Pages A hacked or defaced website is a site that has been modified without permission from the website owner(s). Websites can become hacked, defaced, or fil ed with a large amount of distracting and unhelpful content from bad actors. Bad actors may add unrelated MC or SC or may modify existing MC on webpages to change the purpose of the page. These pages should be rated Lowest because they fail to achieve their original purpose. Responsible website owners should regularly check their websites for suspicious behavior and take steps to protect users. A common problem on forum pages or in the comments sections of pages is "spammed" comments: posts with unrelated comments that are not intended to help other people, but rather to advertise a product or create a link to a website. Frequently these comments are posted by a “bot” rather than a real person. If a specific page on a website has many unrelated “spammed” comments, the page should be rated Lowest . See the Google Search Essentials Hacked Content Policy for more information. Copyright 2025 39 4.6.3 Expired Domain Abuse Expired domain abuse is where an expired domain name is purchased and repurposed primarily to benefit the new website owner by hosting content that provides little to no value to users. Often the expired domain was a highly trusted site such as a government website, a charity, or a school with a trustworthy looking URL. The new website owner hopes to rank wel using the reputation of the expired domain. The new content is often highly monetized or otherwise benefits the owner of the website. Visitors to the website may be confused by the new content, expecting to find a trustworthy government website, charity, etc. Here are some examples: ● Affiliate content on a site previously used by a government agency ● Commercial medical products being sold on a site previously used by a non-profit medical charity ● Casino-related content on a former elementary school site How can you tel if a page is abusing an expired domain? Sometimes the URL or other aspects of the website of ers a clue. For example, the URL may look like an elementary school website but the current content is on a topic that you would not expect from an elementary school such as payday loans or gambling. To confirm, look up the homepage or other pages of the website on the Internet Archive to see if an obvious change has occurred. Copyright 2025 40 4.6.4 Site Reputation Abuse Site reputation abuse is a tactic where third-party content is published on a host site mainly because of that host's already-established ranking signals, which it has earned primarily from its first-party content. The goal of this tactic is for the content to rank better than it could otherwise on its own. Third-party content is content that's created by an entity that's separate from the established host site. Examples of separate entities include users of that site, freelancers, white-label services, and content created by people not employed directly by the host site. Having third-party content alone isn't site reputation abuse; it's only site reputation abuse if the third-party content is published on a host site mainly because of that host site's already-established ranking signals. Examples of site reputation abuse include, but are not limited to: ● An educational site hosting a page about sponsored reviews of payday loans written by a third-party that distributes the same page to other sites across the web ● A medical site hosting a third-party advertising page about "best casinos" that readers wouldn’t expect and that’s being placed on the site to rank better due to the established site’s ranking signals ● A movie review site hosting third-party pages about topics that would be confusing to users to find on a movie review site (such as "ways to buy fol owers on social media sites", the "best fortune tel er sites", and the "best essay writing services") ● A news site hosting coupons provided by a white-label service where the main reason for publishing the coupons on the news site is to capitalize on the news site's reputation ● An established first party site branches out into a new area primarily using freelance content because this content wil rank better on the first-party site than it would have otherwise Examples that are NOT considered site reputation abuse include: ● Wire service or press release service sites ● News publications that have syndicated news content from other news publications ● Sites designed to al ow user-generated content, such as a forum website or comment sections ● Columns, opinion pieces, articles, and other work of an editorial nature ● Third-party content (for example, "advertorial" or "native advertising" type pages) where the purpose is to share content directly to readers (such as through promotion within the publication itself), rather than hosting the content to manipulate search rankings ● Using af iliate links throughout a page, with links treated appropriately , or embedding third-party ad units throughout a page ● Coupons that are sourced directly from merchants and other businesses that serve consumers Copyright 2025 41 4.6.5 Scaled Content Abuse Creating an abundance of content with little ef ort or originality with no editing or manual curation is often the defining attribute of spammy websites. Scaled content abuse is a spam practice described in the Google Search Web Spam Policies. Scaled content abuse occurs when many pages are generated for the purpose of primarily benefiting the website owner and not helping users. This practice is typical y focused on creating large amounts of unoriginal content that provides little to no value for website visitors compared to other similar pages on the web, no matter how it's created. Examples of scaled content abuse include: ● Using automated tools (generative AI or otherwise) as a low-ef ort way to produce many pages that add little-to-no value for website visitors as compared to other pages on the web on the same topic. ● Scraping feeds, search results, or other content to generate many pages (including through automated transformations like synonymizing, translating, or other obfuscation techniques), where little value is provided to website visitors ● Stitching or combining content from dif erent web pages without adding value ● Creating multiple sites with the intent of hiding the scaled nature of the content ● Creating many pages where the content makes little or no sense to a reader but contains search keywords Pages and websites made up of content created at scale with no original content or added value for users, should be rated Lowest , no matter how they are created. Even if you are unsure of the method of creation, e.g. whether or not the page is created using generative AI tools, you should stil use the Lowest rating when you strongly suspect scaled content abuse after looking at several pages on the website. 4.6.6 MC Created with Little to No Effort, Little to No Originality, and Little to No Added Value for Website Visitors The Lowest rating applies if al or almost al of the MC on the page (including text, images, audio, videos, etc) is copied, paraphrased, embedded, auto or AI generated, or reposted from other sources with little to no ef ort, little to no originality, and little to no added value for visitors to the website. Such pages should be rated Lowest , even if the page assigns credit for the content to another source. As a reminder, there are many types of ef ort that people put into content creation, from directly creating the content on the page to building custom page functionality. The criteria "little to no ef ort" means little to no ef ort of any type. Please review the description of Effort in Section 3.2 Quality of the Main Content . The word “copied” refers to the practice of “scraping” content, or copying content from other non-af iliated websites without adding any original content or value to users (see here for more information on copied or scraped content). Any type of content may be copied: text, images, video, etc. Images may be slightly cropped or edited to avoid detection. People may alter videos as wel , or even make a video of a screen playing video! Important : Licensed or syndicated content should not be considered as “copied” (see here for more on web syndication). Examples of syndicated content in the U.S. include news articles by AP or Reuters. Copyright 2025 42 Content on a webpage may be "paraphrased" from another source. We wil consider MC to be paraphrased if it contains content that is unoriginal and exists on other pages, with dif erent wording, organization or phrasing. People can paraphrase content manual y by rewriting the content from other sources using dif erent words. Automated tools can also be used to create paraphrased content by restating or summarizing the content on other pages. Sometimes content is "embedded" or included on the page from another source. There is nothing wrong with embedding content, but the Lowest rating applies if there is no significant original content or added value on the page. Social media posts may be reposted by an unrelated account. There is nothing wrong with reposting content, but the Lowest rating applies if there is no added value in the form of additional content, context, or discussion. All of the fol owing are considered copied or paraphrased content: ● Content copied, reposted, or embedded exactly from an identifiable source. Sometimes an entire page is copied, and sometimes just parts of the page are copied. Sometimes multiple pages are copied and then pasted together into a single page. Content that has been copied, reposted, or embedded exactly is usual y the easiest type of copied content to identify. ● Content that is copied, but changed slightly from the original. This type of copying makes it dif icult to find the exact matching original source. Sometimes just a few words are changed, or whole sentences are changed, or a “find and replace” modification is made, where one word is replaced with another throughout the text. Images may be cropped or videos may be segmented into shorter clips. These types of changes are deliberately done to make it dif icult to find the original source of the content. We cal this kind of content “copied with minimal alteration.” ● Content copied from a changing source, such as a search results page or news feed. You often won't be able to find an exact matching original source if it is a copy of “dynamic” content (content that changes frequently). However, we wil stil consider this to be copied content. ● Content that is paraphrased from a single source or multiple sources. Content from a single page or from many websites can be summarized, reworded or paraphrased by people or generative AI tools. Paraphrasing may be valuable, for example when an expert paraphrases the contents of a government policy in easy-to-understand language. Important : Copying, paraphrasing, embedding or reposting content does not automatical y make a page Lowest quality. However, the Lowest rating is required when al or almost al of the MC on the page (including text, images, audio, videos, etc) is copied, paraphrased, embedded, or reposted with little to no ef ort, little to no originality, and little to no added value for website visitors. Likewise, the use of Generative AI tools alone does not determine the level of ef ort or Page Quality rating. Generative AI tools may be used for high quality and low quality content creation. For example, a high level of ef ort may be involved in creating high quality original artwork using Generative AI tools. However, it's also possible to use Generative AI tools to create Lowest quality content with little to no ef ort, little to no originality, and little to no added value for website visitors. 4.6.7 How to Determine if Content is Copied How do you determine whether al or most of the MC is copied? How do you identify the original source of the content? How do you know if content is paraphrased from a single page or from multiple pages? These things can be dif icult to determine, but the fol owing steps may help. 1. Copy a sentence or phrase in the text. It may be necessary to try a few sentences or phrases from the page just to be sure. When deciding what sentence or phrase to copy, try to find a sentence or series of several words without punctuation, unusual characters, or suspicious words that may have replaced the original text. 2. Search on Google by pasting the sentence or phrase (surrounded by quotation marks to search for an exact match) inside the Google search box. You may also try without quotation marks to search for more general matches. Copyright 2025 43 Here are some sentences and phrases from this page about “The Wizard of Oz” film and how to search for them. Sentence or Phrase From a Sentence Query to Find the Sentence or Phrase Try the query both with and without quotation marks around A sentence on the page: the sentence: [ “ All are convinced by Dorothy that the Wizard can help All are convinced by Dorothy that the Wizard can help them them too ” ] too [ All are convinced by Dorothy that the Wizard can help them too ] Try the query both with and without quotation marks around A phrase on the page: the sentence: [ “ Dorothy uses the Golden Cap to summon the Winged Dorothy uses the Golden Cap to summon the Winged Monkeys ” ] Monkeys [ Dorothy uses the Golden Cap to summon the Winged Monkeys ] Try the query both with and without quotation marks around A different phrase on the page: the sentence: [ “ revealing an old man who had journeyed to Oz from revealing an old man who had journeyed to Oz from Omaha Omaha long ago in a hot air balloon ” ] long ago in a hot air balloon [ revealing an old man who had journeyed to Oz from Omaha long ago in a hot air balloon ] 3. Compare the pages you find that match the sentence or phrase. Is most of their MC the same? If so, does one clearly come from a highly authoritative source that is known for original content creation (newspaper, magazine, medical foundation, etc.)? Does one source seem to reasonably be the original? Does one source appear to have the earliest publication date, verified by sources like the Wayback Machine? Based on this older version of a Wikipedia article about “The Wizard of Oz,” which can be found using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine , we can confirm that the text in the table has been copied. Please note that searching for the above sentence and phrases wil not lead you to a current Wikipedia article about “The Wizard of Oz,” which demonstrates how confirming that the MC of a page contains copied content can sometimes be dif icult. Paraphrased content can be much harder to recognize. Use the same process described above to search for other pages with similar content by searching for sentences from the page or searching for the page title. Paraphrased content is likely to: ● Only contain commonly known information or general y known facts ● Have high overlap with webpages on wel established sources such as Wikipedia, reference websites, etc. ● Appear to summarize a specific page such as a forum discussion or news article without any added value ● Have words or other indications of summarizing or paraphrasing generative AI tools, such as words like "As an AI language model" ( example ) Copyright 2025 44 Use your best judgment. Sometimes it is clear that the content is copied or paraphrased from somewhere, but you cannot tel what the original source is. Other times the content found on the original source has changed enough that searches for sentences or phrases may no longer match the original source. For example, Wikipedia articles can change dramatical y over time. Text copied from old copies may not match the current content. Summaries or paraphrased content may have a dif erent organizational structure than the original source. If you strongly suspect the page you are evaluating is not the original source, consider it likely to be copied or paraphrased. Important : If al or almost al of the MC on the page (including text, images or videos) is copied, paraphrased, embedded, or reposted from other sources, you must assess the level of ef ort, originality and added value for website visitors in order to assign a rating. The Lowest rating is appropriate if there is little to no ef ort, little to no originality, and little to no added value for website visitors. The Low rating is appropriate if there is low ef ort, originality or added value to website visitors. 4.7 Examples of Lowest Quality Pages Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation This page appears to be an informational article about the animal the praying mantis. Factual inaccuracies and odd statements exist in the section titled “ Praying Mantises Are Not Poisonous ”: "In contrast to praying mollies, which are mostly solitary creatures that avoid human interaction, praying mollusks are more closely related to God. There are no poisonous snakes, and there are no venomous turtles." Odd, factually inaccurate and/or misleading statements: ● The section suddenly refers to Untrustworthy praying mantises as “praying mollies” - a name does that isn’t supported Lowest: Untrustworthy ● Multiple, obvious and odd factual through a quick web search inaccuracies ● Praying mollusks do not exist - there ● Lowest E-E-A-T is no such animal ● Statements about animals and their relation to God are not what one would expect on an informational page like this ● Poisonous snakes exist It is unlikely a human author would make these odd statements and obvious mistakes. It's likely this content was auto-generated with no human editing. No matter how this content was created, the odd statements and factual inaccuracies make this article untrustworthy and therefore Lowest E-E-A-T and Lowest quality. Copyright 2025 45 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation The page appears to be an informational article about switching babies from breast milk to whole milk. The bottom of the page states "Our blog is dedicated to all things related to kids and parenting – including product reviews, news, recipes, and more. We strive to provide parents with the information they need in order to make informed decisions for their families." Untrustworthy However, if you read the terms of service ● This page has a deceptive purpose: the page, you'll find a very different description of page claims to be an informational pages on the website. resource for parents, but the website terms of service state that it is published The terms of use page states "Some articles for AI enthusiasts and is not intended for on this website might have been partially Lowest: Lowest E-E-A-T and the general public. generated by an artificial intelligence language Deceptive ● The website terms of use states that model and published for experimental and "some articles" are generated by artificial research purposes. The articles on this intelligence and may have errors or be website are only to be used as proof of out of date; there is no indication to concept by AI enthusiasts and not intended for which pages this statement applies. The general public. We do not assume any information in this article is not responsibility or liability for the use or trustworthy and is Lowest E-E-A-T interpretation of this content for any other purpose than it was intended. While we strive for accuracy and quality, please note that the information provided may not be entirely error-free or up-to-date . We recommend independently verifying the content and consulting with professionals for specific advice or information." Given the statements above, the articles on this website should be considered untrustworthy and Lowest E-E-A-T. Lowest: Superiority of Specified Group 1 This is the homepage of Harmful to Specified Groups Inciting hatred towards Specified Groups Stormfront, a white supremacist significantly harms members of those groups website. The site is known for ● Promotes, condones, or incites hatred and society as whole. This page is on a YMYL propagating white nationalism, against a Specified Group of people topic. antisemitism, Holocaust denial, ● Lowest website reputation white supremacy, and This website has an extremely negative Islamophobia. reputation for promoting white supremacy, antisemitism, Holocaust denial, etc. Copyright 2025 46 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Lowest: Superiority of Specified Harmful to Specified Groups, Harmfully Group 2 Misleading Information Unsubstantiated claims about a Specified Group significantly harms members of that This page describes a ● Promotes, condones, or incites hatred group and society as a whole. This page is on non-scientifically backed theory against a Specified Group of people a YMYL topic. of superiority of a Specified ● Contains unsubstantiated theories/claims Group. not grounded in any reasonable facts or The purpose of the page is to promote the evidence view of superiority of a group of people. This page makes unsubstantiated claims about the role of melanin in the human body. Lowest: Non-medical drug use advice Harmful to Self or Other Individuals Potentially harmful use of drugs could This post encourages mixing an ● Encourages, depicts, incites, or directly significantly impact a person’s health. This is a anti-anxiety drug with a causes physical, mental, emotional, or YMYL topic. recreational drug. financial harm to self or others This post and other content on the page encourages dangerous behavior that could cause harm. Harmful to Self or Other Individuals, Eating disorders and decisions to seek Lowest: Eating disorder Harmfully Misleading Information medical treatment significantly impact a encouragement person’s health. This is a YMYL topic. ● Encourages, depicts, incites, or directly This page has posts that causes physical, mental, emotional, or This post encourages harmful behavior. encourage people to lose weight financial harm to self or others in unhealthy ways. ● Contains information that contradicts "Proana" or pro-anorexia is a movement to well-established expert consensus view anorexia as a lifestyle choice, not a disease. Proana and similar "thinspiration" pages contradict well-established expert consensus that anorexia is a life-threatening eating disorder. Lowest: Personal information collection scam Harmful to Self or Other Individuals, Superficially, this looks like a Untrustworthy payment page on a merchant Sharing highly sensitive personal information site. ● Encourages, depicts, incites, or directly could significantly impact a person’s financial causes physical, mental, emotional, or security. This page is on a YMYL topic. However, the form asks for highly financial harm to self or others sensitive personal information ● Characteristics of scams, malicious While this looks like a merchant site, the true such as social security number, downloads, or other harmful behavior purpose of this page is to collect information drivers license number, bank that could be used to commit identity theft or account numbers, and ATM PIN. remove money from someone's bank account. Copyright 2025 47 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Debt management significantly impacts a Untrustworthy person’s financial security. This is a YMYL topic. Lowest: Poor financial advice and possible scam ● Inadequate information about the website or content creator for the This page has multiple Lowest quality characteristics. From the MC, it is evident that This is an article suggesting purpose of the page the content creator lacks financial expertise clicking on a link to avoid paying ● Lowest E-E-A-T (inconsistent with well-established expert debt. ● Deceptive page design ● Characteristics of scams, malicious consensus on what to do for debt relief). downloads, or other harmful behavior Furthermore, the page appears to be designed to manipulate people into clicking one of several prominent links rather than helping people by providing sound financial advice. The promise of debt relief is a common form of manipulation and scam technique . Lowest: Miley Cyrus is dead "news article" on a deceptive Harmfully Misleading Information, website Untrustworthy This website is designed to look like a news site and yet has deliberate factually inaccurate This is a factually inaccurate ● Contains clearly inaccurate information information. There is no information on who is article on a website called "Now that can be refuted by straightforward responsible for this content. There is no date 8 News". It falsely claims Miley and widely accepted facts for the news article or date of death, which Cyrus is dead. ● Deceptive page design would be a key part of any standard reporting. This page was designed to misinform or deceive. Harmfully Misleading Information, Lowest: Crystals heal cancer Untrustworthy potential scam Claims about cancer cures could significantly ● Contains unsubstantiated theories/claims impact people’s decisions to seek medical This article explains how crystals not grounded in any reasonable facts or treatment. This page is on a YMYL topic. can be used to help cure evidence cancers. It has a prominent ● Contains information that contradicts The claims made about the healing power of "Shop Crystals" link at the top. well-established expert consensus crystals contradict well-established expert ● Characteristics of scams, malicious scientific and medical consensus. downloads, or other harmful behavior Selling "cures" for diseases such as cancer is a commonly used scam technique . Copyright 2025 48 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Harmfully Misleading Information Claims contradicting well-established scientific Lowest: Flat earth ● Contains unsubstantiated theories/claims consensus about the shape of the earth not grounded in any reasonable facts or undermine trust in scientific institutions such This is a homepage of The Flat evidence as NOAA, the agency responsible for issuing Earth Society, a group of people ● Contains clearly inaccurate information alerts during dangerous weather events. This dedicated to spreading the belief that can be refuted by straightforward is a YMYL topic. that the earth is flat. and widely accepted facts ● Contains information that contradicts The purpose of this website is promoting well-established expert consensus misleading information. It is harmful to people and society as it undermines trust in public institutions. Medical information about this dental condition could significantly impact how people seek Lowest: Dry socket medical info Untrustworthy dental treatment. This page is on a YMYL topic. This YMYL medical site has literally no information about who ● Inadequate information about the There is no information about who created this is responsible for the content or website or content creator for the website, no contact information, and no the website. purpose of the page information about the author. Medical pages require a high level of user trust. Because there is no information about who owns this website and who created this content, this is considered an untrustworthy website. Inaccurate information about shipping and returns, deceptive use of logos and no information about who is responsible make this shopping site appear potentially fraudulent and Lowest: Merchant with little Untrustworthy untrustworthy. contact info, untrustworthy characteristics ● Inadequate information about the website or content creator for the This page is selling Nike Air Jordan shoes. However, there is inadequate contact This looks like a product listing purpose of the page information on the contact us page for a page on a merchant website. ● Characteristics of scams, malicious downloads, or other harmful behavior merchant site. In addition, the Shipping and Returns page has the name of another company that seems to be unrelated. There are also official looking logos at the bottom of the homepage, including the Better Business Bureau logo and Google Checkout logo, that don’t appear to be affiliated with the website. Copyright 2025 49 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Harmfully Misleading Information, Many patient hospitalizations and deaths occur Lowest: Stomach flu lowest EAT Untrustworthy due to the flu each year. This topic could article ● Contains information that contradicts significantly impact a person’s health. This is a YMYL topic. This poorly written article well-established expert consensus describes how to cure the ● Inadequate information about the The writing is poor and the information is not stomach flu. website or content creator for the purpose of the page consistent with standard medical guidance. It ● Lowest E-E-A-T is clear from the content the author does not have medical expertise. This page should not be trusted as a medical resource. Lowest: Pimple popping lowest Untrustworthy The writing is extremely poor and there is EAT article ● Inadequate information about the virtually no information in this article. This very poorly written article website or content creator for the For example, the opening sentence is describes popping pimples. purpose of the page ● Lowest E-E-A-T "Popping pimples could be or could be not the new trend of getting rid of them." It is clear from the content that the author does not have skin care expertise. Harmful to Self or Other Individuals, Untrustworthy Lowest: Malicious merchant site This website swindled people and physically ● Encourages, depicts, incites, or directly threatened people who complained. These This website appears to be an causes physical, mental, emotional, or articles on Wikipedia and the New York Times eyeglasses merchant site. financial harm to self or others describe the deceptive techniques used by this ● Lowest E-E-A-T website and provide other negative information ● Characteristics of scams, malicious about the website and its owner. downloads, or other harmful behavior The reputation of this website is lowest based on reports of malicious behavior. Untrustworthy, Spammy Lowest: Chicken recipes no MC MC should be created to benefit people who ● No MC come to the website. Pages without MC This looks like a list of chicken ● Deceptive page design should be considered spammy as they crowd recipes, but is actually a list of ● Content created with little to no effort, out and disincentivize the creation of pages links that are ads. little to no originality, and little to no with high quality MC. added value for website visitors Pages with Ads that are designed to look like MC should be considered untrustworthy. Copyright 2025 50 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Information about cancer could significantly impact how people make decisions related to Lowest: Mesothelioma deceptive Untrustworthy, Spammy medical treatment. This page is on a YMYL directory topic. ● No MC This page looks like a listing of ● Deceptive page design This page is designed to look like a directory resources about Mesothelioma, a ● Content created with little to no effort, page or a list of helpful resources, but every form of lung cancer. little to no originality, and little to no link is an Ad. There is no MC on this page. added value for website visitors Pages without MC should be considered spammy as they crowd out and disincentivize the creation of pages with high quality MC. Pages that disguise Ads as directory listings or other MC should be considered untrustworthy. Lowest: Ads deliberately obscure MC This page requires scrolling past so many Ads When you first visit the page, it Untrustworthy to get to the MC that many people may stop appears that there is no MC, only scrolling and leave the page before reaching Ads. If you scroll down, you will ● Deliberately obstructed or obscured MC the MC. eventually find the MC at the bottom. Deliberately obscured MC to benefit the website with no help for people visiting the page should be considered untrustworthy. This page contains a fake survey, which Untrustworthy, Spammy appears to promise users the opportunity to win an Apple MacBook Air, an iPhone 5c, or a Lowest: Deceptive and ● Inadequate information about the Galaxy S4. untrustworthy fake survey page website or content creator for the purpose of the page However, there is no information about who is This page appears to be a ● Deceptive page design responsible for the survey, even though upon survey with the opportunity to win ● Characteristics of scams, malicious clicking, the survey asks for highly personal an Apple MacBook Air, an downloads, or other harmful behavior information such as bank account numbers. iPhone 5c, or a Galaxy S4. ● Content created with little to no effort, The message at the top of the page, “Thank little to no originality, and little to no You from Goggle.com” and survey content added value for website visitors could mislead users to think that the survey is affiliated with Google. This page is deceptive and should be considered untrustworthy. Copyright 2025 51 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Lowest: Lowest MC free credit Untrustworthy, Spammy report ● Extremely misleading title Credit reports could significantly impact one’s The title of the page suggests ● Inadequate information about the financial security. This is a YMYL topic. that it may provide a credit report website or content creator for the from the government purpose of the page The MC is gibberish. There is no beneficial "freecreditreport gov". ● Deceptive page design ● Characteristics of scams, malicious purpose of gibberish MC. The title of the page is misleading, given the MC. However, the page has gibberish downloads, or other harmful behavior MC and spammy looking ● Cannot determine any purpose, e.g., This page also has deceptive features in the features, such as ads or links gibberish MC supplementary content, such as a friend surrounding the meaningless ● Content created with little to no effort, request, a prize alert, and a download button. text. little to no originality, and little to no added value for website visitors It is highly likely that these are ads or malicious download links. Prescription drugs could significantly impact a person’s health. This is a YMYL topic. Lowest: Buy Xanax This specific page has been created or Untrustworthy, Spammy modified on this organization's website in This is a page on the website for hopes that people will click on the link to buy the U.S. Green Building Council. ● Characteristics of scams, malicious the prescription drug Xanax. However, this page has the downloads, or other harmful behavior words "Buy Xanax" over and ● Content created with little to no effort, This is a spam technique. Spammers hope over again, along with related little to no originality, and little to no that the page will rank well in search results words about buying Xanax and a added value for website visitors because the website is otherwise high quality. URL link. The words "buy xanax" are used repeatedly in hopes that the page will show up for the search "buy xanax". Attempting to spam search engines and trick people into clicking on links is highly untrustworthy behavior. Copyright 2025 52 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation This page has low quality MC and spammy attributes. Lowest: Auto-generated car The page repeats the error code "P2570" engine code beyond what is helpful for users- a technique known as irrelevant keywords . This page is full of supplementary content, links, The small amount of MC is not original to the and large ads. Untrustworthy, Spammy website. Lists of error codes are available either by purchase or by scraping. The MC at the top gives ● Inadequate information about the information about a specific error website or content creator for the An important fact is missing at the top "When code P2570 and a second block purpose of the page you check engine light came on code P2570 of main content in the middle ● Content created with little to no effort, the reason should be ." The reason is left out - shows more information about little to no originality, and little to no this should be the most important content on P2570. added value for website visitors the page! The MC is broken up by large Looking at other pages on the website, it is ads and it is difficult to clear that each page is created automatically understand due to the poor by filling in a template from a list of error code content quality. information. There appears to be little to no manual editing or checking to make sure the error code content is correctly pulled in, as evident by the missing reason on this page. As with many spammy websites, there is no information about who is responsible for this website and no way to report problems with the page. Copyright 2025 53 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation The MC on this page is copied with little or no time, effort, expertise, manual curation, or added value for users. Looking at the content at the bottom of the page and exploring other pages on the Untrustworthy, Spammy website, it is clear that each page is created Lowest: Auto-generated bulldog automatically using content from Amazon and wrinkle wipes ● Inadequate information about the substituting different product names into a website or content creator for the generic template. There appears to be little to This page claims to list the best purpose of the page no manual editing or curation on this page. bulldog wrinkle wipes and uses ● Deceptive page design affiliate links. ● Content created with little to no effort, The true purpose of this page is to bring users little to no originality, and little to no seeking information about products to this added value for website visitors website in hopes that they will click and order products by clicking on Amazon affiliate links. This website does not have a beneficial purpose for users but rather was created to benefit the creator of the website. Though the website discloses that they use affiliate links, the site offers no added value for users. As with many deceptive websites, there is no information about who is responsible for this website. Information about prescription drugs could significantly impact a person’s health. This page is on a YMYL topic. All MC on this page is copied with little or no time, effort, expertise, manual curation, or Untrustworthy, Spammy added value for users. Here is the original source . Lowest: Viagra copied content ● Inadequate information about the website or content creator for the Exploration of the pages on this website are This looks like an information purpose of the page similarly created with little expertise or added website for the drug Viagra. ● Deceptive page design value for users. ● Content created with little to no effort, little to no originality, and little to no The true purpose of this page is to bring users added value for website visitors seeking information about Viagra to this website in hopes that they will click on the “order now” link. The "order now" link goes to another website and is likely monetized. Therefore, this website does not have a beneficial purpose for users but rather was created to benefit another website. As with many deceptive websites, there is no information about who is responsible for this website. Copyright 2025 54 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation This page is a YMYL medical article. The contents of the page show it is created Spammy with generative AI with likely no original content and provides no value to users. For example, the article starts with "As a language Lowest: Scaled content abuse ● Scaled content abuse model, I don’t have real-time data and my cancers ● All of the MC on the page (including text, knowledge cutoff date is September 2021. images or videos) is paraphrased with Cancer rankings.." The end of the text of the little to no effort, little to no originality, and article appears to be cut off with an incomplete little to no added value for website sentence "Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors visitors (NETs): Pancreatic NETs are a rare type of pancreatic cancer that can have a poor" This is spam (scaled content abuse) and a highly untrustworthy medical page: it demonstrates no real expertise and may not be correct and is especially concerning for YMYL topics. Website information indicates this is a website for rabbit enthusiasts "We are rabbit lovers and breeders, we will share some of our guides here, welcome to discuss with us." However the website includes articles on a Untrustworthy, Spammy very wide variety of topics unrelated to rabbits such as YMYL human health, making the information about the website appear ● Scaled content abuse deceptive. Lowest: Scaled content abuse ● Deceptive information about the website tumors purpose All the MC on the page is embedded from a ● All of the MC on the page (including text, different source or likely paraphrased and images or videos) is paraphrased or unoriginal. If you explore the site, you'll find embedded with little to no effort, little to hundreds of templated articles with unoriginal, no originality, and little to no added value paraphrased content and embedded videos. for website visitors This is an example of scaled content abuse. While the method of content creation is unknown, the format of the articles (question and answer) is a common technique to create scaled content by collecting questions (available from sources such as Google Search's "People also ask" feature ) and answering the questions with unoriginal, paraphrased content (often using generative AI tools). Copyright 2025 55 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation At the time of this example, the URL for this example was ruralschools.org . Previously ruralschools.org was owned by an organization called Organizations Concerned for Rural Education (OCRE). Using the Internet Archive , we can see what the page Untrustworthy, Spammy used to look like. Lowest: Expired domain abuse Currently the content is about the Hong Kong ● Expired domain abuse lottery. ● Highly misleading URL People may be genuinely expecting a website about rural schools for this URL. Consider URLs to be misleading or deceptive when the URL looks like a high quality government agency, school, charity or otherwise trusted source but the content is low quality and completely unrelated, e.g. low quality content about medical products, loans, lottery tickets, gambling, etc. Copyright 2025 56 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation This is an article published on a news website. The top of the page has a Sponsored Content banner. The page goes on to disclose: "Articles attributed to this byline are authored by paying advertisers. The editorial team did not contribute to these pieces, and the opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the editorial staff. Refer to our partner statement to better understand the nature of the relationship. The sponsor retains responsibility for the Untrustworthy, Spammy content and holds the copyright to their material" Lowest: Site reputation abuse ● Site reputation abuse This page qualifies as site reputation abuse ● Deceptive page content; untrustworthy because the content on the page is produced due to conflict of interest by a third party (a supplement maker) and published on this news website to inherit the reputation of the news publisher, even though the new publisher is not responsible for this content. In addition to site reputation abuse, there are also potentially misleading and untrustworthy aspects to this article that warrant a Lowest rating: ● Even though there is a disclaimer, the content could be mistaken for an article written by the newspaper. ● The article appears to be an independent review for a supplement, but is actually written by the producer of the supplement. ● There is a clear conflict of interest, making this an untrustworthy source of information Copyright 2025 57 Webpage/Content Lowest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation The about us page describes the website as providing information for seniors: "we provide non-medical information to senior citizens in their own homes or apartments." However, the site hosts hundreds of articles on all sorts of topics. The articles are templated, have paraphrased text content and embedded videos from other sources. This is an example of Scaled Content Abuse. This page is titled with a poorly phrased Untrustworthy, Spammy question "How Cold Can Chickens Tolerate" The answer text is poorly written and starts off bizarrely: "What is this? Cold weather ● Scaled content abuse chickens..." ● Deceptive information about the website Lowest: Scaled content abuse purpose The page goes on to have repetitive questions chickens ● Most or all of the MC on the page and poorly produced responses. "What temp (including text, images or videos) is is too cold for chickens?" "Is 40 degrees too paraphrased or embedded with little to cold for chickens?", etc. no effort, little to no originality, and little to no added value for website visitors A careful read of the answers shows that the ● Repetitive, low value to no add MC sentences may make sense individually, but not as a whole. For example "How cold can chickens tolerate at night? Chickens can survive quite well with temperatures down into the teens. In fact, if you place a thermometer in your coop overnight, you will likely find the temperature has been maintained in the thirty to forty-degree area." (The second sentence does not make sense following the first.) While the method of content creation is unknown, the format of the articles (question and answer) is commonly used to create low effort, unoriginal, paraphrased content with generative AI tools. The text does not appear to have been written or edited by a human editor. Copyright 2025 58 5.0 Low Quality Pages Low quality pages do not achieve their purpose wel because they are lacking in an important dimension or have a problematic aspect. Low quality pages do not meet the standards for Lowest but may have similar though milder undesirable characteristics. To identify Low quality pages, start by considering the fol owing: Initial Consideration Low Quality Pages The purpose of the page Low quality pages have a beneficial or non-harmful purpose. The potential for the page to cause harm as Low quality pages have either no potential to cause harm, or have described in these guidelines some mild potential for harm but do not meet the standards for Lowest as described in Section 4.0 . The topic of the page, the type of website, and A page on any topic or any type of website may qualify for Low. the extent to which YMYL standards apply Give special scrutiny to pages or websites needing a high level of trust, such as online stores, medical websites, or news coverage of major civic issues. Next, assess the page to determine if any of the criteria for Low apply: Low Page Quality Assessment Any one of the fol owing is justification for Low Quality of the MC MC is created without adequate ef ort, originality, talent, or skil necessary to achieve the purpose of the page in a satisfying way. The title of the page The page title is slightly misleading, shocking, or exaggerated. The role of Ads and SC on the page The Ads or SC significantly distract from or interrupt the use of the MC as described in Section 5.3 . Information provided by the website and Unsatisfying amount of website information or information about the content creator content creator for the purpose of the page. Important : For personal content shared on social media platforms or forums, an alias or username is adequate. Reputation of the website and content creator A mildly negative reputation of the website or content creator. Trustworthiness of the page: E-E-A-T Inadequate level of E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page. Important : Low quality pages can occur on any type of website, including academic websites, nonprofit websites, government websites, or any other general y helpful type of website. Low quality pages may be about any topic. Pages on YMYL topics need more scrutiny for signs of Low quality related to the MC and website/content creator because the page could impact a person’s health, financial stability, or safety, or the welfare or wel -being of society. However, for any type of page, a single Low quality attribute is enough to use the Low quality rating. Copyright 2025 59 5.1 Lacking E-E-A-T Low quality pages often lack an appropriate level of E-E-A-T for the topic or purpose of the page. Here are some examples: ● The content creator lacks adequate experience, e.g. a restaurant review written by someone who has never eaten at the restaurant ● The content creator lacks adequate expertise, e.g. an article about how to skydive written by someone with no expertise in the subject ● The website or content creator is not an authoritative or trustworthy source for the topic of the page, e.g. tax form downloads provided on a cooking website. ● The page or website is not trustworthy for its purpose, e.g. a shopping page with minimal customer service information Important: The Low rating should be used if the page lacks appropriate E-E-A-T for its purpose. No other considerations such as positive reputation or the type of website can overcome a lack of E-E-A-T for the topic or purpose of the page. 5.2 Low Quality Main Content MC is Low quality if it is created without adequate ef ort, originality, talent, or skil necessary to achieve the purpose of the page in a satisfying way. Mild inaccuracies on informational pages are evidence of Low quality. However, if the page has harmful inaccuracies or so many inaccuracies that it feels untrustworthy, the Lowest rating is justified. Here are some examples of pages with Low quality MC: Low Quality MC Examples Why the MC is considered Low quality A crafting tutorial page with instructions on how to make a Lacks adequate ef ort to clearly present the instructions to basic craft and lots of unhelpful "fil er" at the top, such as people hoping to make the craft. commonly known facts about the supplies needed or other non-crafting information. A list of the best vacuum cleaners with product images Lacks adequate ef ort and first-hand experience from the and reviews that are paraphrased or summarized from content creator. other sources, with minimal signs of ef ort or original content added by the content creator. A slide show of the top 10 world destinations using other Lacks ef ort and originality. people's pictures and existing top 10 lists. A page titled "How many centimeters are in a meter?" with Lacks ef ort, has excessive fil er, lacks depth, and has only a large amount of of -topic and unhelpful content such that commonly known facts. the very smal amount of helpful information is hard to find. A list of the tal est mountains in the world that is missing Lacks accuracy and ef ort. Mount Everest. The title of the page is also considered part of the MC. Titles are important because they represent the page in search results and help users decide what to click on. A misleading title can lead to a poor search experience. Exaggerated or shocking titles are evidence of Low quality because of the poor user experience that results when users see the actual MC after reaching the page. Copyright 2025 60 Here are some examples of pages with Low quality titles: Low Quality Title Examples Why the Title is considered Low quality A page titled "Pink Elephant: Part 2 coming soon!", but Slightly misleading title would give people the impression includes only speculation and rumor about a potential that the movie sequel has a confirmed release date, and movie sequel that may or may not be produced. that the page would provide accurate information about it. A page titled "Is the World about to End? Mysterious Exaggerated and shocking title is a mismatch with the Sightings of Sea Serpents Prompt Panic!", for an article content of the article. about the remains of a dead fish on a beach. A page titled "Eat the Healthiest Foods in the WORLD to Overly exaggerated title suggests that the page would extend your life!!!!" for a list of tips on how to add more of er something more than the basic nutrition advice it fruits and vegetables to meals. provides. The level of talent or skil required for artistic expression by ordinary people on social media or other websites that al ow content sharing should be viewed leniently. In many cases, people post activities to share with friends, such as a video documenting a first attempt at a new hobby. These types of pages should not be considered Low on the basis of talent or skil because the primary purpose is sharing content. Use the Low rating only if the lack of talent or skil prevents the page from achieving its purpose wel . Important : Low quality MC does not meet the standard for Lowest and is not harmful, but it is unsatisfying for the purpose of the page or causes the page to fail to achieve its purpose wel . 5.2.1 MC is Created with Low Effort, Low Originality and Low Added Value for Website Visitors People who search benefit from a variety of websites of ering high quality content and good experiences to website visitors. However, some webpages are created by "repackaging" content available on higher quality sites, with low ef ort, low originality and low added value for website visitors compared to higher quality sources. As a reminder, the Lowest rating applies if al or almost al of the MC on the page (including text, images or videos) is copied, paraphrased, embedded, or reposted from other sources with little to no ef ort, little to no originality, and little to no added value for website visitors. However, the Low rating should be used if much of the MC on the page is copied, paraphrased, embedded or reposted, with a low amount of ef ort to create value by editing, manual y curating, reformatting or injecting some original content. Examples of low ef ort, low originality and low added value include ● Social media reposts with little additional comment or discussion ● Pages with content from other sources (e.g. pages of embedded videos or pages with "repinned" images) with little additional comment, discussion, or curation by the content creator of the page ● "Best" lists based on existing reviews and lists with little original content The Low rating applies when the MC is created using any technique with low ef ort, low originality, and low added value for website visitors compared to other pages that contain similar content. Copyright 2025 61 5.2.2 Filler as a Poor User Experience The main content (MC) of a page should support its purpose. Web site owners and content creators should place the most helpful and essential MC near the top of the page so that visitors can immediately access it. A high quality page has the most helpful MC placed most prominently. Content that supports the page purpose without directly contributing to the primary goal can be included, but it should be shown lower on the page in a less prominent position. For example, on recipe pages, the recipe itself and important supporting content directly related to the recipe should be prominently displayed near the top of the webpage. Sometimes, MC includes "fil er" - low-ef ort content that adds little value and doesn't directly support the purpose of the page. Fil er can artificial y inflate content, creating a page that appears rich but lacks content website visitors find valuable. Fil er can result in a poor experience for people who visit the page, especial y if placed prominently ahead of helpful content for the purpose of the page. Important : Content that supports the page purpose without directly contributing to its primary goal can stil be valuable if placed appropriately. Fil er refers to low-ef ort content that occupies valuable and prominent space without providing value or without being helpful or satisfying for the primary purpose of the page. A Low rating is appropriate if the page ● Contains a large amount of low quality and unhelpful fil er, causing a poor experience for people visiting the page ● Contains a large amount visual y prominent fil er that makes it dif icult to find the helpful MC, causing frustration for people visiting the page 5.3 Distracting Ads/SC We expect Ads and SC to be visible. However, some Ads, SC, or interstitial pages (i.e., pages displayed before or after the content you are expecting) make it dif icult to use the MC. Pages with Ads, SC, or other features that significantly distract from or make it dif icult for the user to ef iciently access the information they want from the page should typical y be given a Low rating even if some of the MC is helpful. A single pop-over Ad or interstitial page with a clear and easy-to-use close button is not terribly distracting, even though it may annoy some people. However, dif icult-to-close Ads that fol ow page scrol s, or interstitial pages that require an app download, can be truly distracting and make the MC dif icult to use. You can see examples of interstitial pages here . The content of the Ads, SC, or other features may be distracting as wel : sexual y suggestive images such as here , grotesque images such as here , and sexual y suggestive Ads on otherwise non-sexual pages are very distracting. Final y, Ads and SC can be distracting if the titles or images of the Ads or SC are shocking or disturbing. Here is an example of a page with shocking and exaggerated titles, images, and text in the Ads and SC. Important : The Low rating should be used if the page has Ads, SC, or other features that significantly distract from or interrupt the use of the MC. 5.4 Mildly Negative Reputation of the Website or Content Creator The Low rating should be used if the website or the content creator has a mildly negative reputation. If the MC was created by a content creator who is using the website to host it, research the reputation of the content creator. Expect to find reputation information on wel -known journalists, authors, social media influencers, bloggers and vloggers, professionals such as lawyers and doctors, etc. Pay attention when there is evidence of mildly negative—though not malicious or financial y fraudulent—reputation. However, a lack of reputation information for ordinary people and lesser-known content creators is expected and is not a sign of Low quality. Exercise care when researching the reputation of businesses. Try to find enough reviews to understand a range of Copyright 2025 62 customer opinions and experiences, and read the details of negative reviews and low ratings before inferring that the business overal has a negative reputation. A few negative customer service reviews are typical for businesses such as stores or restaurants. 5.5 Unsatisfying Amount of Information about the Website or Content Creator Expect to find some form of website information for many or most websites. We expect clear information about who (e.g., what individual, company, business, foundation, etc.) created the MC, unless there is good reason for anonymity. A long-standing Internet alias or username can identify the content creator. For personal websites or forum discussions on non-YMYL topics, an email address or social media link alone may be suf icient. Many people are reasonably hesitant to share personal y identifiable information online! Stores and websites that process financial transactions require a high level of user trust. If a store or financial transaction website has just an email address and physical address, it may be dif icult to get help if there are issues with the transaction. Likewise, many other types of websites on clear YMYL topics also require a high level of user trust. Important : Pages that of er payment functionality or process other types of financial transactions should receive a Low rating if there is an unsatisfying amount of customer service information or contact information. Pages on YMYL topics and other pages that require a high level of user trust should receive a Low rating if there is an unsatisfying amount of information about who is responsible for the website or who created the content. For forums, social media pages, and other websites where people commonly exchange opinions, a username is an acceptable identifier. 5.6 Exaggerated or Mildly Misleading Information about the Website or Content Creator Recal that deceptive information about a website or content creator is a strong reason for the Lowest rating. However, sometimes the information about the website or content provider seems exaggerated or mildly misleading, such as claims of personal experience or expertise that seem overstated or included just to impress website visitors. E-E-A-T assessments should be based on the MC itself, the information you find during reputation research, verifiable credentials, etc, not just website or content creator claims of "I'm an expert!". If you find the information about the website or the content creator to be exaggerated or mildly misleading, the Low rating should be used. Copyright 2025 63 5.7 Examples of Low Quality Pages Type of Webpage/Content Low Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Information about energy sources and nuclear power could significantly impact global ● Unsatisfying MC for the purpose of the industries and society. This is a YMYL topic. Low: News 1 page: does not achieve the purpose well ● MC lacks accuracy or does not align with The writing of this article is unprofessional, Article about nuclear power well-established expert consensus including many grammar and punctuation ● Low E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page errors. The MC also appears to have been paraphrased from a science article found on a different source, but with factual inaccuracies introduced throughout. The combination of low quality MC and lack of E-A-T justify the Lowest+ to Low rating. The title of the article is misleading and does ● Unsatisfying MC for the purpose of the not reflect the actual content of the page. The Low: News 2 page: does not achieve the purpose well MC does not explain how to get rid of toxins or ● MC lacks accuracy or does not align with what the word "toxins" in the headline refers to. Article titled "Getting Rid Of well-established expert consensus Toxins After The Holiday Season" ● Slightly misleading, shocking, or The content also has many problems: the exaggerated title writing quality is poor, and the article includes ● Low E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page meaningless statements such as "water therapy is one of the easiest ways of beauty regimen since it will give enough moisture on the skin". The article fails to cite sources, and there is no evidence of E-A-T. ● Unsatisfying MC for the purpose of the Low: Informational page: does not achieve the purpose well This page and website have many ● Ads or SC significantly distract from or characteristics of Low quality pages. Close 40th birthday party food ideas interrupt the use of MC observation shows MC that contains mostly ● Low E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page commonly known information and poor quality writing, demonstrating a lack of effort. The MC is broken up by large Ads that significantly disrupt the user experience. Low: Article 1 This informational article has multiple Low ● Unsatisfying MC for the purpose of the quality characteristics leading to a Low or Article with tips for dressing for page: does not achieve the purpose well Lowest+ rating. There is a large amount of the office ● Low E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page "filler" or meaningless content and a complete lack of effort in editing. In addition, the MC contains only commonly known information with no expertise or first-hand experience shared by the content creator. Copyright 2025 64 Type of Webpage/Content Low Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation ● Unsatisfying MC for the purpose of the This informational article has multiple Low Low: Article 2 page: does not achieve the purpose well quality characteristics leading to a Low or ● MC lacks accuracy or does not align with Lowest+ rating. There is garbled or Using ginger for your health well-established expert consensus meaningless content, a complete lack of effort ● Low E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page in editing, and unrelated links in the middle of the page. Additionally, the article is on a health topic, and there are no signs that the content creator has relevant expertise or links to support the medical claims made in the article. Adopting a child significantly impacts the health and well-being of families. This is a YMYL topic. However, the steps listed here are merely commonly-known information that would be of little benefit to someone interested in adopting Low: Article 3 ● Unsatisfying MC for the purpose of the a child from Iraq. For example, step 1 says page: does not achieve the purpose well “Choose an adoption agency” and suggests How to adopt children from Iraq ● Low E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page looking in a phone book. This demonstrates a lack of effort in the creation of MC. There is almost no information specific to Iraq. There is no evidence of expertise on adoption from the description about the author. Note that some Ads have the same format as links to other articles on this website, potentially making it a bit harder for users to visually distinguish these Ads from the MC and SC. ● MC has low effort, low originality and little This page summarizes a discussion page . Low: Article 4 added value compared to the original source There is little original content. It requires low effort to summarize a discussion. This page offers little added value over the original source. Copyright 2025 65 Type of Webpage/Content Low Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Advice on stock investment could significantly impact a person’s financial decisions and Low: Financial security. This is a YMYL topic. Page with advice on picking a ● Low E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page The MC is superficial and includes mostly quality stock for investment commonly known information for this topic, e.g. "look at key statistics" or "find companies with rising revenue". There is no evidence that the author has financial expertise. Because this article gives advice on a YMYL financial topic, lacking expertise is a reason for a Low rating. Many patient hospitalizations and deaths occur Low: Medical due to the flu each year. This topic could significantly impact a person’s health. This is a Page with information about how ● Low E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page YMYL topic. long the flu lasts There is no evidence that the author has medical expertise. Because this article gives advice on a YMYL medical topic, lacking expertise is a reason for a Low rating. This page and website have many characteristics of Low quality pages. The MC is low quality and lacks important information. For example, it gives no indication of how to Low: Recipe 1 ● Unsatisfying MC for the purpose of the make a crust and doesn’t list premade crust as an ingredient. It would be very difficult to Apple pie recipe page: does not achieve the purpose well actually make an apple pie using this recipe. This page is lacking the kind of helpful content we expect in recipe pages, such as user reviews or comments. Without such information, it’s hard to tell if the recipe is any good. The small pink text at the top is not helpful for users. This is an example of distracting and disruptive Low: Recipe 2 Ads/SC: there are large Ads in the main column ● Ads or SC significantly distract from or pushing down the MC as well as highly Gluten-free New York cheesecake interrupt the use of MC distracting content on the right that are labeled recipe “Top Posts & Pages.” It is unclear whether these are SC or Ads. Additionally, the images in the Ads/SC are shocking, racy, and completely unrelated to the MC, which creates a poor user experience. Copyright 2025 66 Type of Webpage/Content Low Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation ● A large quantity of prominent filler makes Low: Recipe 3 it difficult to find the helpful MC ● Ads, SC and Filler MC distract from the The primary purpose of the page is to share a helpful MC recipe for Butterbeer. While helpful MC such as the ingredients and information about Butterbear are at the top of the page, significant scrolling is required to find the actual Butterbeer recipe. The "jump to recipe" link itself is difficult to find. The page has a large amount of content unrelated to Butterbeer between the Butterbeer ingredients and the Butterbeer recipe. The page has photos and reviews of many other unrelated foods at universal studios. In addition, Ads and SC and interstitials appear throughout causing additional scrolling to finally find the recipe towards the bottom. All of the above lead to a poor user experience. Note: A higher rating could be appropriate if the page were better organized, the recipe was prominently placed and easy to find, and there was less Filler, SC and Ads distracting from the helpful MC. Copyright 2025 67 6.0 Medium Quality Pages Medium pages have a beneficial purpose and achieve their purpose. There is nothing wrong with Medium quality pages. Expect to encounter many Medium quality pages in PQ rating tasks. To identify Medium quality pages, start by considering the fol owing: Initial Consideration Medium Quality Pages The purpose of the page Medium quality pages have a beneficial or non-harmful purpose. The potential for the page to cause harm as Medium quality pages are not expected to cause harm. described in these guidelines The topic of the page, the type of website, and A page on any topic or any type of website may qualify for Medium. the extent to which YMYL standards apply Give special scrutiny to pages on YMYL topics or websites needing a high level of trust, such as online stores. The title of the page Medium quality pages have titles that summarize the page. The role of Ads and SC on the page The Ads and SC do not block or significantly interfere with the MC on Medium quality pages. Remember : Many websites need monetization to share content with users. The presence or absence of Ads alone is not a consideration for PQ rating. Information provided by the website and Medium quality pages have adequate information about the website content creator and content creator for the purpose of the page. For stores or websites that process financial transactions, examine the customer service information. Important: For personal content shared on social media platforms or forums, an alias or username is adequate. Next, assess the page to determine if the criteria for Medium apply: Medium Page Quality Assessment Medium Quality Criteria Quality of the MC MC created with adequate ef ort, originality, talent, or skil such that the page achieves its purpose. Reputation of the website and content creator Not especial y positive nor especial y negative: Reputation information found about the website or content creator is not concerning, but not positive enough to justify a higher rating. Trustworthiness of the page: E-E-A-T Adequate level of E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page. Copyright 2025 68 6.1 Types of Medium Quality Pages There are two types of Medium quality pages: Type of Medium Page Description Nothing wrong, but nothing special All of the Medium Page Quality considerations and criteria apply. Mixed, but with some The page or website has some signs of High quality (E-E-A-T, quality of the MC, redeeming qualities positive reputation), but also has one sign or mild signs of Low quality. Important: For a page to receive a rating higher than Medium , it must meet the criteria described in the next sections on High and Highest page quality. For a page to receive a rating lower than Medium , it must meet the criteria for Low or Lowest page quality. Medium is a rating that applies to many pages you wil encounter in PQ rating tasks: many pages have nothing wrong, yet do not represent the high or highest quality content that's available online. 6.2 Examples of Medium Quality Pages Webpage/Type of Content Medium Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Medium: Encyclopedia Nothing wrong, but nothing special This is a short Wikipedia article about baroque Wikipedia article about baroque ● Adequate MC: achieves the purpose of pearls, a fairly narrow topic. This page pearls the page achieves its purpose but doesn’t display characteristics associated with a High rating, such as effort in the form of interesting and meaningful content. Medium: Humor Nothing wrong, but nothing special This page is from a humorous site that Page from a humorous site ● Adequate MC: achieves the purpose of encourages users to post photos with mouths the page drawn on them. This page achieves its purpose but doesn’t display characteristics associated with a High rating, such as effort in the form of discussion, engagement, or comments from other users. Medium: Entertainment 1 Nothing wrong, but nothing special This page is on a website dedicated to Article about “Keeping Up with the ● Adequate MC: achieves the purpose of entertainment news. This page achieves its Kardashians” show the page purpose but doesn’t display characteristics associated with a High rating, such as effort in the form of interesting and entertaining content, original images, etc. Copyright 2025 69 Webpage/Type of Content Medium Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Nothing wrong, but nothing special Medium: Entertainment 2 This page is from a news/entertainment ● Adequate MC: achieves the purpose of website. This page achieves its purpose but Article about Miley Cyrus the page doesn’t display characteristics associated with a High rating, such as effort in the form of interesting and entertaining content, original images, etc. Medium: Recipe 1 Nothing wrong, but nothing special This recipe was contributed by a cookbook author. However, the page has no SC related Mexi-Chicken Casserole on a ● Adequate MC: achieves the purpose of to the purpose of the page, such as reviews or newspaper website the page links to other recipes, etc. This page achieves its purpose but doesn’t display characteristics associated with a High rating, such as effort in the form of original images or comments from users who followed the recipe. Nothing wrong, but nothing special Medium: Recipe 2 This website is known for high quality content ● Adequate MC: achieves the purpose of about animals and the environment. This Recipe for cherry-topped cake the page particular page has a recipe for kids. There isn’t much MC or SC. This page achieves its purpose but it doesn’t display characteristics associated with a High rating, such as effort in the form of more detailed steps or inspiration. Copyright 2025 70 7.0 High Quality Pages High quality pages serve a beneficial purpose and achieve that purpose wel . High quality pages exist for almost any beneficial purpose you can imagine, from providing information to sel ing products to making people laugh to artistic expression. To identify High quality pages, start by considering the fol owing: Initial Consideration High Quality Pages The purpose of the page High quality pages have a beneficial purpose. The potential for the page to cause harm as High quality pages are not expected to cause harm. described in these guidelines The topic of the page, the type of website, and A page on any topic or any type of website may qualify for High. the extent to which YMYL standards apply Give special scrutiny to pages on YMYL topics or websites needing a high level of trust, such as online stores. The title of the page High quality pages have titles that summarize the page. The role of Ads and SC on the page The Ads and SC do not block or significantly interfere with the MC on High quality pages. Remember : Many websites need monetization to share content with users. The presence or absence of Ads alone is not a consideration for PQ rating. Information provided by the website and High quality pages have adequate information about the website and content creator content creator for the purpose of the page. For stores or websites that process financial transactions, examine the customer service information. Important: For personal content shared on social media platforms or forums, an alias or username is adequate. Next, assess the page to determine if the criteria for High apply: High Page Quality Assessment High Quality Pages must demonstrate at least one of the fol owing Quality of the MC MC created with a high level of ef ort, originality, talent, or skil such that the page achieves its purpose wel . Reputation of the website and content creator Positive reputation of the website for the topic of the page. Positive reputation of the content creator for the topic of the MC. Trustworthiness of the page: E-E-A-T High level of E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page. Copyright 2025 71 7.1 High Quality Main Content High quality MC should be satisfying for people visiting the page. High quality MC shows evidence of ef ort, originality, talent, or skil . For informational pages, High quality MC must be accurate and consistent with wel -established expert consensus when such consensus exists. Have high standards! If you aren't sure whether the content is high quality, try finding other pages on the same topic to help calibrate your assessment: "typical" and "average" pages on a topic general y have Medium (not High) quality MC. To help develop your standards, here are some examples of High quality MC in contrast with Low quality MC: High Quality MC: Details and Examples Low Quality MC: Details and Examples High level of effort: The website or content creators Low level of effort: The MC shows signs of a lack of worked hard to create content that achieves the purpose ef ort by the website or content creators. of the page. The MC is wel -organized, edited, and curated to support the purpose. ● Lack of curation or editing: Content that helps the page achieve its purpose is mixed with less helpful ● A news article with accuracy, depth, and clarity distracting or fil er content ● A Q&A page or forum post with meaningful ● Lack of content creation: A forum post with little discussion by multiple participants discussion or only superficial comments ● A wel -organized crafting tutorial page with clear, ● Lack of organization: A crafting tutorial page with helpful instructions so that others can make the lots of unhelpful "fil er" at the top and little ef ort put craft successful y into explaining how to make the craft (the purpose of the page) at the bottom High originality Low originality ● The MC is unique or original to the website ● Information is summarized from other sources with ● Original photos or video footage produced by the little added value website or content creator ● Photos or videos come from other sources ● The content on the page is unique to the content ● A summary of the perspectives of others, such as creators, such as a personal perspective based on summarizing product reviews written by others first-hand life experience High level of talent or skill Low level of talent or skill ● The MC showcases the talent of the creator, e.g. a ● A lack of adequate talent or skil prevents the page video of a talented content creator dancing from achieving its purpose, e.g. a how-to article on ● The MC al ows the page to achieve its purpose wel plumbing by someone who does not have the because the content creator has talent or skil , e.g. necessary skil to explain the steps accurately a how-to article on plumbing by a skil ed plumber 7.2 Positive Reputation Positive reputation of the website can be a reason for a High rating if the website is responsible for the MC. If the website is not responsible for the MC (e.g., posts on social media websites or forums), positive reputation of the content creator(s) can be a reason for the High rating. For non-YMYL topics, reputation information may be less formal. Popularity, user engagement, and user reviews can be considered evidence of reputation for non-YMYL websites: websites can be considered to have a positive reputation if they are popular and wel -known for their topic or content type. Remember: Many smal er websites and ordinary people have little reputation information available. A page can stil receive a High rating without reputation information. Copyright 2025 72 7.3 High Level of E-E-A-T Depending on the purpose of the page, topic, and type of website, a high level of E-E-A-T may be required for the page to achieve its purpose wel and be considered High quality. Pages with High E-E-A-T are trustworthy or very trustworthy. Experience is valuable for almost any topic. Social media posts and forum discussions are often High quality when they involve people sharing their experience. From writing symphonies to reviewing home appliances, first-hand experience can make a social media post or discussion page High quality. Expertise is required for satisfying content on a variety of topics, from hobbies such as photography to YMYL topics such as tax preparation. Think about the topic of the page and what expertise is needed to create satisfying, trustworthy content. There are many types of informal expertise that may be visible in the MC itself. Authoritative pages of al types can be found. Government tax websites are an authoritative source for tax forms. Local businesses and organizations may be go-to sources for local information. When looking at a page or website, consider whether it is considered a go-to, authoritative source for the type of information it is displaying. Trust is especial y important for High quality pages that involve processing financial transactions or cover YMYL topics. Even if the topic is not YMYL, trust may stil be required; for example, product reviews and pages of ering advice require at least some level of trust. While not al pages require a high level of trust, a trustworthy page is often a satisfying one. Think about the topic of the page. What kind of E-E-A-T is required for the page to achieve its purpose wel ? Copyright 2025 73 7.4 Examples of High Quality Pages Webpage/Type of Content High Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation The news on the homepage of a newspaper is High: News 1 ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of often on topics that significantly impact society. the page well This is a YMYL topic. Homepage of a newspaper ● Positive website reputation for the topic of the page This is the homepage of a newspaper that has won several prestigious awards and has a positive reputation for its objective reporting. The articles on the homepage are original reporting by professional journalists (effort, skill, and original content unique to this site). High: News 2 ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of This is an opinion piece written by the Editorial the page well Board of the largest newspaper in the U.S. Opinion article on a newspaper ● Positive website reputation for the topic of state of Minnesota. The page is clearly labeled website the page as an opinion piece, welcoming a new football ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page coach to the University of Minnesota. This is original content unique to this site that was created by a skilled editorial board with expertise in editorial opinion writing. High: Government agency The purpose of this page is to display the US Naval Observatory Master ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page official US Naval Observatory Master Clock Clock page time in 7 different time zones. The page displays the clock information in a clear, easy-to-read format. The Naval Observatory is highly trustworthy and authoritative for this type of information. High: Humor ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of the page well This website is well-known for its humorous, Article on a humor website ● Positive website reputation for the topic of the page satirical articles. This is a cute example of a satisfying and funny article (talent, skill, and original content unique to this site). This is an “about us” page on a restaurant website. This page provides information on High: Small business 1 ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of when the restaurant opened and what visitors the page well can expect. Other pages on the website Local fish & chips restaurant ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page provide information about the restaurant including the address, menu, other contact information, etc. The website is the go-to source for information about itself (Authoritative). The MC is high quality (effort, original content unique to this site). Copyright 2025 74 Webpage/Type of Content High Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation This is the News and Updates section of a High: Small business 2 ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of local preservation center selling poultry, the page well vegetables, and more (Expertise). The MC is Local preservation center ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page high quality (effort, original content unique to this site). Note: This example was added in 2014 so the “News and Updates” were timely. ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of High: Blog post the page well This is a blog post on a newspaper that has ● Positive content creator reputation for the won several prestigious awards. The author of Parenting article about strollers topic of the page this blog post has become known as an expert ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page on parenting issues (Expertise) and is a regular contributor to this and other media websites (positive content creator reputation). The MC demonstrates effort and is original to this site. The purpose of this page is to allow users to High: Shopping 1 ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of buy a school backpack. The page provides a the page well lot of different backpack options, and some of Backpack shopping page on a ● Positive website reputation for the topic of them have user reviews. popular store website the page ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page This is a well-known, reputable merchant, with detailed Customer Service information on the site, making it very trustworthy (Trust). The MC demonstrates effort, and the products on sale are unique to this site (effort, original content). High: Shopping 2 ● Positive website reputation for the topic of This company sells its own line of high end, Bathroom décor page on a store the page fashionable baby and children’s furniture and website ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page accessories. It has a positive reputation and expertise in these specific types of goods. Many products sold on the site are unique to this company. High: Video 1 ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of Saturday Night Live video on a the page well The MC of this video page is an episode of video website ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page Saturday Night Live, which represents original content produced by a talented organization with experience and expertise in producing humorous television shows. Copyright 2025 75 Webpage/Type of Content High Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation High: Video 2 ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of This is a humorous, high quality video, the page well illustrating the proper care and practical “An Engineer’s Guide to Cats” ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page benefits of cats (original content, talent). The video two engineers in the video are very experienced in cat ownership (Experience). For a humorous video like this one, experience (rather than formal expertise in cat care) is enough for it to have high E-E-A-T. High: Game ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of the page well Highly engaging game with multiple levels that Online game ● Positive website reputation for the topic of could entertain a child for hours (effort, original the page content, talent and skill in game design). This website has a positive reputation for educating children about animals, and this particular animal game is consistent with that reputation. This is a detailed article about the American Civil War. The citations support the E-E-A-T of this article. High: Encyclopedia ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of the page well There is a large quantity of in-depth, original Encyclopedia article about the ● Positive website reputation for the topic of content (effort, accuracy). This website has a American Civil War the page positive reputation as a good resource for finding a wealth of generally known facts about topics such as this one. Note: Although much of the content is visible on the mobile page, we consider the content under the headings (which you need to expand) to be part of the MC. (To see the screenshot, you will need to zoom in to the image.) Copyright 2025 76 8.0 Highest Quality Pages Highest quality pages serve a beneficial purpose and achieve that purpose very wel . The distinction between High and Highest is based on the quality of MC, the reputation of the website and content creator, and/or E-E-A-T. To identify Highest quality pages, start by considering the fol owing: Initial Consideration Highest Quality Pages The purpose of the page Highest quality pages have a beneficial purpose. The potential for the page to cause harm as Highest quality pages are not expected to cause harm. described in these guidelines The topic of the page, the type of website, and A page on any topic or any type of website may qualify for Highest. the extent to which YMYL standards apply Give special scrutiny to pages on YMYL topics or websites needing a high level of trust, such as online stores. The title of the page Highest quality pages have titles that summarize the page. The role of Ads and SC on the page The Ads and SC do not block or significantly interfere with the MC on HIghest quality pages. Remember : Many websites need monetization to share content with users. The presence or absence of Ads alone is not a consideration for PQ rating. Information provided by the website and Highest quality pages have adequate information about the website content creator and content creator for the purpose of the page. For stores or websites that process financial transactions, examine the customer service information. Important: For personal content shared on social media platforms or forums, an alias or username is adequate. Next, assess the page to determine if the criteria for Highest apply: Highest Page Quality Assessment Highest Quality Pages must demonstrate at least one of the fol owing Quality of the MC MC created with a very high level of ef ort, originality, talent, or skil such that the page achieves its purpose very wel . Reputation of the website and content creator Very positive reputation of the website for the topic of the page. Very positive reputation of the content creator for the topic of the MC. Trustworthiness of the page: E-E-A-T Very high level of E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page. Copyright 2025 77 8.1 Very High Quality MC Very high quality MC should be highly satisfying for people visiting the page. Very high quality MC shows evidence of a high level of ef ort, originality, talent, or skil . For informational pages, very high quality MC must be accurate, clearly communicated, and consistent with wel -established expert consensus when it exists. Very high quality MC represents some of the most outstanding content on a topic or type that's available online. The standards for Highest quality MC may be very dif erent depending on the purpose, topic, and type of website. Here are some examples of Highest quality original content: ● For news : Original reporting that provides information that would not otherwise have been known had the article not revealed it. Accurate, original, in-depth, and investigative reporting requires a high level of skil /talent and ef ort. Very high quality news content wil include a description of primary sources and other original reporting referenced during the content creation process. Very high quality news content must be accurate and should meet professional journalistic standards. ● For artistic content (videos, images, photography, writing, etc.): Unique and original content created by highly skil ed and talented artists or content creators. Such artistic content requires a high level of skil /talent and ef ort. If the artistic content is related to a YMYL topic (e.g., artistic content with the purpose of informing or swaying opinion about YMYL topics), YMYL standards should apply. ● For informational content: Original, accurate, comprehensive, clearly communicated, and should reflect expert consensus as appropriate. Expectations for dif erent types of information may vary. For example, scientific papers have a dif erent set of expectations than a social media post sharing information about a hobby such as stamp col ecting. However, al types of very high quality informational content share common characteristics of accuracy and clarity of communication, in addition to meeting standards appropriate to the topic or field. The Highest rating may be justified for pages with very satisfying MC created with a very high level of ef ort, originality, talent, or skil . 8.2 Very Positive Reputation Reputation research is important when giving Highest ratings. For YMYL topics, very positive reputation is often based on recommendations from known experts or professional societies appropriate to the topic of the page. Prestigious awards may be evidence as wel , depending on the topic and type of content. For non-YMYL topics, reputation information may be less formal. Popularity, user engagement, and user reviews can be considered evidence of reputation for non-YMYL websites: websites and content creators can be considered to have a very positive reputation if they are seen as one of the best sources available online for a topic or type of content. Remember: Many smal er websites and ordinary people have little reputation information. A page can stil receive a Highest rating without reputation information. 8.3 Very High Level of E-E-A-T Very high E-E-A-T is a distinguishing factor for Highest quality pages. A website or content creator who is the uniquely authoritative, go-to source for a topic has very high E-E-A-T. A content creator with a wealth of experience may be considered to have very high E-E-A-T for topics where experience is the primary factor in trust. A very high level of expertise can justify a very high E-E-A-T assessment. Very high E-E-A-T websites and content creators are the most trusted sources on the internet for a particular topic. Think about what E-E-A-T means for the topic of the page. How important is first-hand experience? Who are the experts? What makes a source highly authoritative for the topic? What makes a website or content creator trustworthy for the topic? Standards for very high E-E-A-T wil dif er depending on the topic of the page. Copyright 2025 78 8.4 Examples of Highest Quality Pages Webpage/Type of Content Highest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Reporting on environmental toxicity can significantly impact the health and financial security of people, businesses and government ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose agencies. This page is on a YMYL topic. Highest: News 1 of the page very well ● Very positive website reputation for the This is a feature article from a newspaper that Article on a newspaper website topic of the page has won numerous awards (very positive ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the reputation of the website). page The page has a comprehensive amount of very high-quality MC, including in-depth reporting (effort, original content unique to this site, skill, accuracy) by authors with extensive knowledge and experience in investigative journalism (Expertise). This is an article on a newspaper website that has won a variety of awards. ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose Highest: News 2 of the page very well The article has a comprehensive amount of ● Very positive content creator reputation very high quality MC that is unique and original, Article on a newspaper website for the topic of the page including in-depth investigative reporting by two ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the authors with extensive knowledge and page experience in investigative journalism (effort, original content unique to this site, skill, accuracy). The reporters were finalists for a prestigious news award for the investigative reporting of this article (very positive reputation of the content creators). This page is on a well-known fact-checking and debunking website that covers urban legends, ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose Internet rumors, and other stories of unknown Highest: Informational 1 of the page very well or questionable origin (very positive reputation ● Very positive website reputation for the of the website). Fact-checking page on an topic of the page Internet rumor debunking website ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the The page has a very satisfying amount of page original MC for users seeking to validate a photo claiming to have discovered a mermaid (effort, skill in fact checking, original content). Users can trust the information on this page due to the website's positive reputation and high level of expertise in debunking stories of this type. Copyright 2025 79 Webpage/Type of Content Highest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose This page has very satisfying MC for users Highest: Informational 2 of the page very well interested in ball gown wedding dresses. An ● Very positive website reputation for the abundance of pictures, plus options to view by Ball gown wedding dress page topic of the page price range, style, etc., are part of what makes this page so satisfying (effort demonstrated in the depth and types of content). This page is on a very popular wedding planning website (very positive reputation of the website). Highest: Government agency ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose This page has very satisfying and helpful of the page very well information about Yosemite National Park, Yosemite National Park ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the including traffic alerts and links to other parts of information page the website with additional information (effort, accuracy). Since the page is on the official national park website, it is uniquely authoritative (highest E-E-A-T). Highest: Technical 1 ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of the page very well This page offers very satisfying and helpful MC Software tips ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the for the purpose of the page. Because the page page is on the official website of the company that produces the software, it is highly authoritative (highest E-E-A-T). From this Wikipedia article , we learn that “Kernel.org is a main repository of source code for the Linux kernel, the base of the popular Highest: Technical 2 ● Very positive website reputation for the Linux operating system. It makes all versions topic of the page of the source code available to all users... The Linux Kernel archives ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the main purpose of the site is to host a repository page for Linux kernel developers and maintainers of Linux distributions.” This website is the most authoritative source for information about Linux (highest E-E-A-T) and has a very positive reputation in the topic of the page. Copyright 2025 80 Webpage/Type of Content Highest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Credit reports significantly impact a person’s financial choices and opportunities. This is a Highest: Financial 1 ● Very positive website reputation for the YMYL topic. topic of the page Credit report information website ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the Users in the U.S. can obtain free credit reports page on this website by providing their Social Security Number. This Wikipedia article tells us that this website is “the only federally mandated and authorized source for obtaining a free credit report". This website is uniquely authoritative (highest E-E-A-T) and has a very positive reputation for credit report information. Income tax forms significantly impact a person’s financial security. This is a YMYL Highest: Financial 2 ● Very positive website reputation for the topic of the page topic. Tax forms page ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page The purpose of the page is to provide income tax forms and publications. The website represents an agency of the U.S. federal government that handles taxes, so the page and forms are uniquely authoritative and trustworthy. Highest: Magazine Article 1 ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of the page very well This article is on a magazine website that has Article titled “Secret Fears of the ● Very positive website reputation for the won multiple National Magazine awards (very Super-Rich” topic of the page positive reputation for this type of article). The article has in-depth MC that is unique and original (effort, skill, original content). Highest: Magazine Article 2 ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of the page very well This magazine is very well-known and well regarded for content about artists and bands, Interview with musical artist ● Very positive website reputation for the topic of the page and specifically has a positive reputation for interviews with musicians. This article features in-depth, original content in its interview with the artist. Copyright 2025 81 Webpage/Type of Content Highest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation BMI is used by healthcare professionals to screen for various health issues and can significantly impact a person’s medical treatment. This is a YMYL topic. Highest: Medical 1 ● Very positive website reputation for the topic of the page The purpose of this page is to provide an online BMI (Body Mass Index) calculator. The BMI calculator ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page calculator is functional and easy to use. This page was created with effort and skill, and it accomplishes its purpose very well by offering very high quality and satisfying MC. The website represents an institute that is part of the National Institutes of Health. It has an extremely good reputation and is an expert in medical topics. Information about meningitis could significantly Highest: Medical 2 ● Very positive website reputation for the topic of the page impact a person’s health. This is a YMYL topic. Page about meningitis ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page This is a meningitis reference page on a trustworthy and authoritative website for a nonprofit medical research group. This website has a reputation of being one of the best web resources for medical information. Many patient hospitalizations and deaths occur due to the flu each year. This topic could Highest: Medical 3 ● Very positive website reputation for the topic of the page significantly impact a person’s health. This is a YMYL topic. Page about seasonal flu ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page This is an influenza reference page on a trustworthy and authoritative medical website. This website has a reputation of being one of the best web resources for medical information of this type. Information about hospital services and Highest: Medical 4 ● Very positive website reputation for the treatments could significantly impact a person’s topic of the page ability to seek and receive healthcare. This is a Health information on a hospital ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the YMYL topic. page page According to this Wikipedia article , this hospital is “currently regarded as one of the top 4 hospitals in the United States as rated by U.S. News & World Report .” Users can trust medical information on this website. Copyright 2025 82 Webpage/Type of Content Highest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation The purpose of this page is to provide information about, and allow users to buy, a ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose specific type of school backpack. The page provides a lot of helpful product information, as Highest: Shopping of the page very well ● Very positive website reputation for the well as 600 user reviews (effort, original content). Backpack shopping page topic of the page ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page Since the store produces this backpack (unique product), they are experts on the product, making the page on their own website authoritative (highest E-E-A-T). In addition, this store has a reputation for producing one of the highest quality and most popular school backpacks on the market. Accessing one’s financial information Highest: Login ● Very positive website reputation for the topic of the page significantly impacts a person’s financial decisions and security. This is a YMYL topic. Online banking login page ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page This page has login functionality and clear information about what the user is logging into. This is a large, popular bank that has a good reputation and is considered highly trustworthy. Highest: Charity ● Very positive website reputation for the topic of the page Disaster relief significantly impacts people and society in a time of crisis. This page is on a Homepage of a charity ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page YMYL topic. This is a highly reputable charity according to multiple charity rating organizations. Highest: PDF File ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose This PDF file is a detailed campus map of a of the page very well major university, which is hosted on the official Campus map ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the university website. This is a highly authoritative page source for this information. The map includes a listing of all the buildings, parking structures, parking lots, construction areas, etc. (effort, skill, accuracy). Highest: Recipe ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of the page very well The author of this blog has documented her Chocolate chip cookie recipe on a ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the extensive experimentation with a chocolate recipe blog page chip cookie recipe (Experience), and her expertise and skill is demonstrated in the large quantity of unique, original, and very satisfying MC. Copyright 2025 83 Webpage/Type of Content Highest Quality Justification PQ Rating and Explanation Highest: Video 1 ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose This is a high quality, professionally produced of the page very well video on the band’s official channel. The music The band OK Go’s music video ● Very positive website reputation for the video represents unique and original content for the song “This Too Shall Pass” topic of the page created by a highly skilled and talented musical artist (talent, skill, effort, original content). In addition, this video sharing website has a positive reputation for hosting official music videos from bands. This is an amateur video that went viral, Highest: Video 2 ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose created by a film school student about his of the page very well mother's cat. It won the “Golden Kitty Award” “Henri 2, Paw de Deux” video ● Very positive website reputation for the for “Best Cat Video On The Internet” at topic of the page the Walker Art Center's Internet Cat Video Film Festival. The video is unique and original content created with a high level of effort. In addition, this video sharing website has a positive reputation for cute cat videos. ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose Highest: Video 3 of the page very well The MC of this video page is an episode of ● Very positive content creator reputation Saturday Night Live on the TV network’s official Saturday Night Live video on the for the topic of the page website, which is a go-to source for this TV network’s website ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the content. The episode represents high quality page and original content created by a TV show that has won numerous awards. Below the main video, there are many other videos that users may be interested in. Copyright 2025 84 9.0 Page Quality Criteria for Specific Types of Pages 9.1 Ratings for Encyclopedia Pages There are many encyclopedia-type websites. Some are highly-respected publications that are standard references, while some are websites with content created and edited by anonymous users, with no editorial oversight or fact checking. We may not always know the author of the specific encyclopedia article, and therefore must rely on website reputation research to determine the E-E-A-T of the article. High and Highest quality ratings should only be used for encyclopedias with very good reputations for accuracy and expertise, where the article itself is wel -researched with appropriate references cited. A note about Wikipedia: in general, the website has a good reputation and is a very popular resource that is general y valued for accuracy. However, there is no single author or organization that vouches for the accuracy of Wikipedia articles, and the quality of pages varies. You should check individual articles to evaluate the quality of the MC. A Wikipedia article on a non-YMYL topic ( example ) with a satisfying amount of accurate information and trustworthy external references can usual y be rated in the High range. A PQ rating in the Medium range is often appropriate for pages with less extensive MC and external references. Natural y, Wikipedia articles with very little MC should get lower PQ ratings. Factual inaccuracy is a suf icient reason for a Low or Lowest rating. 9.2 Ratings for Pages with Error Messages or No MC In PQ rating tasks, you may encounter pages with error messages or other types of "broken" pages. Please think about whether the page of ers help for users—did the website owner make an ef ort to ensure that users visiting the page have a good experience and get help finding what they are looking for? Pages with an explicit error (or custom 404) message are often Medium quality, since they tend to clearly communicate that there's a problem and help users navigate to other/better pages on the website. A rating of High (or occasional y even Highest ) may be used for the rare error message page that involves a high level of ef ort and original content and provides a truly satisfying experience for users. Pages that are "broken" are often Low quality, because the broken aspect prevents them from achieving their purpose even if the problem is temporary and likely to be fixed later on by the website owner. However, sometimes "broken" pages should be rated Lowest if the problem is not temporary and instead is due to a systemic problem with the website. To dif erentiate between Low quality (temporarily broken) vs. Lowest quality (evidence of a systemic problem) pages, check other pages on the same website. If many other pages have the same problem, there is a systemic lack of ef ort on the part of the website owner that justifies the Lowest rating. Otherwise, use the Low rating to reflect the (hopeful y temporary!) issue with the MC on the page. Here are some examples: Webpage/Type of Content Characteristics of the Page PQ Rating and Explanation ● No MC Lowest: Deliberately created with ● Content created with little to no effort, little This is an example of a page with no MC. You no MC (systemic problem) to no originality, and little to no added might think that the MC is “missing” due to a value for website visitors problem with this particular page, but in fact, this website has hundreds of pages that look the same—no MC, just Ads. This website shows Ads with little or no attempt to help users, and should be rated Lowest quality. Copyright 2025 85 Webpage/Type of Content Characteristics of the Page PQ Rating and Explanation This page has no MC and no error message. It Low: Page didn't fully load and ● No MC (probably due to a temporary is an isolated example of a page with no MC or has no MC (temporarily broken) technical error) ● Positive website reputation error message on a website for a reputable newspaper for a town in Michigan. All of the navigation links work, and the page was later fixed. This page can be viewed as lacking in effort (an error that was not caught before the page went live). This is an example of a “custom 404” page, alerting users that the URL they are trying to visit no longer exists. Some websites do a nice Medium: Error page with custom job of alerting users about a problem and 404 message ● Nothing wrong, but nothing special providing helpful tips. This page is on a well-known merchant website with a good reputation. However, this particular page displays the bare minimum of content needed to explain the problem to users, and the only helpful content is a link to the homepage. High: Error page with custom 404 ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of message the page well This is an example of a “custom 404” page, ● Positive website reputation alerting users that the URL they are trying to visit no longer exists. This website does a nice job of explaining the issue and providing helpful tips, including a search box. This is an example of a “custom 404” page. These pages are designed to alert users that the URL they are trying to visit no longer exists. The MC of this page is the cartoon, the caption, Highest: Error page with custom ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose and the search functionality, which is specific to 404 message of the page very well the content of the website. It is clear that effort ● Very positive website reputation and talent was involved in the creation of the MC. This publication has a very positive reputation and is specifically known for its cartoons, which allows us to go as high as High+ to Highest. This is among the most clever, original, and satisfying custom 404 messages that can be found online! Copyright 2025 86 9.3 Ratings for Forums and Q&A Pages Ratings for forum and Q&A pages can be chal enging. Here is some guidance on how to approach these pages: ● The Main Content includes the question, the answers/responses, and the resulting discussions. ● Rate from the point of view of a user who visits the page , rather than a participant involved in the discussion. ● Users who post answers/responses or comments are often identified only by a username or alias. A page can be High or Highest quality with just usernames or aliases depending on other criteria. ● The E-E-A-T of a discussion among users can often be judged by the posts or comments themselves. ○ For some topics, Experience is the most important dimension of Trust. For other topics, assessing Expertise through the posts may be important. In some cases, the posters themselves wil highlight either their own Experience or Expertise, or other people wil comment on it. ○ Pages on YMYL topics require more attention to Trust and more care in the assessment of E-E-A-T. ● Highest quality forum/Q&A pages have extremely satisfying conversations, including participation from users who have put a great deal of ef ort into their posts and have a wealth of Experience and/or Expertise on the topic. Such conversations can be very satisfying because of the depth of discussion, the unique insights, or the sharing of experiences that many would not have access to in their real-world community. ● Low quality forum/Q&A pages often lack ef ort (few responses, surface-level rather than in-depth discussion), lack Experience or Expertise, contain mild inaccuracies, or show a significant lack of respect or decorum among the participants that might deter others from joining the discussion. ● Lowest quality forum/Q&A pages may contain information or advice that is harmful y misleading, contradicts wel -established expert consensus, encourages harm towards self or other individuals/participants, etc. One chal enge is rating pages with little to no participation, and/or no answer to an open question: ● A new page or recently started discussion that consists only of a question or initial post by a person should general y be rated Medium unless there are other low quality attributes. These pages may need time to achieve their purpose. ● Over time, no participation in a discussion (or only superficial discussion) and/or no meaningful answer to an open question may be a reason for a Low quality rating, especial y in the presence of other low quality attributes. Another chal enge occurs when the discussion on the page drifts, becomes combative, or becomes dominated by misleading or spammy content. When rating, value the insightful, meaningful discussion that exists. If the page is a mix of high and low quality characteristics but has insightful, meaningful discussion, the Medium rating may be most appropriate as long as the page is not potential y harmful. Here are some examples: Copyright 2025 87 Webpage/Type of Content Characteristics of the Page PQ Rating and Explanation Information about chest pain and smoking could significantly impact people’s decisions to seek medical treatment. This page is on a YMYL topic. This page must be evaluated from the point of ● Harmfully Misleading Information: view of a user visiting this page from a search Lowest: Q&A page about chest Contains inaccurate and potentially engine, rather than a participant. The question pains and smoking dangerous medical advice about a YMYL is poorly worded and difficult to understand. topic There aren't many responses. One response correctly warns about the danger of smoking cigarettes but suggests smoking marijuana instead. Another response suggests that it's fine to keep smoking and that aspirin can be used to address pain. The last response lacks respect: it asks if the person who asked the original question is stupid. The answers have incorrect and potentially dangerous medical advice, making it lowest quality MC. Please read the MC (areas with red boxes around it), including the completely unhelpful "answer." This answer is so unhelpful, we can consider this question to be unanswered. This Low: Q&A page about a 2002 ● Unsatisfying MC for the purpose of the page has an unsatisfying amount of MC. Volvo part page: does not achieve the purpose well ● Misleading page design In addition to a very unhelpful “answer,” the page design makes it difficult to distinguish the MC from Ads. For example, below the answer, we see a "sponsored answer," which has the same format as the real answer, but is actually an Ad and not an answer to the question—this is a misleading page design. Forums rely on user engagement to create Nothing wrong, nothing special satisfying MC. In this case, a real person has Medium: Forum page with a new posted a question that can lead to good question, posted by a person ● Real in-depth question, posted very discussion. The question is only hours old (at recently the time this example was created). ● No one has responded (yet) For new questions, discussions and threads, a Medium rating is appropriate if there are no low quality characteristics but also no opportunity for discussion yet. Copyright 2025 88 Webpage/Type of Content Characteristics of the Page PQ Rating and Explanation Mixed, but with some redeeming qualities: Medium: Forum page on an online auction website ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page The relative lack of effort/participation in the ● Unsatisfying MC for the purpose of the discussion and depth of the MC is balanced by page: does not achieve the purpose well the high E-E-A-T of this forum. This forum is dedicated to this kind of question and therefore has a high level of expertise. This forum is about dance topics, and many Mixed, but with some redeeming qualities: pages have expertise from a community of ballet dancers. On this particular page, Medium: Forum page on how to ● Adequate MC: achieves the purpose of participants have first-hand experience washing wash ballet shoes the page ballet shoes and make recommendations ● Ads or SC significantly distract from or based on their own experiences. interrupt the use of MC ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page This page is “mixed” because there is some distracting content that makes it hard to read the MC. However, this is not a beauty contest! Even though the page may be cluttered, there is some valuable E-E-A-T and helpful MC, making Medium a good rating for this page. ● MC is satisfying for the purpose of the The person who posted the first message on High: Forum post on the magic page: demonstrates effort, originality, this forum page provides a helpful resource on loop technique in knitting talent, or skill how to master the magic loop technique in ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page knitting (effort, skill). She also shares pictures of her own version using an old pair of blue jeans (original content). With over 20 years of experience knitting socks, we would consider her to be an expert on the topic. Many participants share their personal High: Q&A page about whether a ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of experiences with these products, giving details Roomba will work the page well such as how well certain models work with pet ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page hair (effort, first-hand experience, original content). There are many descriptions of participants’ own experiences with this product and how well it works for them, making the MC satisfying for the purpose of the page. Copyright 2025 89 Webpage/Type of Content Characteristics of the Page PQ Rating and Explanation This forum is a go-to source for discussions on luxury designer purses (positive website ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of reputation, experience, expertise, "go-to" High: Forum page on the page well authority). On this particular forum page, authenticating a purse ● Positive website reputation for the topic of members are consulting forum experts who the page have expertise authenticating bags from this ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page brand. These experts can tell if a particular bag is authentic or fake. The quality of the MC is high due to the level of effort, skill, and engagement among those who participate in the forum. While there is an ad at the top and a few ads within the forum message, it does not distract from the MC, which is easy to find. This discussion focuses on the landscaping for High: Forum page on landscaping ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of a particular paludarium (an aquarium with an aquarium the page well terrestrial and aquatic elements). There is a ● High E-E-A-T for the purpose of the page lot of discussion and interaction between forum members about the types of materials and species used in the aquarium (effort, original or unique content). The posts show expertise in a niche topic aquarium landscaping (experience, expertise). How long a person may live with a disease ● Very satisfying MC: achieves the purpose could significantly impact life decisions. This is of the page very well a YMYL topic. Highest: Q&A page about how ● Positive website reputation for the topic of long most cancer patients live the page This is a Q&A page on a medical question that ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the is well-answered by non-experts with life page experience. There are many responses describing how long a loved one lived after diagnosis. The focus of the page is experience, not medical advice. Many responses are based on personal experience and are helpful for this topic. ● Satisfying MC: achieves the purpose of the page well The purpose of the page is to answer questions Highest: Q&A page on ● Very positive website reputation for the about the usage of abbreviations, and it abbreviations topic of the page contains helpful information about common ● Very high E-E-A-T for the purpose of the abbreviation issues. This website has a very page good reputation as a reference for information on writing, publishing, etc. It is considered highly authoritative and trustworthy for the topic of the page. Copyright 2025 90 10.0 Page Quality Rating Tasks At first, PQ rating may seem dif icult. There are several aspects of the page and the website to look at and think about. Important : Do not struggle with each PQ rating. Please give your best rating and move on. If you are having trouble deciding between two ratings, use the lower rating. If you are torn between three ratings, choose the one in the middle. Do not consider the country or location of the page or website for PQ rating. For example, English (US) raters should use the same PQ standards when rating pages from other English language websites (UK websites, Canadian websites, etc.) as they use when rating pages from U.S. websites. In other words, English (US) raters should not lower the PQ rating because the page location (UK, Canada) does not match the task location. These guidelines are specific to "regular" webpages. Occasional y, you may be asked to rate a landing page that is not a webpage. For example, you may be asked to rate a PDF file, a PNG or JPEG image file, etc. When the landing page of the URL is not a webpage, some of the criteria in these guidelines may not apply. In this case, please use your judgment. Final y, this Page Quality Rating Guideline does not completely cover every aspect of page quality. If you find pages that you truly believe to be High or Low quality, please rate them as such, even if the reason is based on something not covered in these guidelines. Please use the comment section to explain your reasoning. As always, use your judgment. 10.1 Instructions for Rating Page Quality Tasks The Page Quality task page is broken up into several parts: 1. Some initial questions about the task landing page. 2. A “PQ grid” to record your observations about PQ characteristics of the landing page. 3. The Overal PQ rating slider which records your Overal PQ rating. 4. A comment box to explain your rating. Some results to the initial questions wil end the task early. If the page is Porn, Foreign Language, Did Not Load, or consists of restricted or inaccessible MC (e.g., subscription is required to view MC), you wil not fil in the PQ grid or assign an overal rating. ● Foreign Language should not be used when the language on the landing page is in the task language, a language that is commonly used by a significant percentage of the population in the task location, or English. ● Did Not Load should be used for pages where there is absolutely no content on the page created by the website. There is no MC, SC, or Ads on the page. See this Wikipedia article for descriptions of dif erent types of error messages. The PQ grid is designed to be your "note pad." It al ows you to record your observations about the landing page and the website it belongs to. Copyright 2025 91 11.0 Page Quality Rating FAQs Question Answer With practice, the amount of time needed for accurate PQ ratings wil decrease. The Why do we have to do all steps are important and are designed to help you assess many dif erent aspects of PQ. these steps? This takes a You may be surprised by what you find. Pages that initial y look Low quality may turn long time! out to be Medium or High quality with careful inspection. The reverse may happen as wel . We want your most informed, thoughtful opinion. Are we just giving High quality ratings to pages that No! The goal is to do the exact opposite. These steps are designed to help you “look” good? analyze the page without using a superficial “does it look good?” approach. Sharing a personal experience or opinion can be a beneficial purpose as it al ows people to appreciate dif erent perspectives. Content on the Internet can help people understand why others think and feel the way they do. Is sharing a personal It can be valuable to see the opinions and perspectives of others, even when they are experience or opinion a of -putting, distasteful, upsetting, or of ensive to you personal y. Apply the standards of beneficial purpose? What if these guidelines rather than your own personal opinions or views. the personal opinion is upsetting or offensive? However, sometimes opinions and perspectives can spread misleading information or otherwise have the potential to cause harm. Therefore, apply the standards in these guidelines to al types of pages and content. Remember : Your assessment of harm happens before and overrides other considerations such as the life experience or expertise of the content creator. Factual information and advice on YMYL topics should come from experts. Sharing life experience on YMYL topics can be Highest quality, but it must be trustworthy, safe, consistent with wel -established expert consensus, and speak to topics that life experience is valuable for. Can life experience justify a Highest quality rating for a For example, information about when and where to vote is a YMYL topic. It's possible page on a YMYL topic? to have a Highest quality page that shares life experience about voting, such as an inspiring personal post about becoming a citizen and voting for the first time. However, if a page about someone's voting experience gives inaccurate information about when and where to vote either deliberately or through careless oversight, the page should be rated Lowest because it could cause others to miss the opportunity to vote. Remember that we are not just talking about formal expertise. Informal expertise is equal y important, and for some topics may be a more common type of E-E-A-T. You talked about expertise For most page purposes and topics, you can find experts even when the field itself is when rating MC. Does niche or non-mainstream. For example, there are expert alternative medicine websites expertise matter for all created by leading practitioners of acupuncture, herbal therapy, etc. There are also topics? Aren't there some pages about alternative medicine written by people with no expertise or experience. topics for which there are E-E-A-T should dif erentiate between these two scenarios. no experts? Reminder : If the page is harmful to people or society, untrustworthy, or spammy as defined in these guidelines, expertise and experience doesn't matter. It should be rated Lowest . Copyright 2025 92 Question Answer Here's one way to think about it: ● Expertise often involves objective, testable knowledge or skil s, for example: can you calculate the load bearing weight of a bridge? ● Experience can be more subjective and is often shared through personal When I think about E-E-A-T, narration, for example: how does it feel to experience love for another person? it seems like expertise and experience overlap a lot. For PQ rating, it's not important to distinguish between expertise and experience. What's the difference? Instead, focus on what kind of content is trustworthy and satisfying for the purpose of the page. You may find that both expertise and experience can be trustworthy and satisfying for the same topic. For example, a medical website may be a trustworthy source for treatment options, and the experiences of other people who have gone through treatment may provide emotional support and prepare you for what to expect. For almost any type of page or informational topic, there is a range of content quality. Aren't some types of pages For example, there are both High and Low quality celebrity gossip pages. The purpose always Low quality, such as of these pages is to share interesting, accurate information about celebrities. There celebrity gossip? may be benefits in celebrity stories that inspire others or help people going through similar chal enges. A celebrity gossip page is High quality if it has accurate and interesting information, has no characteristics of Low or Lowest quality, and comes from a reasonably reliable source. I've never seen a High quality page of type X. If there are no high quality For some topics or types of pages, there may not be many (or any!) High quality pages pages of this type, why are now, but there may be in the future. We need a uniform set of standards that apply to we giving existing pages a al pages, even for pages that have not yet been created. Low quality rating? Some of these criteria seem unfair. For example, some Art pages do have a purpose: artistic expression. Pages created for artistic expression art pages do not have a do not deserve the Low quality rating simply because they have no other purpose. purpose. Are these pages Artistic expression, humor, entertainment, sharing photos and videos, etc. are al valid Low quality? and beneficial page purposes. Sometimes clicking on the task URL wil bring up an interstitial page. You can ignore How should interstitials this page in your rating criteria if you can easily get to the MC. However, if the factor into my rating? interstitial makes it extremely hard (or impossible) to get to the MC and evaluate how wel the page achieves its purpose, that should factor into your PQ rating. Copyright 2025 93 Part 2: Understanding Search User Needs 12.0 Understanding Search Users, Queries, and Results Why do people search the Internet? People use Internet search engines to perform many dif erent tasks in dif erent environments using dif erent types of devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops, or computers. Keep in mind that searches can be simple or complex, and the underlying task that a person is trying to accomplish may take multiple steps to complete. For example, a simple task may be to find the director of a movie. A complex task may be to find a movie’s showtimes nearby, purchase tickets, and get directions to go to the theater. Overal , search engines should make it easy for people to complete tasks by surfacing helpful results right away. 12.1 Important Rating Definitions and Ideas User: A person who is searching. People search everywhere: people in al countries, speaking al languages; people of al ages, genders, races, religions, political af iliations, etc. Query : The text, image and/or other content that a user enters in a search engine search box or search app to do a search. In these guidelines, queries have square brackets around them to look like a search box. If a user says “cof ee shops near me,” we display: [cof ee shops near me]. If a user types “flights to New York” in the search box, we display: [flights to New York]. Queries may be spoken, typed, copied and pasted, come directly from a camera or other app, and/or be related searches that appear in search results. There are many dif erent types of queries because people use search to do many things, from searching for specific websites to looking for answers to questions to browsing videos for inspiration to searching with an image to figure out where to buy a product. Query interpretation : The possible meaning(s) of the query or what the query may refer to. Many queries have more than one meaning. For example, the query [apple] might refer to the computer brand or the fruit or something else. User Intent : What the user is trying to accomplish when they search. For example, if a user searches for a movie, they may be interested in showtimes, reviews, cast, etc. For a specific query interpretation, there may be many possible user intents. A single user may have many dif erent intents for a single query! Copyright 2025 94 Locale : All queries have a locale, which is the language and region for the task. Regions are represented by a two-letter country code, for example, "US" in the locale "English (US)". For a current list of country codes, click here . We sometimes refer to the locale as the task location. User Location : Sometimes more specific information about the location of the person searching is provided, usual y a city or state. In rating tasks, this information may be shown on a map. User location is very important for understanding the query and what results are helpful for searches related to nearby places, such as [cof ee shops near me]. For other searches such as [how does gravity work], user location is not important at al , as gravity works the same way everywhere. Search Engine Results Page (SERP): The page a search engine shows after a user enters a query in the search box. The SERP is made up of result blocks . Result : We wil use the word result to refer to the result block and the landing page. ● Result Block: This is an individual “block” that appears on the user’s device in response to the query. The result block may display information in the block itself or contain links, or may do both. ● The Landing Page ( LP ) is the page you see after you click a link in the result block. 12.2 Understanding the Query Understanding the query is the first step in evaluating the task. Remember, a query is what a user types or speaks into their device. Some tasks include a query research link, which you should use if you don’t understand the query or user intent. Otherwise, please do web research using Google or an online dictionary or encyclopedia. If you stil don’t understand the query or user intent, please release the task. Important : If you research the query on Google, please do not rely on the top results on the SERP. A query may have other meanings not represented on Google’s search results pages. Do not assign a high rating to a webpage just because it appears at the top of a list of search results on Google. Think about users in your locale typing or speaking the fol owing queries into their phone. Query User Intent [population of paris], English (US) Find the current population of Paris, France. [starbucks near me], English (US) Find the nearest Starbucks location. [weather], English (US) Find weather information in the user location right now. Copyright 2025 95 12.3 Locale and User Location All queries have a task language and task location (referred to in rating tasks as the "Locale"). The locale is important for understanding the query and user intent. Users in dif erent locales may have dif erent expectations for the same query. Some tasks show a user location in addition to a locale. However, for many or most queries in a given locale, the user location does not change our understanding of the query and user intent. Here are some examples: [facebook.com], [pictures of kittens], [distance between the earth and the moon]. When is the locale or user location important in understanding query interpretation and user intent? Please use both web research and your personal judgment to answer this question. Ask yourself, “Would people in one city or country be looking for something dif erent than people in another city or country?” Copyright 2025 96 12.4 Queries with an Explicit Location Sometimes people tel search engines exactly what kinds of results they are looking for by adding the desired location in the query, regardless of their own location. We'l cal this location inside the query the “explicit location.” The explicit location makes queries much easier to understand and interpret. “My mom is coming to visit. I need to find a “I need a hotel for my hotel for her nearby” trip to New York” Query: [ Dal as hotels] Query: [ New York hotels] Locale: English (US) Locale: English (US) User Location: Dal as,TX User Location: Dal as,TX Explicit Location: Dal as Explicit Location: New York Sometimes the explicit location matches the user location or locale, and sometimes it doesn't. When there is an explicit location in the query, pay attention to it! People use explicit locations to indicate exactly what they are looking for. Copyright 2025 97 12.5 Queries with Multiple Meanings Many queries have more than one meaning. For example, the query [apple] might refer to the computer brand or the fruit. We wil cal these possible meanings query interpretations . Dominant Interpretation : The dominant interpretation of a query is what most users mean when they type the query. Not al queries have a dominant interpretation. The dominant interpretation should be clear to you, especial y after doing a little web research. Common Interpretation : A common interpretation of a query is what many or some users mean when they type a query. A query can have multiple common interpretations. Minor Interpretation : Sometimes you wil find less common interpretations. These are interpretations that fewer users have in mind. We wil cal these minor interpretations . ● Reasonable minor interpretations : Reasonable minor interpretations may help fewer users, but they stil are helpful to have in a set of results because dif erent users may want dif erent things. ● Unlikely minor interpretations : An unlikely minor interpretation is an interpretation that is in theory possible but is very unlikely - very few users are likely to have this in mind. No chance interpretation : An interpretation so unlikely that almost no user would have this in mind. Results for no chance interpretations feel of -topic even if they match the query words. For example, almost no one wants a result about an overheated pet for the English US query [hot dog]. Copyright 2025 98 Query: [apple] Locale: English (US) Note: There are many interpretations for this query; only a few are shown for the purposes of this example. Computer company Fruit Person’s name City Dominant Interpretation Common Interpretations Unlikely Minor Interpretation Query: [mercury] Locale: English (US) Note: There are many interpretations for this query; only a few are shown for the purposes of this example. Planet Chemical Insurance Boat engine British aircraft Element company company designed during WWII Common Interpretations Reasonable Minor Interpretations Unlikely Minor Interpretations Copyright 2025 99 Some queries have few possible interpretations or intents because the query specifical y states what users are looking for. Here are some examples: Query User Location Reasonable query Not a reasonable query Interpretation/User Intent interpretation or user intent An emergency number for Lewis County is not a reasonable minor Users are looking for a intent. [lewis county non Centralia, WA, non-emergency number for help in emergency number] USA Lewis County, WA. Pay attention to important words in the user query, in this case, “non emergency”. Users can become frustrated when results ignore important words. Recipes for egg salad ( that do not include any nutritional information about egg salad) are not a reasonable minor intent for this Users are looking for health health information search. People information about egg salad, such may be interested in recipes as a as calories, fat, and the next step, but the user issuing the healthfulness of eggs and other query is specifical y looking for [is egg salad healthy] NA common egg salad ingredients, etc. health information, not food preparation. Some recipes may mention the query topic (such as healthier egg salad alternatives), but not actual y answer the user’s query. Pay attention to what users want and need for a search. Learning about mountain climbing opportunities in Bears Ears national monument is not a reasonable minor [can bears climb Users are looking for the answer to intent. mountains] NA a know-simple question about the climbing ability of bears. Just because a result matches several key words in the query does not mean it is relevant or helpful to the user. Copyright 2025 100 12.6 Query Meanings Can Change Over Time Remember to think about the query and its current meaning as you are rating. We wil assume users are looking for current information about a topic, the most recent product model, the most recent occurrence of a recurring event, etc., unless otherwise specified by the query. User in 1994 User in 2004 Query: [George Query: [George Bush] Bush] Locale: English (US) Locale: English (US) 41 st US president 43 rd US president User in 2007 User in 2022 Query: [iphone] Query: [iphone] Locale: English (US) Locale: English (US) iphone 1 iphone 13 The interpretation of the query [iphone], English (US) has changed over time as new iPhone models are released. The first iPhone was introduced in 2007. Users searching for [iphone], English (US) at that time were looking for the new (at the time) first iPhone model. Most users now are looking for the most recent or upcoming iPhone model. In the future, new models wil come out and the dominant interpretation wil change again. 12.7 Understanding User Intent It can be helpful to think of queries as having one or more of the fol owing intents. ● Know query, some of which are Know Simple queries ● Do query, when the user is trying to accomplish a goal or engage in an activity ● Website query, when the user is looking for a specific website or webpage ● Visit-in-person query, some of which are looking for a specific business or organization, some of which are looking for a category of businesses Copyright 2025 101 12.7.1 Know and Know Simple Queries The intent of a Know query is to find information or explore a topic. Users want to Know more about something. Know Simple queries are a special type of Know query. Know Simple queries seek a very specific answer, like a fact, diagram, etc. This answer has to be correct and complete, and can be displayed in a relatively smal amount of space. As a general rule, if most people would agree on a correct answer, and it would fit in 1-2 sentences or a short list of items, the query can be cal ed a Know Simple query. Know Simple queries may be questions such as [how tal is barack obama]. Frequently, Know Simple queries do not have question words. For example, [barack obama height] has the same user intent as [how tal is barack obama], but is not in a question format. Most queries are not Know Simple queries, such as: ● Broad, complex, and/or in-depth informational queries that do not have a short answer ● Ambiguous or unclear informational queries ● Informational queries on controversial topics ● Informational queries with no definitive “right answer” ● Queries where dif erent users may want dif erent types of information, or dif erent sources of information ● Queries where users want to browse or explore a topic ● Queries where users want to find inspiration or ideas related to a topic ● Queries where users are seeking personal opinions and perspectives from real people Here are some examples where the Know Simple query asks for a simple fact, which can be answered correctly and completely in a smal amount of space, and the Know query answer is more complex. Know Simple Query Know Query Explanation [barack obama height] The Know query is a broad information query and different [how tall is obama] [barack obama] users may be looking for different things (e.g., biography, books, social media posts, etc.). The Know query is a broad information query and different [new york city population 2013] [new york city] users may be looking for different things (e.g., tourist and trip planning information, facts, photographs, history). [who is graves disease named The Know query is a broad query for medical information after] [graves disease] and different users may have different needs. There is no single “answer” for this query. The Know query is a broad query for a particular service [macy’s store hours] [macy’s gift wrap options] offered by a department store, and does not have a short answer. [what is the symbol for the element nickel] [what nickel is used for] The Know query is a broad query and there is no short, complete answer. [who won the 2014 bcs national [who is going to win the bcs The Know query asks for an opinion and there is no championship game] national championship game] definitive answer. Even though the Know query is theoretically a yes/no [what is starbucks stock price] [should i invest in starbucks stock] question, there is not a single answer that everyone would agree on. Copyright 2025 102 Know Simple Query Know Query Explanation The query [weather] may seem like a broad information query, but most people likely have a fairly simple informational need: to find the current or upcoming temperature, and the chance of local weather events such as [weather] [how do people predict the rain or snow. Therefore, consider queries like [weather], weather] [weather today], [weather tomorrow], [weather this week] to be Know Simple queries. In contrast, the Know query is a broad information query and different users may be looking for different things. Users who issue the Know query are likely seeking [what is a bowl cut] [hair styles for men with round faces] inspiration for a new hair style. There is no definitive right answer for this query. The Know query is about a complicated and situational topic. [what is the social security Many users would issue this query with the intent of broadly retirement age] [retirement planning] exploring the topic, and different users would be better served by different information. 12.7.2 Do Queries The intent of a Do query is to accomplish a goal or engage in an activity. The goal or activity may be to download, to buy, to obtain, to be entertained by, or to interact with a website or app. Do queries may have a specific need to be immediately accomplished or they may be more open ended and involve browsing and subsequent searches to ultimately accomplish the goal. Note that the line between Do and Know queries is sometimes blurry, with some queries fitting into both categories. Don't worry about strictly dif erentiating between these two categories. They're given to il ustrate some big-picture patterns in user intents, and many queries do not fit neatly into one and only one of these categories. Here are some examples of Do Queries. Query Likely User Intent [get my GED online] Obtain U.S. high school equivalency diploma online. [online personality test] Take an online personality test. [what is my bmi?] Calculate BMI (body mass index). [pay parking ticket] Pay for a parking ticket. [watch stranger things] Watch the TV show “Stranger Things”. [shape of you video] Watch the music video for the song “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran The user did not ask for a specific music video, but this query still has a likely Do intent because [music videos] the user most likely issued the query with the intent of watching at least one music video after browsing options in the search results. Browse the web for ideas on ways to organize a small bathroom [small bathroom organization ideas] Note: This is an open-ended Do query where different kinds of content could be helpful. Some users may want to browse images and video to find visual inspiration, some may want to read how-to guides, and others may be interested in both. Copyright 2025 103 12.7.3 Website Queries The intent of a Website query is to locate a specific website or webpage that users have requested. This single webpage is cal ed the target of the query. One type of Website query is a URL Query, which can be: ● Exact, perfectly-formed, working URLs, such as [http://www.ibm.com] or [www.ibm.com] or [ibm.com]. ● Imperfect URL queries: Queries that look like URL queries, but are not “working URLs”. These URLs do not load if you type or paste them into your browser address bar. Even so, we believe users have a specific page in mind. Here are some examples. Query Likely User Intent [reddit login] View the login page for Reddit. [tiktok] View the TikTok website. [yahoo mail] View the Yahoo Mail website. [walmart.com] View the Walmart website. [feathermobility.com feather 13.5 lbs. wheelchair] View the Feather 13.5 lbs. wheelchair product page on the Feather Chair website. Copyright 2025 104 12.7.4 Visit-in-Person Queries and User Location People use search engines to look for Visit-in-Person information, such as finding nearby cof ee shops, gas stations, ATMs, restaurants, etc. Some queries clearly “ask” for nearby information or nearby results (e.g., businesses, organizations, other nearby places). Some queries are not asking for nearby information or nearby results. Here are some examples. Queries with Visit-in-Person Intent Query with Non-Visit-in-Person Intent “I want to find a car repair shop.” “How tal is Mount Everest?” Query: [car repair shop] Query: [how tal is mt everest] Locale: English (US) Locale: English (US) “I need to find a gas station right away!” “I would like to take an IQ test online.” Query: [gas stations] Locale: English (US) Query: [iq test] Locale: English (US) More examples : [pizza], [yoga class], [grocery stores], [movie More examples : [boston red sox], [scrabble cheat], [definition of showtimes], [car repair], [dentists], [bank of america atm sedentary], [aapl], [beyonce], [minecraft], [small dog breeds], locations], [library near me] [dance videos], [ oscars ], [silly jokes], [bank of america login] Copyright 2025 105 And some queries could go either way. Some users may want nearby results and others may not. “I want to go to a “I want to shop online Walmart near me.” on the Walmart website” Query: [walmart] Query: [walmart] Locale: English (US) Locale: English (US) Here are some examples of queries with both visit-in-person and non-visit-in-person intent: ● [hotels] ● [post of ice] ● [h&m] ● [library] ● [bank of america] ● [the gap] Sometimes, the user location can change our understanding of the query. For users close to Austin, Texas, the query [verbena] could have two dif erent interpretations: a popular restaurant named Verbena or the plant verbena. “What is the address “I want to learn more of Verbena?” about the plant verbena.” Query: [verbena] Query: [verbena] Locale: English (US) Locale: English (US) User Location: Austin,TX User Location: Austin, TX Copyright 2025 106 In most other user locations, there is no restaurant (or anything else) named Verbena and there is just one interpretation of the query [verbena]: the plant. The Austin restaurant is not wel -known outside of Austin, TX. “I want to learn more about the plant verbena.” Query: [verbena] Locale: English (US) User Location: Flint, MI Use your common sense when thinking about queries and whether they have possible visit-in-person intent. 12.7.5 Queries with Multiple User Intents Many queries have more than one likely user intent. Please use your judgment when determining if a particular intent is reasonable for queries with multiple intents. Because so many people search for so many things, err on the side of considering interpretations and intents to be reasonable and doing query research as needed. Query Examples of Reasonable User Intent Examples of Unlikely User Intent Depending on the user need and location, users may want This query is very broad. Different people may be to visit the official homepage ( Website ), get directions looking for different things. However, it's fairly unlikely [harvard] ( Visit-in-Person ), or learn more information about the that someone is looking for a one specific Harvard school such as the application process or history, see course such as "The Science and Psychology of Music" recent news, or updates on sporting events ( Know ). for the broad query [harvard]. Users may want to go to a nearby Walmart ( Visit-in-Person ) or view the homepage to shop online This query is very broad. Different people may be [walmart] ( Website ). Some users may want to learn more looking for different things. However, it's fairly unlikely information about the company or see recent news, social that someone is looking for a news article on Walmart's media posts, etc ( Know ). charitable donations from 2001 for the query [walmart]. Copyright 2025 107 12.8 Understanding Result Blocks The fol owing sections contain examples of dif erent types of queries and results. 12.8.1 Web Search Result Block Examples Web Search Result Blocks typical y have a title link, a URL and a “snippet” of text describing the page. For many queries, Web Search Result Blocks are the most helpful type of result. Query and User Intent Web Search Result Block Query: [cuisinart food processor reviews] User Intent: This is a Know query. The user wants to find recent reviews of Cuisinart food processors. Result: This is a Web Search Result Block that has a link to a landing page with Cuisinart reviews. Query: [broadway tickets] User Intent: This is a Know query or Do query. The user wants to search prices and/or purchase tickets to a Broadway show in New York City. Copyright 2025 108 12.8.2 Special Content Result Block Examples Special Content Result Blocks (SCRBs) appear in the search results page, along with Web Search Result Blocks. Special Content Result Blocks are designed to show content directly to users on the search results page. From working calculators to playable videos to interactive weather information, these results help users immediately get information or content. Some SCRBs may also have links to landing pages. Important : Please assume that any interactive features work and function properly. Some notes: ● All result blocks are “screenshots” or images of search results with prominent links enabled. Unfortunately, a screenshot or image of an interactive result block wil not function as it would for a real user. For the purpose of rating, please assume that interactive result blocks do function as intended . Try to interact with the result block as some links, buttons, or other features may work. ● There may be a delay between when the rating task is created and when you actual y rate the block, causing some information in special content result blocks to be a few hours or even days out of date. Stock price or weather informational blocks are designed to give users extremely current and timely information. However, due to a delay in rating time, the information may no longer be accurate. Don’t penalize a special content result block for being out of date. Assume that the blocks show current information for users, unless instructed otherwise. Query and User Intent Special Content Result Block Query: [weather] User Location: Chicago, Il inois User Intent: This is a Know Simple query since users have a fairly simple informational need: find the current temperature and chance of rain or snow. The user wants to know the weather for the User Location. Note: Assume the block shows current information for users. Copyright 2025 109 Query and User Intent Special Content Result Block Query: [emma stone movies] User Intent: This is a Know query. The user wants to get information on movies with Emma Stone. Result: In this result block, users can immediately see some popular movies starring Emma Stone, with an option to click on the links to learn more about each movie. Users can also swipe to see a list of more movies. Query: [calories in a banana] User Intent: This is a Know Simple query. The user wants to find out how many calories are in a banana. Copyright 2025 110 Query and User Intent Special Content Result Block Query: [NFL scores] User Intent: This is a Know query. The user wants to find the most recent National Footbal League scores. Query: [coldplay fix you video] User Intent: This is a Do query. The user wants to watch the music video for the song “Fix You” by Coldplay. Result: By clicking on this result block, users can play the music video for the song, learn more about the artist/album, etc. Copyright 2025 111 Query and User Intent Special Content Result Block Query: [what is the tal est tree] User Intent: This is a Know Simple query. The user wants to know what type of tree is the tal est. Copyright 2025 112 Part 3: Needs Met Rating Guideline 13.0 Rating Using the Needs Met Scale There are many dif erent kinds of queries and results, but the process of rating is the same: Needs Met rating tasks ask you to focus on user needs and think about how helpful and satisfying the result is for the users . This is what the Needs Met rating slider looks like: Rating Description A special rating category, which only applies to queries with clear intent to find one specific Fully Meets (FullyM) result and the corresponding specific result the user is looking for. A very helpful result for any dominant, common or reasonable minor query interpretation/user Highly Meets (HM) intent. A helpful result for any dominant, common or reasonable minor query interpretation/user Moderately Meets (MM) intent . A less helpful result for a dominant, common or reasonable minor interpretation/user intent Slightly Meets (SM) OR a helpful result for an unlikely minor query interpretation/user intent. A result that completely fails to meet the needs of al or almost al users. For example, the Fails to Meet (FailsM) result may be of -topic for the query or address a no chance interpretation of the query. Copyright 2025 113 13.1 Rating Result Blocks: Block Content and Landing Pages For Needs Met rating, you wil assign a rating to each result. Each result includes the content inside the result block and landing pages associated with the result. Which part of the result do you rate? If a rating task specifical y asks you to rate the Landing Page Needs Met or the Block Content Needs Met of each result, then you should fol ow the guidance in Section 13.1.1 . Unless these specific versions of Needs Met ratings are requested, you should fol ow the guidance below: Type of Block What to Rate The content inside this type of block should always play a large role in your rating. Special Content Result Block (SCRB) Some Special Content Result Blocks may have links to landing pages. In these cases, think about whether a user would click on the link in order to satisfy their Note: Assume that interactive user need. result blocks function as intended. Try to interact with the result block ● If most users would not click, rate the Special Content Result Block based as some links, buttons, or other on the block content alone. features in your rating task may ● If some or many users would click, you may consider the helpfulness of the work. landing page(s) in addition to the content in the block. In this case, both need to be helpful to justify a high rating. Web Search Result Block A click is required, and you should evaluate the landing page to assign a rating. Copyright 2025 114 For example, think about the query [what does love mean]. Result Block Query: [what does love mean] Rating Most users would probably not click on the Special Content Result Block, because the block contains a large amount of helpful content and has no Special Content Result Block obvious landing page link associated with it. Therefore, base your rating on the content inside the block itself. In this case, users would have to click on the web search result in order to get an Web Search Result Block answer to the question. Therefore, base your rating on the content of the landing page. Copyright 2025 115 Here are some examples of Special Content Result Blocks where the block should be rated primarily on the content inside the block itself. As always, please use your judgment. Query and Special Content Result Block Query : [utopia animal hospital] Query : [chicago weather] Query: [calories in a banana] Query : [how to find security code on Query : [how did Lincoln die] Query : [movies san francisco] visa] Note: The guidance in this section specifical y applies to Needs Met ratings. For Special Content Result Blocks that have landing pages, you may or may not also be asked to provide PQ ratings. In these cases, your PQ rating should always be based on the landing page. Please refer to Section 14.0 for more about the relationship between Needs Met and Page Quality ratings. Copyright 2025 116 13.1.1 Landing Page Needs Met Ratings and Block Content Needs Met Ratings In most cases, you should fol ow the instructions above when assigning Needs Met ratings. In some cases, though, a rating task may include special instructions that ask you to assign Landing Page Needs Met or Block Content Needs Met ratings. In these cases, fol ow the instructions below: Type of Needs Met Rating What to Rate Landing Page Needs Met ratings should be based exclusively on the landing Landing Page Needs Met page(s) links in the result block. This applies to both SCRBs and Web Search Result Blocks. The content that appears inside the result block should not factor into Landing Page Needs Met ratings. Block Content Needs Met ratings should be based exclusively on the content inside the result block. This applies to both SCRBs and Web Search Result Blocks. Do not click through to any landing pages when rating Block Content Needs Met; landing page content should not factor into Block Content Needs Met ratings. Block Content Needs Met ● For Web Search Result Blocks, only consider the extent to which the page title, snippet, and any visual content within the block would directly address user need. ● For SCRBs, only consider the extent to which the content within the block would directly address user need. Needs Met Fol ow the instructions in Section 13.1 for standard Needs Met ratings. Copyright 2025 117 13.2 Fully Meets (FullyM) Fully Meets is a special rating category which only applies when al of the fol owing are true: ● The query interpretation and user intent is specific, clear, and unambiguous. ● There is a specific website, a specific webpage, a specific know-simple fact or other specific result that al or almost al users in the rating locale and user location are looking for. ● All or almost al users in the rating locale and user location would be completely satisfied by the result. Most queries cannot have a Ful y Meets result. Most queries do not specify a single website or webpage. Most queries are not specific enough to have a single, know-simple fact as a comprehensive answer. For most queries, dif erent people may want dif erent types of results. For many queries, a single user may need to see many dif erent results. You wil need to use your judgment to decide whether a result block can Fully Meet the user need. Here are some scenarios when the Fully Meets rating is appropriate: ● The user is clearly looking for a specific webpage or website and the result block with the specific webpage or website Fully Meets the user’s need. ● All or almost al users in the rating locale or user location who search for this query would be looking for the same, specific fact or piece of information. The result block provides the information thoroughly, accurately, and clearly, and is from a trustworthy source acceptable for al or almost al users. Before using the Fully Meets rating for queries seeking a very specific fact or piece of information, you must check for accuracy and confirm that the information is supported by expert consensus where such consensus exists. Be conservative when using the Fully Meets rating. Even queries that seem to have a single right "answer" may benefit from more perspectives to satisfy al or almost al users. When in doubt, use a lower rating. Note: If a result block is very close to being ful y satisfying, but the block alone may not be suf icient in order to ful y satisfy al or almost al users, a rating of Highly Meets or Highly Meets+ may be appropriate. 13.2.1 Examples of Fully Meets (FullyM) Result Blocks Query and User Intent Result Rating Fully Meets Explanation The query has clear intent to go Query: [amazon] to the amazon.com website. While there may be other User Intent: Go to the interpretations for the query, the Amazon website. dominant one is by far the website. Query : [target website] The query has clear intent to go User Intent: Go to the Target to target.com. website. Copyright 2025 118 Query and User Intent Result Rating Fully Meets Explanation Query: [titanic imdb] The query has clear intent to go User Intent: Go to the IMDb to the IMDb page for Titanic. page for Titanic. Query: [www.netflix.coom] Even though this is an imperfect URL query, it’s clear the user User Intent: Go to the wants to go to the Netflix streaming website, Netflix. website. Query: [cnn health] The query has clear intent to go User Intent: Go to the Health to the Health section of the section of cnn.com. cnn.com webpage. Query: [cnn] The query has clear intent to access CNN news and content. User Intent: Go to the CNN The website has the content the website. user is searching for, and fully satisfies the user intent. Query: [lebron james stats basketball- reference.com] The query has clear intent to go to the player statistics page for User Intent: Go to the player LeBron James on a specific statistics page for LeBron website, James on a specific website. basketball-reference.com. Chef Chu’s is a Chinese restaurant located in the user location. This result block Query: [chef chu phone shows the correct phone number] number with the option to call the number directly on the User Location: Los Altos, device—it Fully Meets the user California intent. User Intent: Find the phone Note: You must check for number for the restaurant accuracy before using the Fully called Chef Chu’s. Meets rating. You can verify that the phone number is correct by checking Chef Chu's official website. Copyright 2025 119 Query and User Intent Result Rating Fully Meets Explanation Query: [how to find Mac OS The result block displays the version] complete and correct answer prominently in the result block, User Intent: Find out how to in a way that is easy for users to locate the OS version of a read. The result block Fully Mac. Meets the user need. The result block displays the Query : [new york city complete and correct answer population 2012] prominently in the result block, in a way that is easy for users to User Intent: Find the read—it Fully Meets the user population of New York City need. back in 2012. Query: [what is the weather The result block displays the forecast for today] complete and correct answer prominently in the result block in User Location: a way that is easy for users to Mountain View, California read. This result Fully Meets the user need. User Intent: Find weather forecast information for the Remember that we consider current day in Mountain View, weather queries, like this one, to California. be a Know Simple query. Query: [what country is The result block displays the mount fuji in] complete and correct answer prominently in the result block, User Intent: Find the country in a way that is easy for users to in which Mount Fuji is read. The result block Fully located. Meets the user need. Copyright 2025 120 Query and User Intent Result Rating Fully Meets Explanation Query: [chevron at shoreline and middlefield] The intent is to visit the specific User Location: Mountain gas station specified by the View, California user. This result block is for the specified Chevron location, with User Intent: Find the specific information to visit this location gas station specified by the in person. user in order to visit the location in person. This block contains a map with the queried address, link to get directions, and specifies the landmark at the well-known address on the map (“The White House”). Query: [1600 pennsylvania ave washington dc] It’s not unusual to search for an address (or business) that is far User Location: Bakersville, from the user location. Here, California the user has explicitly asked for a specific address in a far away User Intent: Find a map, place, and this result is very directions, information about satisfying. For a query this what is located at this specific, the user location does address, etc. not change the rating. Note: A range is included because some users would be fully satisfied with this result, while some users would want more information (e.g., photos, a brief description). Copyright 2025 121 13.2.2 Examples of Queries that Cannot Have Fully Meets Results There are some queries that cannot have a Fully Meets result. Here are some examples. Type of Query Example No Fully Meets Result: Explanation This is a broad informational query. Knitting is an activity anyone can do and that anyone can create a website for. Dif erent users may want dif erent types of content: videos, [knitting] instructions, patterns, etc. There is no one Broad queries where no of icial source for knitting information and no single result could ful y one result could satisfy most users. satisfy al users Therefore, no Fully Meets result is possible for this query. Famous names This is a broad informational query and it is impossible to know exactly what the user is e.g., [barack obama] looking for. There is no dominant interpretation for this query. The fol owing entities are al common interpretations: Americans with Disabilities [ada] Act, American Dental Association, and American Diabetes Association. While each interpretation has an of icial homepage, none is Fully Meets since there is no dominant interpretation. Ambiguous queries Queries for people’s names can be tricky. without a clear user intent Many or most people queries do not have a or dominant interpretation dominant interpretation. Even unusual sounding name queries may not have a Non-famous people names dominant interpretation. For example, the queries [sam wen], [tran nguyen], and [david e.g., [sam wen] mease] can have no Fully Meets result because there are multiple people with each of these names, and it is not clear that most users are looking for any one particular individual. Copyright 2025 122 13.3 Highly Meets (HM) A rating of Highly Meets is assigned to very helpful results for any dominant, common, or reasonable minor interpretation or user intent of the query. Highly Meets results are highly satisfying and a good “fit” for reasonable interpretations and intents. In addition, they often have some of the fol owing characteristics (depending on the query): ● Entertaining or enjoyable for queries with a reasonable entertainment intent ● Representative of the opinions, perspectives and experience of real people for queries with no single right answer ● For informational queries, very helpful results that, for example: ○ Are easy to understand the content, e.g., helpful images or videos, an easy to understand summary ○ Provide in-depth or insightful content, e.g., a deep dive explanation, an expert analysis ● For queries that benefit from recently created content, fresh results that provide up-to-date content on “what everyone is talking about right now” e.g., breaking news on a topic or the latest viral video or a hot new fashion trend Highly Meets results may be any type of content: articles, short form or long form video, images, social media posts, forum discussions, etc. There is no length requirement for Highly Meets results. Sometimes what makes a result satisfying is that it is short and easy to understand. Other results may be very satisfying because of the depth and richness of content. For some queries, comprehensiveness may be critical y important, such as queries about truly complex topics or YMYL queries for which a short answer could be misleading. Accuracy is required for Highly Meets informational results. Highly Meets information pages on YMYL topics must be accurate and trustworthy. Highly Meets medical and scientific information pages must represent wel -established scientific/medical consensus unless the user is clearly seeking an alternative viewpoint. A query can have many Highly Meets results. Search engines should strive to provide a diverse set of Highly Meets results from a variety of websites in a variety of content types from a variety of people and perspectives. This is especial y important for queries with no single, "right answer", subjective queries, queries with multiple intents and interpretations, queries seeking opinions and perspectives, and queries simply looking to browse or explore the web. For most queries, Highly Meets is the highest possible rating a result can receive. Results rated Highly Meets represent the most helpful content available for a given query interpretation and user intent. Some queries have several Highly Meets results because there is a variety of very helpful content available on the internet that addresses reasonable query interpretations and user intents. Other queries may have no Highly Meets results at al because very helpful content doesn't exist on the internet or search engines are unable to find it. The standard for Highly Meets is very high. 13.3.1 Examples of Highly Meets (HM) Result Blocks Query and User Intent Result Rating Highly Meets Explanation Query: [trader joes] This result shows a complete list of all three locations in the User Location: Charlotte, Charlotte area, with information North Carolina that is very helpful for users who want to visit the store. User Intent: There are two possible user intents: Note: This result block is not most users probably want Fully Meets because users who to visit a nearby location or want to go to the website to see go to the website. coupons, promotions, etc. would have to see additional results. Copyright 2025 123 Query and User Intent Result Rating Highly Meets Explanation This is the official website for Query: [trader joes] Trader Joe’s, which has information on the businesses’ User Location: Charlotte, stores, promotions, recipes, North Carolina news, etc. User Intent: There are Note: This result block is not two possible user intents: Fully Meets because users who most users probably want want information to visit the store to visit a nearby location or have to do a bit of work to find go to the website. that information—it is not immediately available. Query: [museum of modern art] This is the museum’s official User Location: website and has very helpful Manhattan, New York information about exhibits, membership, the store, etc. User Intent: There are two possible user intents: Note: This result block is not most users probably want Fully Meets because users who to visit the museum (note want information to visit the that the user is located in museum have to do a bit of work NYC where the museum is to find that information—it is not located) or go to the immediately available. website. Query: [museum of modern art] The result block shows information about the museum, User Location: and is especially helpful for users Manhattan, New York who want to visit the museum. User Intent: There are Note: This result block is not two possible user intents: Fully Meets— even though there most users probably want is a website link, it is not very to visit the museum (note satisfying for users who want to that the user is located in go to the website because it is NYC where the museum is not as informative as a web located) or go to the search result block with a title, website. snippet, and URL. Copyright 2025 124 Query and User Intent Result Rating Highly Meets Explanation There is only one library in the user location (Belmont, Massachusetts) . The result Query: [belmont library] block shows information about the library, and is especially User Location: Belmont, helpful for users who want to visit Massachusetts the location. User Intent: Find Note: This result block is not information about this Fully Meets— even though there library or go to the is a website link, it is not very website. satisfying for users who want to go to the website because it is not as informative as a web search result block with a title, snippet, and URL. There is only one library in the user location (Belmont, California) . The result block Query: [belmont library] shows information about the library, and is especially helpful User Location: Belmont, for users who want to visit the California location. User Intent: Find Note: This result block is not information about this Fully Meets— even though there library or go to the is a website link, it is not very website. satisfying for users who want to go to the website because it is not as informative as a web search result block with a title, snippet, and URL. The user intent is too broad to Query : [celine dion] have a Fully Meets result. However, this is Celine Dion's User Intent: Learn more official website and has a lot of about the singer Celine content including recent news, Dion. show information, music, photos, videos, etc. This is a very helpful result. Query: [manresa reviews] User Location: San Jose, The LP for this web result has California 127 reviews for the restaurant. The first three reviews show User Intent: Find reviews automatically, and then you can for this restaurant located click to see more. This is a very in Los Gatos, California. helpful result. Copyright 2025 125 Query and User Intent Result Rating Highly Meets Explanation The intent is to find coffee shops near the specific user location, represented by the blue dot on the map. This result block has a very satisfying list of nearby, popular, and prominent options within a Query: [nearby coffee few miles of the specific location. shops] This kind of block is especially helpful for users who want to visit User Location: the business in person. Note Washington, D.C. that these blocks are interactive—clicking on a coffee User Intent: Find coffee shop will give options to call the shops near the user business, get directions, read location. reviews, etc. Note : This result is not Fully Meets— even though this a very helpful result block for users seeking nearby coffee shops, it is unlikely that every user would be fully satisfied with this specific list given the abundance of coffee shops near the user location. This is a specific Know Simple Query: [what country is query. The LP for this web result mount fuji in] provides the answer to the query along with a lot of information User Intent: Find the about the mountain. While the country in which Mount answer can also be found in the Fuji is located. description of the web result, it is not displayed prominently. Query: [broadway tickets] User Location: New York, New York The LP for this web result offers many Broadway tickets for sale. User Intent: Research This is a very helpful result. prices and/or purchase tickets to a Broadway show. Copyright 2025 126 Query and User Intent Result Rating Highly Meets Explanation The LP for this web result offers many kids backpacks for sale. Query: [kids backpacks] The company is well-known for manufacturing and selling high User Intent: Research quality backpacks for kids of prices and/or purchase different ages. There is a lot of backpacks for kids. product information and many user reviews for each backpack, in addition to helpful filter options. Query: [poison ivy] The LP for this web result User Intent: Find pictures provides a lot of helpful of poison ivy plants, information about poison ivy. information about how to This is a very helpful result. treat poison ivy, etc. Query: [michael jordan] The LP of this web result is a User Intent: Find Wikipedia article about Michael information, news, images, Jordan. This is a very helpful etc. about Michael Jordan. result. Query : [around the world tutorial soccer] This result is a very helpful video User Intent : Find a tutorial tutorial demonstrating the move, of how to do the 'around with voiceover instructions and the world' soccer trick tips. Query: [trestle bridge] User Intent: The user Seeing images of trestle bridges wants to understand what is very helpful in understanding a trestle bridge is or learn this type of bridge. In this case, more information about “a picture is worth a thousand them (e.g., what it looks words”, meaning that a picture like, how they are built, may be more helpful than a text types of materials, description due to the unique well-known examples, design of the bridge. etc.). Copyright 2025 127 Query and User Intent Result Rating Highly Meets Explanation The result block has a good Query: [invasive species] summary of what invasive species are. Though additional User Intent: Find more information like examples, information about invasive impact, etc. would be helpful, species. overall this is a very helpful result. For users in Austin, TX, the query [verbena] could have two different interpretations: a popular restaurant named Query: [verbena] Verbena or the plant verbena. Because the user is located in User Location: Austin, TX Austin, many users are probably looking for the restaurant. User Intent: Find However, it is not completely information about the clear because some users may spice or the restaurant in want to find information about the Austin. plant. This result about the restaurant has satisfying information for users who want to visit it—the result Highly Meets the most likely user need. Query: [kristen wiig] This is a fan site dedicated to Kristen Wiig. The website has User Intent: Find more comprehensive info including information about the over 50,000 pictures and 300 actress, comedian, writer, video clips, interviews, articles, and producer. and more. This is a very helpful result. Query: [emily blunt] This result shows popular movies starring the actress. This is a User Intent: Find very helpful result for users biographical information looking for her filmography, a (e.g., filmography) or reasonable intent for the query. current news/celebrity Highly Meets is an appropriate gossip about Emily Blunt. rating for this result. The LP for this web result contains information about the Apollo 11 moon landing on the Query: [1969 moon official website of NASA, which landing] was the organization that oversaw this mission in 1969. User Intent: Find accurate The MC has a lot of helpful and authoritative information and content, information about this including a detailed summary, historical event. video footage, and images of the moon landing that users can view and explore. This is a very helpful result. Copyright 2025 128 Query and User Intent Result Rating Highly Meets Explanation This is a broad query for an actress. Different users may be looking for different things. Query: [jennifer aniston] This result shows recent news User Intent: Find images, about Jennifer Aniston. The recent news, information, articles are timely (at the time etc. about Jennifer this was written) and relatively Aniston. interesting, and not just common everyday news about the actress. This is a very helpful result for a reasonable intent. Query: [mentos and coke This LP is on a well-known death] fact-checking and debunking website. The page calls this User Intent: Find accurate story "False", then provides a information about a rumor credible explanation of how the that a mixture of Mentos authors came to that conclusion, and Coca-Cola can cause including history of similar urban death, which was spread legends. This is a very helpful on the Internet in 2006. result. Query: [avatar the way of This discussion post includes water movie review] snippets of reviews for the queried film by various sources. User Intent: Find reviews Various participants have also of the 2022 film Avatar: added to the discussion by The Way of Water . commenting on the post. This is a very helpful result. Query: [seattle, washington] The result shows a map of Seattle, Washington and clicking User Intent : Find on the map brings up a more information, news, maps, detailed map. This is a very etc. related to Seattle, helpful result for a reasonable Washington. user intent. Copyright 2025 129 13.4 Moderately Meets (MM) A rating of Moderately Meets is assigned to helpful results for any reasonable interpretation or user intent of the query, including reasonable minor interpretations and intents. Moderately Meets results have fewer valuable attributes than Highly Meets results. Moderately Meets results should stil “fit” the query, but they are less satisfying than Highly Meets results. For example: ● Moderately Meets results may be less representative of the opinions, perspectives and experience of real people for queries with no single right answer ● For informational queries, Moderately Meets results might have content that is slightly harder to understand than Highly Meets results ● Moderately Meets results may be a slightly out of date for queries that benefit from recently created content A query can have many Moderately Meets results. Moderately Meets results exist in al formats (video, audio, text, image) and on many types of websites: professional websites, corporate websites, forums, social media, etc. Moderately Meets is an acceptable rating if you see aspects of the result that are Highly Meets but other aspects seem Slightly Meets . There is nothing "wrong" with Moderately Meets results. Moderately Meets results are not out-of-date or inaccurate. Moderately Meets results are general y average to good. 13.4.1 Examples of Moderately Meets (MM) Result Blocks Query and User Intent Result Rating Moderately Meets Explanation This is a cute short (14 second) video of a baby emperor penguin walking to a fully-grown emperor Query: [emperor penguin] penguin. User intent: Find This is a helpful result for the information, photos, or reasonable interpretation and videos about emperor intent to find cute photos or penguins. videos of emperor penguins. However, the result is not very satisfying or very helpful for this query. Moderately Meets is appropriate. This is a helpful result for the Query: [where is virginia reasonable interpretation and in the us] intent to know what states border Virginia. However, the result is User Intent: Find where not very helpful as it lacks visual the state of Virginia is information (e.g., map). located in the U.S. Moderately Meets is appropriate. Copyright 2025 130 Query and User Intent Result Rating Moderately Meets Explanation Query: [kristen wiig] This is a helpful result as it is Kristen Wiig’s official website. User Intent: Find more However, the result is not very information about the helpful because there is little actress, comedian, writer, content and has not been and producer. updated in years. Moderately Meets is appropriate. Copyright 2025 131 13.5 Slightly Meets (SM) A rating of Slightly Meets is assigned to results that are less helpful for a reasonable query interpretation or user intent. A rating of Slightly Meets is also assigned to a helpful result for an unlikely query interpretation or intent. Slightly Meets can also be an appropriate rating for a result which is related to the user’s information need without ful y addressing it, as long as it provides some value to the user. However, if the user is looking for a specific piece of information, a result which does not provide that information, or a result which misses a key aspect of the query, cannot be rated Slightly Meets and should be rated Fails to Meet . Slightly Meets results may have some aspect that prevents a higher rating, for example they may have outdated information. A query can have many Slightly Meets results. Slightly Meets results exist in al formats (video, audio, text, image) and on many types of websites: professional websites, corporate websites, forums, social media, etc. Often there is nothing "wrong" with Slightly Meets results - they may simply be a less helpful "fit" for the particular query in the rating task. A Slightly Meets result for one query may be a Highly Meets result for a dif erent query. Important: Many users decide which result to click or tap on based on the content in the result block, such as the title of the web result on the search results page. (Note that these titles usual y come from webpages.) A result with a very misleading or exaggerated title should be rated Slightly Meets or lower, due to the poor user experience that occurs when the landing page does not match the expectation of the user when clicking or tapping on the result. 13.5.1 Examples of Slightly Meets (SM) Result Blocks Query and User Intent Result Rating Slightly Meets Explanation Query: [britney spears] The LP of this web result has a User Intent: Find 2006 article about Britney Spears information about Britney filing for divorce. This is very old, Spears (e.g., current stale news, making this result news, pictures). less helpful for users. Query: [honda odyssey] Although the LP has comprehensive information from User Intent: We will a reputable source, the assume that users are information is about the 2010 interested in the current Honda Odyssey. This Honda Odyssey model, information would be considered unless specified otherwise. stale for the query today, making this result less helpful for users. Query: [hot dog] The LP of this web result is about the movie “Hot Dog,” an obscure User Intent: Find film which came out in 1984. information about hot Even though the landing page dogs, such as recipes or has good content, this is an nutrition information. unlikely minor interpretation of this query. Query: [what type of sharks live in rivers] This result block does not contain enough information to be User Intent: Find fully satisfying and mentions only information about what one type of shark. This is not a types of sharks live in very helpful result. rivers. Copyright 2025 132 Query and User Intent Result Rating Slightly Meets Explanation Query: [ibm] This block contains images of the User Intent: Go to the logo for IBM. These images are IBM website or find not a very helpful result for an information about the unlikely minor intent of the query. company. Query: [chase] User Intent: Most users are looking for the official Most users in this locale are Chase bank website or a looking for the official Chase nearby branch. Some bank website. Very few people users may be interested in are looking for a definition of this information about the common word. This is not a bank. helpful result for most people. User Location : Kansas City, MO Most users are looking for Query: [bears swimming] information about real bears, or images/videos of real bears User intent: Find images, swimming. This page sells a videos or information novelty t-shirt with an image of a about bears swimming. bear swimming in a human athletic competition, which not many users would be looking for. This news article (current as of fall 2024) discusses falling leaves as an allergy trigger. The article does list some common seasonal allergy symptoms. However, this is not a medical resource, and it does not cover allergy symptoms for common Query : [allergy symptoms] issues such as food allergies, etc. Given that this may be a User intent : Find YMYL topic, a medical resource information about allergy would be more helpful. symptoms. There are many different types of allergies and many different allergy symptoms. This is a very specific article about falling leaves and has some allergy symptom information, but likely few people would find it very helpful. Copyright 2025 133 13.6 Fails to Meet (FailsM) A rating of Fails to Meet should be assigned to results that fails to meet the needs of al or almost al users. Fails to Meet results have some aspect that causes them to be unhelpful for the query, such as a lack of attention to an aspect of the query (or user location) that is critical for satisfying the user intent. Fails to Meet may also be used for results that have incorrect or very outdated information. Fails to Meet results may be helpful for a no chance interpretation. Fails to Meet results may be of -topic for any query interpretation. Search results should never surprise people with unpleasant, upsetting, of ensive, or disturbing content. For this reason, al of the fol owing types of content should be rated Fails to Meet if it is clear that the user is not looking for such content: ● Harmful to Self or Other Individuals ( Section 4.2 ) ● Harmful to Specified Groups ( Section 4.3 ) ● Harmful y Misleading Information ( Section 4.4 ) ● Untrustworthy ( Section 4.5 ) ● Spammy ( Section 4.6 ) ● Porn ( Section 15.1 ) 13.6.1 Examples of Fails to Meet (FailsM) Result Blocks Query and User Intent Result Rating Fails to Meet Explanation Query: [can penguins The result is about climbing a climb] rock formation called The Penguins in the Arches National User Intent : Find Park. This result is off-topic and information about whether does not answer the likely user Penguins are able to climb intent of whether penguins can or not. climb or not. Query: [mike] This is a broad query and it is User Location: Eustis, unclear exactly what the user is Florida looking for. User Intent: Find This result block shows information about visit-in-person information for two something related to Mike. businesses that contain the name Mike. However, the query Note: For this query, it is is very broad and it is very unlikely users want to go unlikely these businesses are anywhere in person. what users seek given the query. Query: [united 656] This result shows information for a church, an event venue, and User Intent: Find the closest airport. However, information about flight users clearly want to know 656 operated by United details about a specific flight, and Airlines (e.g., whether the there is absolutely no information flight is on time, what gate in the block about the flight. This it is departing from). result Fails to Meet the needs of the user. Copyright 2025 134 Query: [german cars] This LP is the homepage of Subaru, a Japanese car User Intent: Find company, not a German car information about German company. cars or go to the official homepage of a German This result completely Fails to automaker. Meet the needs of the user. Query and User Intent Result Rating Fails to Meet Explanation Query: [company to get rid of the possum in my This LP is the homepage of a attic] pest control company in Australia. U.S. users would need User Location: a U.S. company to take care of Naperville, Illinois this problem. There is a mismatch between the page and User Intent: Find a the locale that makes this result company to trap and helpful for no users—it remove a possum from the completely Fails to Meet the attic. needs of the user. Query: [starting jets quarterback 2001] Although this is a trustworthy website for information about User Intent: Find the NFL football, this LP does not name of the starting contain the information quarterback for the New requested by the user. This York Jets football team in result Fails to Meet the needs of 2001. the user. Query: [doctor salary] User Location : San The answer in this block is about Francisco, California the cost of education, not salary, which is misleading and doesn’t User Intent: Find answer the user’s query. information about doctor salaries. The answer provided in this result block is factually Query: [who invented inaccurate. Stairs have been a stairs] common architectural feature of buildings, pathways, outdoor User Intent: Find out structures, etc. since long before about the origin of stairs. 1948, and they were not invented by a person named Werner Bösendörfer. Copyright 2025 135 Query: [batman] User Location: Anaheim, It is extremely unlikely California (potentially a no chance interpretation) that this query is User Intent: Find looking for information on a city information about the in Turkey called Batman, given fictional superhero that that the user is located in the appears in American United States. This result Fails comic books, movies, and to Meet the needs of the user. television shows. Copyright 2025 136 Query and User Intent Result Rating Fails to Meet Explanation Query: [weather paris, texas] This result completely fails to User Location: Paris, satisfy the user intent, which is to Texas find weather information for Paris, Texas, and not Paris, User Intent: Find current France. weather information for Paris, Texas. Query: [go kart for sale] This result block shows a go kart arcade in Warrington, User Location: Pennsylvania, and two other go Warrington, Pennsylvania kart arcades in the surrounding area. These arcades are places User Intent: Find go karts to go ride go karts, not purchase for sale in the Warrington, them, so the result completely Pennsylvania area. Fails to Meet the user intent . Query: [ralphs] User Location: San Ralphs is a nationwide Clemente, California supermarket chain. These locations are all in San Diego, User Intent: There are California, which is a major city two possible user intents: south of the user location (about most users probably want 60 miles away). These results to visit a nearby Ralphs are too far to be helpful. location or go to the website. Copyright 2025 137 Query and User Intent Result Rating Fails to Meet Explanation Users issuing this query want to go to the Amazon website. Showing information about how to visit or call the corporate office Query: [amazon] for an online company would not be helpful. At the time this User Location: Austin, example was written, the Texas Amazon corporate office was not open to the public; very, very few User Intent: Go to the people ever go to an Amazon Amazon website. corporate office. If someone needed to go to the office for an interview or business visit, they would need to get that information from someone at the company or would use a more specific query. Query: [what is the closest large city] User Location: Myrtle A news result is completely Beach, South Carolina unhelpful for this query. This result Fails to Meet the needs of User Intent: Find the the user. closest large city to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Query: [australian open This LP is about the 2004 mens singles result 2008] Australian Open, not the 2008 Australian Open. It does not pay User Intent: Find a page attention to an aspect of the that displays the 2008 query that is important for men’s singles result for satisfying user intent (i.e., 2008). this tennis tournament. The result Fails to Meet the user intent. Query: [tooth loss five This LP has information about years old] tooth loss in pike fish and has the words “five years old” on the User Intent: Find page. This result Fails to Meet information about tooth the user intent because it has loss in a five-year-old keyword matches only and is child. unhelpful for the query. Query: [what is wedding in The translation in the result block spanish] is completely wrong and inaccurate. User Intent: Find how to say the word “wedding” in Mañana means “tomorrow,” not Spanish. “wedding.” Copyright 2025 138 Query and User Intent Result Rating Fails to Meet Explanation The LP is a humorous blog post about a wife helping her husband Query: [american express] to buy a suit. The page mentions “American Express,” but is User Intent: Go to the insufficiently related to the query American Express card to be helpful for users, so it Fails website or get information to Meet the user intent. about the company and its products and services. Note: Even if this blog post were more recent, it would still fail to meet the user intent. Query: [how to quit smoking] This LP has gibberish text. Read this sentence: “How do you make User Intent: Find a cigarette symbol on the information on ways to quit keyboard? In.” This result is smoking. unhelpful for the query. Remember that you should check for the factual accuracy of Query: [air canada phone answers. For this result, go to number] the company’s page at www.aircanada.com/en/customer User Intent: Find the care/int/ and select USA to check customer service phone the number shown here. number for the airline Air According to the airline’s website, Canada. the correct phone number is 1-888-247-2262. Because this answer is incorrect, it should be rated Fails to Meet . Miley Cyrus was alive at the time this example was written. This LP is an article written by an unknown author that was designed to look like a news story and falsely states that she died. The article has not been Query: [miley cyrus] updated, clarified, or removed even days after having been User Intent: Find proven false. This result is information about the useless so it should be rated American singer/actress Fails to Meet . Miley Cyrus, such as biographical info, Remember: Just because a discography/filmography, website has the look and feel of current news, etc. a traditional news site does NOT mean that you should consider the reporting to be factually accurate without further research. Watch out for sites that present themselves as news, but were actually created with the intent to mislead or misinform users. Copyright 2025 139 Query and User Intent Result Rating Fails to Meet Explanation This LP is a blog post presenting a factually unsupported conspiracy theory that Angela Merkel is the daughter of Adolph Query: [who is hitler's Hitler. Because the MC is daughter] inaccurate and misleading, it completely Fails to Meet the User Intent: Find the user intent, even though the topic name of or information of the page matches the query. about Adolf Hitler's daughter, if Hitler in fact Note: A more helpful result for had a daughter. this query might confirm that Adolf Hitler had no children, or provide information on the novel Hitler's Daughter by Jackie French. Copyright 2025 140 14.0 The Relationship between Page Quality and Needs Met The Needs Met rating is based on both the query and the result. You must careful y think about the query and user intent when assigning a Needs Met rating. The Page Quality rating slider does not depend on the query. Do not think about the query when assigning a Page Quality rating to the LP. Some results don’t have a Page Quality slider. If a result block has no Page Quality rating slider, you do not have to give a Page Quality rating. If there is a Page Quality slider, please assign a Page Quality rating based on the landing page. Here is some guidance about assigning Needs Met and Page Quality ratings: ● Useless results should always be rated FailsM , even if the landing page has a high Page Quality rating. Useless is useless. ● The HM rating is not appropriate if a page is untrustworthy or has any other undesirable characteristics, such as outdated or inaccurate information. There are very high standards for the HM rating. ● A page can have such low Page Quality that it is unhelpful or even harmful, such as gibberish pages or scams. These types of extremely low quality pages should be rated FailsM because the Page Quality issues interfere with helpfulness. (An exception is queries with clear website intent, where the target website should be rated FullyM . People are al owed to search for any website and search engines should honor that intent when it is clear.) Copyright 2025 141 Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating, Page Quality Rating Explanation Needs Met : Even though the article is topical, the information is not trustworthy and is potentially misleading or harmful. This result is unhelpful for the query. Page Quality : This is a YMYL topic. This page has no evidence Query: [symptoms of of medical expertise/authority and dehydration] is not trustworthy. User Intent: Find information about the symptoms of dehydration. Needs Met : This is a very helpful result for the query. Page Quality : This is a YMYL topic. This page is on a highly authoritative medical website and has a lot of reliable and accurate MC. This page is very trustworthy. Needs Met : This block shows the number of octaves on a piano, not a guitar. Even though this block has a link to a high quality landing Query: [how many page about pianos, the octaves on a guitar] information shown in the block is inaccurate with respect to the User Intent: Find out the query. This result Fails to Meet number of octaves on a the user need. guitar. Page Quality : There is a lot of helpful MC on the landing page. The page has medium to high E-E-A-T. Medium+ to High is an appropriate rating. Copyright 2025 142 15.0 Rating Porn, Foreign Language, and Did Not Load Results You wil be asked to assign Porn , Foreign Language , and Did Not Load flags to result blocks when appropriate. Some rating tasks may also ask you to identify Upsetting-Offensive and/or Not-for-Everyone results. All flags should be assigned based on the result alone and do not depend on the query. Here is a screenshot of the flags: Click on the flag name to select it. The flag wil turn red and change the “No” to “Yes.” For example, here is a result block that shows when the Foreign Language flag should be used. Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating, Flag Explanation This LP is the homepage of the Baidu website. Query: [baidu.com] The result is the target page of the query, but is Locale: English (US) in a foreign language (Chinese). User Intent: Go to the Baidu website. This result merits a FullyM rating and the Foreign Language flag. 15.1 Porn Flag Please assign the Porn flag to al porn pages, whether the query is porn-seeking or not. The Porn flag does not depend on the query or user intent. This flag should be used if the content inside the result block, or the content on the LP, is pornographic, including porn images, links, text, pop-ups, and/or prominent porn ads. An image may be considered porn in one culture or country, but not another. Please use your judgment and knowledge of your locale. Remember : The Porn flag is used to indicate that the result is porn. It doesn’t matter whether the query “asks for porn”. 15.2 Needs Met Rating for Porn Results 15.2.1 Needs Met Rating for Clear Non-Porn Intent Queries If the user intent is clearly not porn-seeking, a landing page that has porn for its MC should be rated Fails to Meet . ● When the user intent is clearly not porn, a porn result should be considered unhelpful or useless. ● Uninvited porn is a very bad experience for many users. The fol owing queries should be considered non-porn intent queries: [girls], [wives], [mature women], [gay people], [people kissing], [boy speedos], [moms and sons], [pictures of girls], [pictures of women], [mothers and daughters], [cheerleaders], etc. Copyright 2025 143 Remember to assign the Porn flag for al porn pages. Use your judgment and represent users in your locale . Query User Intent Landing Page Rating Porn Flag? [toys], English (US) Find toys to buy. Example Warning – this page is porn. FailsM Yes [how tall is a camel], English (US) Find the answer to this Example question about camels. Warning – this page is porn. FailsM Yes [car pictures], English (US) Find pictures of cars. Example Warning – this page is porn. FailsM Yes 15.2.2 Needs Met Rating for Possible Porn Intent Queries Some queries have both non-porn and porn interpretations. For example, the fol owing English (US) queries have both a non-porn and an erotic or porn interpretation: [breast], [sex]. We wil cal these queries “possible porn intent” queries. For "possible porn intent" queries, please rate as if the non-porn interpretation were dominant, even though some or many users may be looking for porn. For example, please rate the English (US) query [breast] assuming a dominant health or anatomy information intent. Query User Intent Landing Page Rating Porn flag? [breasts], English (US) Find anatomy or health information about breasts. Example HM No [breasts], English (US) Find anatomy or health Example information about breasts. Warning – this page is porn. FailsM Yes 15.2.3 Needs Met Rating for Clear Porn Intent Queries For very clear porn intent queries, assign a rating to the porn landing page based on how helpful it is for the user. Even though there is porn intent, the page should stil be assigned a Porn flag. Do not simply rate al porn pages for porn queries as MM or HM . Even though the query is porn and the result is porn, the page must fit the query and be helpful to get a high Needs Met rating. Pages that provide a poor user experience, such as pages that try to download malicious software, should also receive low ratings, even if they have some images appropriate for the query. Query User Intent Landing Page Rating Porn Flag? Example: [freeones], English (US) Navigate to the Freeones homepage. http://www.freeones.com FullyM Yes Warning – this page is porn. Example: [freeones], English (US) Navigate to the Freeones homepage. http://www.baberoad.com FailsM Yes Warning – this page is porn. [anime sex pictures], English (US) Find anime sex pictures. Example Warning – this page is porn. MM to HM Yes [cheerleader porn], English (US) Find porn pictures of Example cheerleaders. Warning – this page is porn. MM to HM Yes Copyright 2025 144 15.3 Reporting Illegal Images Child Pornography Note: When working on rating projects in any task location or locale, you must fol ow United States federal law, which considers child pornography to be il egal. Definition of Child Pornography An image is child pornography if it is a visual depiction of someone who appears to be a minor (i.e., under 18 years old) engaged in sexual y explicit conduct (e.g., vaginal or anal intercourse, oral sex, bestiality or masturbation as wel as lascivious depictions of the genitals), or sadistic or masochistic abuse. The image of sexual y explicit conduct can involve a real child; a computer-generated, morphed, composite or otherwise altered image that appears to be a child (think of images that have been altered using “Photoshop”); or an adult who appears to be a child; and the image can be non-photographic (e.g., drawings, cartoons, anime, paintings, or sculptures) so long as the subject is engaging in sexual y explicit conduct that is obscene. If it is indistinguishable from child pornography, it is child pornography. Even if the pornographic image depicts children in a literary (think of the famous book "Lolita"), political (think of political cartoons), artistic, or scientific context, please send the link to your employer/company as instructed below. Depiction of the genitals does not require the genitals to be uncovered. Thus, for example, a video of underage teenage girls dancing erotical y, with multiple close-up shots of their covered genitals, or images of children with opaque underwear that focus on the genitalia could be considered child pornography. An image of a naked child (e.g., in the bathtub or at a nudist colony) is not considered child pornography as long as the child is not engaging in sexual y explicit conduct, or the focus is not on the child’s genitalia. Visual depictions of adults who look like children (e.g., a 35-year-old man play-acting in diapers, or an obvious woman dressed as a school girl) are not child pornography. If you don't think it's a minor, it probably isn’t child pornography. However, if you cannot tel that the person in the image is over 18 (e.g., an under-developed 18-year-old whose body hair has been waxed), that is child pornography. Reporting Instructions Please report images containing child pornography (URLs only) as instructed by your employer/company . 15.4 Foreign Language Flag 15.4.1 Using the Foreign Language Flag Please do not assign the Foreign Language flag when the language on the landing page is one of the fol owing: ● The task language ● A language that is commonly used by a significant percentage of the population in the task location ● English For example, most Catalan-speaking users in Spain also speak Spanish. Therefore, for rating tasks in Catalan (ES), the Foreign Language flag should NOT be assigned to landing pages in Catalan, Spanish, or English. Copyright 2025 145 Here is a screenshot of a result block that shows when the Foreign Language flag would be used. Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating, Flag Explanation This LP is the homepage of the Baidu website. Query: [baidu] The result is the target page of the query, but is Locale: English (US) in a foreign language (Chinese). User Intent: Go to the Baidu website. This result merits a FullyM rating and the Foreign Language flag. Important : ● Please assign the Foreign Language flag even if you personal y understand the language, but most users in your locale do not. ● Please assign the Foreign Language flag based on the language of the landing page, not the appearance of the result block. ● Please remember to flag al foreign pages with the Foreign Language flag, even if most users in your locale would expect or want a foreign language page for the query. ● Sometimes it is dif icult to determine what language the landing page is in. The LP may have multiple languages or no words at al . In these cases, try to represent users in your locale. Does it feel like a foreign language page? When in doubt, don’t use the Foreign Language flag. 15.4.2 Needs Met Rating for Foreign Language Results You must assign a Needs Met rating for al result blocks in your task, even if the result blocks have a foreign language landing page. In most cases, pages you flag as Foreign Language should be rated FailsM , because they cannot be understood by most users in your locale and are therefore useless. Remember that if users in your locale can read the language, then you shouldn’t be using the Foreign Language flag. Occasional y, you wil encounter helpful Foreign Language pages. If the query clearly indicates that most users would expect or want a foreign language result, then the Needs Met rating of the foreign language page should not be FailsM . For example, please assign the FullyM rating and Foreign Language flag for baidu.com if the query is [baidu.com], English (US). Videos are often an example where foreign language pages are helpful and desired. Think about user intent and what pages are good for users. If the query “asks” for a foreign language song, band, film, sporting event, etc., then a video of the song, band, film, sporting event, etc. is helpful since it can probably be understood or enjoyed even though it is in a foreign language. For these types of queries, foreign language results are often expected. If the video is someone talking about the song, band, film, or event, the result probably cannot be understood or enjoyed and should be assigned a FailsM rating and the Foreign Language flag. Note: If you are unable to evaluate the Page Quality rating of a Foreign Language result, you do not need to assign a Page Quality rating and can leave the slider at N/A . Copyright 2025 146 Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating Explanation Query: [video of celine dion singing s’il suffisait d’aimer] This video is just what English (US) users are looking for, even though the video is not in Locale: English (US) English. The language of the LP is mostly English (even though the video is in French), so User Intent: Watch a video of the Foreign Language flag is not needed. Celine Dion singing this song. Query: [kasal, kasali, kasalo] The query is for “Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo,” a Filipino film. The LP is a clip from the movie in Locale: English (US) Filipino (Tagalog), the language spoken in the Philippines. It would be helpful for many User Intent: Watch a trailer of English (US) users who type the query, even this Filipino film or find information though it is not in English. Use your judgment about it. when deciding whether to assign the Foreign Language flag. Copyright 2025 147 15.5 Did Not Load Flag 15.5.1 Using the Did Not Load Flag Did Not Load is used to indicate technical problems with the webpage that prevent users from viewing any LP content. Use the Did Not Load flag when: ● The MC of the landing page is a web server or web application error message and there is no other content on the page: no navigation links, no home link, no SC, and no Ads. See here for a Wikipedia page on dif erent types of error messages. ● The landing page is completely blank: no MC, no SC, and no Ads. Assign the Did Not Load flag based on the landing page, not the result block. Here is an example of a Did Not Load landing page. You cannot tel that the landing page doesn’t load by looking at the result block. Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating, Flag Explanation This page displays a generic 404 Query: [douglas instruments] message. There is no MC, SC, or Ads on the page. User Intent: Navigate to the homepage of this website. This result merits a FailsM rating and the Did Not Load flag. Here are screenshots of other types of landing pages that should be assigned the Did Not Load flag: DNL1 , DNL2 . You should not use the Did Not Load flag for: ● Malware warnings, such as “Warning – visiting this site may harm your computer!” ( example ). ● Pages that have removed or expired MC (e.g., expired classified listing, removed social media post, products or services unavailable). ● Pages that are inaccessible because you need a subscription to view the MC. 15.5.2 Needs Met Rating and the Did Not Load Flag All result blocks must be given a Needs Met rating. If the landing page truly doesn’t load, assign the Did Not Load flag and rate the page FailsM . True Did Not Load pages are useless. Sometimes the page partial y loads or has an error message. Give Needs Met ratings based on how helpful the result is for the query. Error messages can be customized by the website owner and are part of a wel -functioning website. Sometimes these pages are helpful for the query. Note: If you are unable to evaluate the Page Quality rating of a Did Not Load result, you do not need to assign a Page Quality rating and can leave the slider at N/A . Copyright 2025 148 Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating, Page Quality Rating, Flags Explanation Needs Met : The MC has an error message, but the LP has a lot of SC. However, the page has no information Query: [boys pink snow about boys pink snow shoes and is shoes] unhelpful for the query. User Intent: Find Page Quality : This LP is on a well-known, information about or reputable merchant website. Despite the purchase boys’ snow error message, this page does a nice job shoes. of explaining the issue and providing a search box, including helpful search tips and customer service information. Do not assign the Did Not Load flag. Needs Met : In spite of the customized “No results found” message on the LP, it has links to all passages in the Bible, organized by book. This is a very helpful result. Query: [bible passages] Page Quality : This page is a well-known, User Intent: Find reputable reference website. In addition to specific passages in the links to all passages in the Bible, this error Bible. page provides a search box as well as a suggestion explaining how to refine searches. Do not assign the Did Not Load flag. Query: [broadway tickets] Clicking on this result block leads to a malware warning. You can assume that User Intent: This is a the page is malicious without continuing to Know query or Do the page. As discussed in Sections 4.5.5 query. The user wants and 13.6, you should assign a FailsM to search prices and/or Needs Met rating and Lowest Page purchase tickets to a Quality rating. Broadway show in New York City. Do not assign the Did Not Load flag. Query: [paranormal This page cannot be reached because the activity] site's server IP address was not found. There is no MC, SC, or Ads on the page. User Intent: Learn more about the 2007 film This result merits a FailsM Needs Met Paranormal Activity or rating, and no Page Quality rating is the associated film required. series. Assign the Did Not Load flag. Copyright 2025 149 15.6 Additional Flags in Some Rating Tasks Some rating tasks may ask you to identify Upsetting-Offensive and/or Not-for-Everyone results. Mark content that may be upsetting or of ensive from the perspective of a typical user in your locale as Upsetting-Offensive , keeping in mind that people of al ages, genders, races, religions, and political af iliations use the Internet to understand the world and other points of views. Mark content that may be unpleasant or uncomfortable for some people in your locale (e.g., content that may not be appropriate in a public space, professional environment, or school) as Not-for-Everyone . Copyright 2025 150 16.0 Many Types of Helpful Results Some queries may have many dif erent possible meanings, or people may be looking for dif erent things. Make sure to give Highly Meets ratings to very helpful results for al reasonable interpretations and intents, including reasonable minor interpretations. ● Many queries have dif erent possible meanings or interpretations. Don't assume – do query research! Results for a diverse set of reasonable interpretations may be very helpful. ● For any given query interpretation, dif erent users may have dif erent intents. For example, dif erent people who search for [avatar] with the movie in mind could be seeking dif erent kinds of information about the movie. Some may be seeking reviews, others could want to see what people are saying on social media, while others stil could be interested in the cast or ways to watch the movie, etc. Results that satisfy dif erent reasonable intents may be very helpful to dif erent users. ● It’s also possible for a single user to have many dif erent intents for any given query interpretation. That is, one person searching [avatar] could be broadly interested in the movie, and that person might want to browse reviews and social media posts, see the cast, and find out how to watch the movie. A diverse set of results that satisfy dif erent reasonable intents may be very helpful to individual users, too! Results of dif erent types may be helpful for many kinds of queries, including queries with a single, clear interpretation or intent. Consider what kinds of results are helpful for al queries you rate, including: ● Dif erent formats (e.g., text, video, image, audio) ● Dif erent experiences, perspectives and opinions (e.g., a personal blog or a social media post) ● Dif erent content depths (e.g., the 10 second summary video and the 1 hour deep dive documentary) ● Dif erent types of sites: corporate, not for profit, government, social media, forums, personal blogs, etc. ● … and many more! Make sure al types of very helpful results get a Highly Meets rating. Some queries may benefit from a wide variety of helpful results: ● Queries that seek experiences, opinions and perspectives, such as [should i get a dog], [what does love feel like] ● Queries that are subjective, such as [best music to run to] ● Exploration and browsing queries – users may need to see many dif erent options, such as [ideas for bathroom remodel], [black suit], [inexpensive engagement rings] ● Queries with no single, right answer, such as [how to ask your boss for a raise] 16.1 Rating Queries with Both Website and Visit-in-Person Intent Some queries have two possible strong intents: 1. Go to the website intent: in order to, for example, find out information, buy something online, make a reservation, schedule an appointment, interact with customer support, or fulfil some other need that can be satisfied online 2. Visit-in-person intent: user wants to visit the store, business, etc. in person For these queries, result blocks that only satisfy one intent should NOT get a Fully Meets rating. Copyright 2025 151 Query and User Intent Result Block and LP Needs Met Rating and Explanation Query: [target] The result block shows three popular User Location: Target locations in Jacksonville, with Jacksonville, Florida information that is especially helpful for users who want to visit the store. User Intent: There are This fulfills the user intent to find a two possible strong user nearby Target location. intents: most users probably want to visit a nearby Target location or go to the website to shop online, research products, find prices, etc. The result is very satisfying and fulfills the user intent to shop online or otherwise use the website. Query: [dmv] User Location: The result block shows two nearby Belmont, California DMV locations, with information that is especially helpful for users who want User Intent: There are to visit the locations. This fulfills the two possible strong user user intent to find a nearby DMV intents: most users location. probably want to visit a nearby DMV location or go to the DMV website to renew a license, pay a fee, find some The result is very satisfying and fulfills information, etc. the user intent to find information or otherwise use the website (e.g., to review a license, pay a fee). Copyright 2025 152 Query and User Intent Result Block and LP Needs Met Rating and Explanation Query: [citibank] The result block shows three nearby Citibank locations in the user location User Location: Palo of Palo Alto. The information is Alto, California especially helpful for users who want to visit the bank. This fulfills the user User Intent: There are intent to find a nearby Citibank two possible strong user location. intents: most users probably want to visit a nearby Citibank location or go to the website to bank online. The result is very satisfying and fulfills the user intent to do online banking or otherwise use the website. 17.0 Specificity of Queries and Landing Pages Some queries are very general and some queries are specific. Here are some examples that compare levels of specificity of English (US) queries: Query More Specific Query Even More Specific Query [chair] [dining room chair] [ikea “henriksdal” highback upholstered chair] [library] [harvard library] [harvard anthropology library] [interview questions] [interview questions for teachers] [practice interview questions used for teach for america] [restaurants] [chinese restaurants] [takeout chinese restaurants in downtown Austin] [coffee shops] [starbucks] [red rock coffee mountain view] Results for specific queries are easier to rate on the Needs Met scale because we know more about what the user is looking for. Giving a Needs Met rating for results for general queries can be dif icult. As always, your rating is based on how helpful the result is for the query, not the specificity fit. When the query is a broad category, such as [cafes] [restaurants] [hotels] [books] [tourist attractions in paris] etc., popular and prominent examples may be considered very helpful. Please do web research to help you understand what is popular and prominent in dif erent locations. Copyright 2025 153 Query and User Intent Result Block & LP, Needs Met & Page Quality Ratings Explanation Even though there are many options, a page for an individual company that offers different cards could be very helpful. Needs Met : This LP is more specific than the query, but could still be a very helpful result because Visa is a popular credit card company. Page Quality : Visa is a credit card company with high E-E-A-T that offers services for credit cards, banking, etc. and has a good reputation. High+ to Highest is an appropriate rating. Even though there are many options, a page for an individual company that offers different cards could be very helpful. Needs Met : This LP is more specific than the query, but could still be a very helpful result because Discover is a popular credit card company. Query: [credit cards] Page Quality : Discover is a company with high E-E-A-T that offers services for credit User Intent: Users are cards, banking, etc. with a good reputation. probably looking to sign High+ to Highest is an appropriate rating. up for a credit card online, or want to This page offers a list of top credit cards in research credit cards a variety of categories. before signing up. Needs Met : This LP fits the query. It would be helpful for most users. Page Quality : This website helps consumers make money decisions. It has a good reputation, high E-E-A-T, and has been recommended by several major newspapers. High is an appropriate rating. This page describes a credit card that requires union membership. Needs Met : Since the credit card requires union membership, this result is an unlikely minor interpretation for the broad query about credit cards. Page Quality : This company is an expert on its own credit card, which is issued by HSBC Bank, a financial services organization with a good reputation and high E-E-A-T. High is an appropriate rating. Copyright 2025 154 Query and User Intent Result Block & LP, Needs Met & Page Quality Ratings Explanation This is a popular travel aggregator website, and the hotel page on the site can help users find hotels in the U.S. Users can read reviews, compare hotels, or make a reservation. Needs Met : This LP fits the query. This is a very helpful result. Page Quality : Orbitz is a popular website with high E-E-A-T and a good reputation. High is an appropriate rating. This is a very popular hotel chain with hotels available in the majority of the U.S. at many different price points. Even though the list of possible hotel chains is long, the homepage of an individual chain that offers different prices, features, and location options could be very helpful. Query: [hotels] Needs Met : This LP is more specific than the query, but could still be a very helpful User Intent: Users are result because the Marriott is a popular probably planning a trip, chain of hotels. but this query is very general and vague. Page Quality : The Marriott website gives information on Marriott hotels, a popular chain of hotels. Marriott has a good reputation and is an expert on Marriott hotels, making the information on this page highly authoritative. High+ to Highest is an appropriate rating. This is the webpage of the Marriott Courtyard hotel in Emeryville, California. Needs Met : The LP is too specific for the query, but this is a well-known brand and users can navigate to other Marriott hotels from this page. This is a less helpful result. Page Quality : The Marriott website gives information on Marriott hotels, a popular chain of hotels. Marriott has a good reputation and is an expert on Marriott hotels, making the information on this page highly authoritative. High+ to Highest is an appropriate rating. Copyright 2025 155 Query and User Intent Result Block & LP, Needs Met & Page Quality Ratings Explanation Needs Met : The result block shows three popular Target locations in Jacksonville, with information that is especially helpful for users who want to visit the store. No Page Quality rating Query: [target] required User Location: Jacksonville, Florida The LP is the Target website. User Intent: Go to Needs Met : The result is very satisfying target.com or find a for users that want to go to the website. nearby Target store. Page Quality : Target is a popular shopping website in the U.S. with high E-E-A-T and is trusted by users for online purchases. High to High+ is an appropriate rating. The LP is the “store locator” page on the Target website. Needs Met : Even though the LP is more specific than the query, this result would be very helpful for users who issued this query with the intent to find Target locations to visit in person. Page Quality : Target is the expert about where its stores are located. This page is the most authoritative page on this topic. High+ to Highest is an appropriate rating. The LP on the Target website is for a specific type of women’s pants. Query: [target] Needs Met : The LP is much more User Location: specific than the query and is an unlikely Jacksonville, Florida to no chance interpretation of the query. User Intent: Go to Page Quality : Target is a popular target.com or find a shopping website in the U.S. with high nearby Target store. E-E-A-T and is trusted by users for online purchases. High to High+ is an appropriate rating. Copyright 2025 156 18.0 Needs Met Rating and Freshness Some queries demand very recent or “fresh” information. Users may be looking for “breaking news,” such as an important event or natural disaster happening right now. Here are dif erent types of queries demanding current/recent results. Type of Query Example Queries Explanation Assume users need the information right away. “Breaking news” queries [tornado], [tsunami] Imagine someone who needs immediate weather information because a big storm is coming. Information about last year's weather would not be helpful. Assume users are looking for the most recent or current information about the event. Recurring event queries, such as elections, sports [olympics], [american idol], For example, if the Olympics are happening right now, users events, TV shows, [redsox schedule], [tax forms], searching [olympics] want information about the current Olympics, not conferences, etc. [elections] results from years ago. If the next Olympics are a few months away, users are probably interested in the upcoming Olympics. Current information [population of paris], [amount of Assume users are looking for the most current information, such as queries u.s. debt], [airfare from ny to sfo], [next federal holiday] prices or airfare. Product queries [iphone], [toyota camry], [windows Assume users are looking for information about the most recent operating system] model/version for these product queries. When a query demands recent content, only pages with current, recent, or updated content should get high Needs Met ratings. For these queries, pages about past events, old product models and prices, outdated information, etc. are not helpful. They should be considered “stale” and given low Needs Met ratings. In some cases, stale results are useless and should be rated FailsM . For some queries, there may be “newsy” or recent information user intent, as wel as more “timeless” information user intent. Users issuing queries for celebrities or politicians may be interested in biographical information, or users may be looking for the latest news or gossip. Freshness is general y less of a concern for Page Quality rating. “Stale” pages can have high Page Quality ratings. For example, some highly reputable news websites maintain “archival” content. However, unmaintained/abandoned “old” websites or unmaintained and inaccurate/misleading content is a reason for a low Page Quality rating. Note : The date the page was created may be dif erent from when the content was last updated or modified. When content is updated, the page wil sometimes show the date of the update, not the date the page was created. Some websites always show the current date, regardless of when the content was last updated. If you are curious about the content of a page, see here to try the “Wayback Machine” on the Internet Archive. Not al pages are available, but this tool may help you understand how some pages were created and how their content has changed over time. Copyright 2025 157 Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating, Page Quality Rating Explanation Query: [los angeles This LP shows traffic conditions in traffic] Los Angeles on August 7, 2012, which is the day this example was User Location: Los written. Angeles, California User Intent: Users are looking for current information about traffic conditions in Los Angeles. Even pages This LP shows traffic conditions in about traffic conditions Los Angeles on August 6, 2012. the day before would be It is stale and useless for the considered stale for the query even though it is only one query. day old. This LP on the New York Times Query: [nobel peace website has information about the prize winner] most recent winner of this prize, based on the date when this User Intent: Find the example was written. name of the most recent winner of this prize. This is a Know Simple query. At the time this example was originally written, 2011 was the most This LP on the BBC website has recent year that the information about the 2006 winner Nobel Peace Prize was of this prize. The 2006 winners of awarded. the prize may is an extremely minor interpretation of the query, so this page is stale for the query. Copyright 2025 158 Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating, Page Quality Rating Explanation Medline Plus is an authoritative Query: [arthritis] website that regularly updates its content. User Intent : Users are looking for information about this disease. Because there is ongoing research done on treatments and cures for most diseases, users This 2006 article is extremely are probably looking for stale for this medical query. For authoritative, up-to-date this type of query, old medical information on arthritis. news is generally unhelpful and potentially dangerous. Query: [when was franklin d roosevelt born] This LP has the information users are looking for. This query does User Intent: Users want not require fresh results. to find this well understood fact. We couldn’t find a stale page for this query. N/A 19.0 Misspelled and Mistyped Queries and Results 19.1 Misspelled and Mistyped Queries You wil notice that some queries are misspel ed or mistyped. Here are some examples of queries that are obviously misspel ed: Misspelled Query Query Interpretation [federal expres], English (US) The only reasonable query interpretation is the company named Federal Express. [new england patroits], English US) The only reasonable interpretation is the NFL football team. [byonce knowles], English (US) The only reasonable interpretation is the famous singer/actress, Beyonce Knowles. Some misspel ed or mistyped queries are more dif icult to interpret. Use your judgment and do query research. For obviously misspel ed or mistyped queries, you should base your rating on user intent, not necessarily on exactly how the query has been spel ed or typed by the user. For queries that are not obviously misspel ed or mistyped, you should respect the query as written, and assume users are looking for results for the query as it is spel ed. Copyright 2025 159 19.2 Name Queries Consider the query [john stuart], English (US). There is a very famous Jon Stewart, the comedian and former host of a popular U.S. television show. However, we should not assume that the query [john stuart] has been misspel ed. There are many people named John Stuart. We wil respect the query as written and assume the user is looking for someone named “John Stuart.” Query and Possible User Intents Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating, Page Quality Rating Explanation The page lists all Query: [mich ea l jordan], members of the LinkedIn English (US) site named “Micheal Jordan.” LinkedIn is a User Intent: There are very popular social many people named networking website for “Micheal Jordan.” professionals in the U.S. This result would be very Helpful results for more helpful for users trying to prominent people named find information about Micheal Jordan should someone named receive higher ratings “Micheal Jordan.” than helpful results for less prominent people named Micheal Jordan. This is a somewhat Because Michael Jordan helpful result for an is such a famous unlikely minor athlete/celebrity, we will interpretation of the consider Michael Jordan query. to be an unlikely minor interpretation. 20.0 Non-Fully Meets Results for URL Queries Raters sometimes ask the question, “For a wel -formed working URL query, are the only acceptable Needs Met ratings for a result either Fully Meets or Fails to Meet ?” The answer is no. There can be other helpful results for URL queries. Finding information about a website is a reasonable interpretation and intent for URL queries, as some users issue URL queries to find information about a website, such as reviews or recent news. We recommended this to you as one method of reputation research in the PQ guidelines. Real users do this too. Results that give reviews and reputation information can be very helpful for a URL query. However, websites that of er usage statistics about a website are not usual y helpful results for URL queries. Most users aren’t interested in this kind of information. Copyright 2025 160 Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating, Page Quality Rating Explanation This LP is the target of the query. Query: Online coupon codes are very [potterybarn.com] popular in the U.S. and this LP (from a well-known coupon site) User Intent: Pottery displays codes for online Barn is a home purchases on the Pottery Barn furnishing store. Users website. Users may be interested may want to go to the in coupon codes and this would website, do research, or be very helpful for those shopping find more information on online at potterybarn.com, the company. especially frequent shoppers. This LP (from a well-known review site) has reviews of the potterybarn.com website. Users may be interested in reading reviews when considering whether to make purchases at potterybarn.com, especially new shoppers. This LP is the target of the query. Query: [ratemyprofessors.com] User Intent: Go to www.ratemyprofessors.c This LP is an extensive om , a website where encyclopedia article for the students can rate their queried URL. It contains many college professors. helpful sections, including information detailing the rating process, comparison with in-class evaluations, criticism, etc. This is a very helpful result for a reasonable interpretation of the query. Copyright 2025 161 21.0 Product Queries: Importance of Browsing and Researching Some product queries, such as [ipad reviews], have a clear information-seeking ( Know ) intent. Other product queries, such as [buy ipad], have a clear purchase ( Do ) intent. And some product queries, such as [ipad store.apple.com], have a clear navigation ( Website ) intent. However, most product queries don’t obviously specify one type of intent. Keep in mind that many users enjoy browsing and visual y exploring products online, similar to window shopping in real life. Give high Needs Met ratings to results that al ow users to research, browse, and decide what to purchase. Users may not always plan to buy products online that they are browsing and researching, for example, cars or major appliances. Even though the ultimate goal may be to purchase a product, many other activities may take place first: researching the product (reviews, technical specifications), understanding the options that are available (brands, models, pricing), viewing and considering various options (browsing), etc. Important : Page Quality ratings for product results need extra care and attention. Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating, Page Quality Rating Explanation Query: [high definition tv] This LP has comprehensive information about different types User Intent: This query of high definition TVs (plasma, doesn’t specify a size or LCD, LED), as well as reviews brand of TV. Users are about many specific models. The probably doing research website is known for having before making a helpful reviews and information purchase. about electronics. Query: [girl toddler jeans size 3T] This is a helpful page for browsing and shopping for toddler User Intent: The query girls jeans. There are many is very specific. The options for jeans in size 3T. This user wants to browse is a high quality store known for and find an item to buy. selling jeans. Query: [cufflinks] This LP has a large collection of cufflinks from a very reputable User Intent: Most users retailer. There are many options probably want to find and styles. This is a good page different cufflink styles for browsing. There are helpful and options to browse or features at the top to choose purchase. styles, price ranges, etc. Copyright 2025 162 Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating Explanation Query: [twist of fate ring pandora] This result has a variety of images of the ring, showing User Intent: The user is looking different angles and materials. for a specific ring sold by the Knowing what the ring looks like Pandora brand and likely wants to is very helpful to users who are research the ring, see what it researching the product and looks like, find options to browse browsing options that are or purchase, etc. available. 22.0 Rating Visit-in-Person Intent Queries When there is a user location for a visit-in-person intent query and a location has not been specified in the query itself, such as [chinese restaurants] with a user location of Boston, MA , results in or near the user location are the most helpful. How close is “near”? The type of business and/or entity should be taken into consideration when deciding if the distance of the visit-in-person result is too far. For example, most people are not wil ing to travel very far for a gas station, cof ee shop, supermarket, etc. Those are types of businesses that most users expect to find nearby. However, users might be wil ing to travel a little farther for certain kinds of visit-in-person results: doctors’ of ices, libraries, specific types of restaurants, public facilities like swimming pools, hiking trails in open spaces, etc. Sometimes users may accept results that are even farther away, such as a very specialized medical clinic. In other words, when we say users are looking for results “nearby,” the word “nearby” can mean dif erent distances for dif erent queries. As always, please use your judgment. Copyright 2025 163 22.1 Examples Where User Location Does (and Does Not) Matter As previously mentioned, the user location may not always change our understanding of the query and user intent. Below is one example where user location plays an important role, and two examples where user location does not matter. Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating Explanation This result block displays the complete and correct answer prominently in the result block, in a way that is easy for users on mobile devices to read. Note : Assume that the result shows current information for users at the time this example was written. If you were rating this task, you would need to verify that the minimum wage rate in this result Query: block is accurate for the state of Kansas. [minimum wage rate] User Location: Wichita, Kansas This is the official Kansas state website User Intent: Find out page on minimum wage for Kansas. what the current minimum wage is. Different states in the U.S. have different minimum wage rates. This LP has the minimum wage rates for Users might be all states. It is on the official U.S. interested in the Department of Labor website. Though it minimum wage in their takes some work to find the information state and how it specific to Kansas, this is a very helpful compares to other result for users seeking general places. information about the minimum wage rate. This is the official California state website page on minimum wage for California. Given the user location, this is an unhelpful result. Copyright 2025 164 Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating Explanation The user is looking for a job at Amazon and there is no information in this result block that will help the user explore job opportunities—it Fails to Meet the user need. Query: [amazon jobs] User Location: Miami, Florida User Intent: Users are looking for job opportunities at Amazon. This is Amazon’s official page on careers and jobs at Amazon, where users can search for currently open opportunities. This page is exactly what the user is looking for—it Fully Meets the user need. Copyright 2025 165 23.0 Rating English Language Results in Non-English Locales The following rating guidance is for raters in non-English locales. You may stop reading this section if your task language is English, such as English (US), English (IN), English (NG), etc. Your Needs Met ratings should reflect how helpful the result is for users in your locale. When the query is in the language of your locale, assume that users want results in that language. We know that you can read English (you are reading this document!), but you should only give high Needs Met ratings to English results if users in your locale would expect or want them for a particular query. Unless requested by the query, English results should be considered useless if most users in the locale can't read them. However, rating can be more dif icult when the query includes English names, words, etc., or when it's unclear whether English results would be satisfying for a particular query. Please use your judgment and knowledge of your locale to determine the appropriate rating. Important: Please keep in mind that every locale wil have unique considerations regarding the number and variety of languages (such as of icial languages, regional languages, local dialects, etc.), writing systems, and keyboard input languages commonly in use. While these guidelines may not include examples for your locale, it is important that you represent users in your task location and culture in order to interpret the query and rate results. When in doubt, please assume that users would prefer results in the task language unless the query clearly indicates otherwise. Copyright 2025 166 23.1 Examples of English (and Non-English) Results in Non-English Locales The section includes some examples using Hindi (IN) and Korean (KR) as the locales. In both cases, we cannot assume that users in these locales—i.e., Hindi-speaking users in India, or Korean-speaking users in Korea—are able to read English. Unless most users in the locale would be satisfied by English results for the query, we wil consider them unhelpful or even useless ( FailsM ). Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating Explanation This Hindi language Wikipedia page on राजा र व वमा is very helpful for Hindi (IN) users. Query: [ राजा र व वमा ] Locale: Hindi (IN) User Intent: The user wants to find information This English Wikipedia page about राजा र व वमा, an Indian artist. about राजा र व वमा has similar content to the Hindi Wikipedia page. Although there are some helpful images on the page, few Hindi users would be able to read this page. This Korean language Wikipedia page on Barack Obama is very helpful for Korean (KR) users. Query: [ 버락 오바마 ] Locale: Korean (KR) User Intent: 버락 오바마 is Barack Obama in Korean, so the user This English Wikipedia page wants to find information about about Barack Obama has similar Barack Obama. content to the Korean Wikipedia page. Although there are some helpful images on the page, very few Korean users would be able to read this page. Copyright 2025 167 Here are two examples where the query includes proper nouns typed in Latin script, such as famous people, places, titles of books or films, etc. For these queries, users would prefer to see results in the language of their locale. Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating Explanation Although the query was typed in Latin script, most Hindi users would want to see information about this person in Hindi. This Hindi language Wikipedia page on Cristiano Ronaldo is very Query: [ ronaldo ] helpful for Hindi (IN) users. Locale: Hindi (IN) User Intent: The user wants to find information about Cristiano This English Wikipedia page Ronaldo, a famous footballer. about Cristiano Ronaldo has similar content to the Hindi Wikipedia page. Although there are some helpful images on the page, few Hindi users would be able to read this page. Although the query was typed in Latin script, most Korean users would expect to see Korean language reviews or Korean Query: stores for purchasing the movie. [titanic 1997] This Korean result on a Korean website is very helpful. Locale: Korean (KR) User Intent: T he user wants to purchase a DVD or find information about the movie This English language landing “Titanic,” released in 1997. page has helpful content for users who can read English. Although there are some helpful images on the page, very few Korean users would be able to read this page. Copyright 2025 168 Here are two additional examples where the query was typed in Latin script (including some English words), yet users would stil prefer to see results in the language of their locale. Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating Explanation Although the query includes some English words, it is a Hindi query typed in Latin script. Most Hindi users would expect to see Hindi Query: [ mahila cricket sri lanka results, like this helpful article. ka match] Locale: Hindi (IN) User Intent: The user wants to find information about a women’s cricket match against Sri Lanka This English language landing on February 17, 2016. page has helpful content for users who can read English, but few Hindi (IN) users would be able to read this page. Although the query was typed in Latin script and includes some English words, most Korean users would expect to see the Korean page on the Samsung Query: [samsung tablet] website. This Korean result is very helpful. Locale: Korean (KR) User Intent: The user wants to purchase, find information, or go to the Galaxy tablet page on the This English language page on Samsung website. the website of Samsung, the company that makes this tablet, has helpful content. Although there are some helpful images on the page, very few Korean users would be able to read this page. Copyright 2025 169 On the other hand, there may be queries where the needs of most users would actual y be satisfied by English language results, even if the query itself is typed in the task language. For example, for queries about global businesses and organizations, users may expect or want to visit the English language version of the business/organization's of icial website in some locales. Similarly, for queries seeking technical information such as manufacturer part numbers, product specs, scientific or chemical formulas, etc., the answer to the query may be typical y expressed in the English language in some locales. For these queries, users may expect or want to see English results in order to satisfy their need. Please use your judgment and knowledge of your locale to determine the appropriate rating. Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating Explanation Query: [ हावड वेबसाइट] Locale: Hindi (IN) This is the official website of Harvard University . Even though User Intent: हावड वेबसाइट is the query was typed in Hindi, this "Harvard website" in Hindi. Users English website is clearly what want to go to the official website users are looking for. Users of Harvard University, which is a would be fully satisfied by this well-known research university in result. Cambridge, Massachusetts . Query: [시스코 카탈리스트 스위치 This article comes from a blog IOS 복원하기] that contains lots of technical information and troubleshooting tips about IT operations and Locale: Korean (KR) programming. The landing page provides step-by-step instructions User Intent: This Korean query in Korean, along with the exact can be translated as "recovering commands in English that users IOS on Cisco Catalyst switches". would need to type into a console The user wants to find out how to in order to recover the operating restore the IOS operating system system for the queried device. on a Cisco Catalyst switch, which This tutorial would be very helpful is a specific brand/model of and easy to follow for Korean computer networking device. users who are familiar with this type of networking device. Copyright 2025 170 Final y, in some locales, English is one of the of icial languages or a commonly spoken language. In these locales, English websites are easy to use and could be helpful, depending on the query. For example, the Singapore government recognizes four of icial languages: English, Malay, Chinese, and Tamil, but English is the first and most dominant language in Singapore. Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating Explanation Query: [barack obama] Locale: English (SG) This Wikipedia page in English about Obama would be very User Intent: Find information helpful to users in Singapore. about Barack Obama. 24.0 Rating Dictionary and Encyclopedia Results for Different Queries When assigning Needs Met ratings for dictionary and encyclopedia results, careful attention must be paid to the user intent. Like al results, the helpfulness of dictionary and encyclopedia results depend on the query and user intent. Dictionary and encyclopedia results may be topical y relevant for many searches, but often these results are not helpful for common words that most people in your rating locale already understand. Reserve high Needs Met ratings for dictionary and encyclopedia results when the user intent for the query is likely "what is it" or "what does it mean" and the result is helpful for users seeking that type of information. Important : Think about how helpful it is to get dictionary or encyclopedia results for very common words. Often there may be much more likely and reasonable intents. If you think most people know the meaning of the word and it is unlikely that people would be looking for the definition, a Slightly Meets rating may be appropriate. Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating Explanation Query: [ obsequious ] This is a vocabulary word often studied in secondary school and User Intent: Users are probably found on college entrance exams. looking for the definition of this Many users may be looking for a vocabulary word. definition and would find this dictionary result helpful. Copyright 2025 171 Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating Explanation Query: [ rainbow ] Most users probably already know what a rainbow is and User Intent: This is a broad would not be looking for a query. Users could be looking for definition. Even if the user needs many things, including images of help understanding the word, rainbows, brands or local images or a simple description stores/organizations with would be more helpful than this "rainbow" in their name, etc. dictionary result. Query: [ cafeteria ] Most users are looking for a place User Location: Eugene, Oregon to eat rather than general information about cafeterias. User Intent: Most Even though this is an in-depth English-speaking users in the US encyclopedia article that matches are familiar with cafeterias. Users the topic of the query, this is not a are most likely looking for a place very helpful result. to eat. Query: [ history of ATM machines ] The user wants to learn more information about the history of User Intent: Find information ATM machines. This about the history of ATM encyclopedia article includes an machines (e.g., the inventor, extensive section on ATM when it was invented, its machine history. This is a very evolution, etc.). helpful result. Copyright 2025 172 Query and User Intent Result Block and LP, Needs Met Rating Explanation Query: [ atm near me ] The user intent is to find a nearby User Location: Livingston, ATM machine. This encyclopedia Wyoming article fails to meet the need of the user because it has no User Intent: Find ATMs near the information about nearby ATM user location. locations. Copyright 2025 173 Appendix: Using the Evaluation Platform 25.0 Overview The Evaluation Platform is the system you wil use to acquire and rate tasks. You can access the Evaluation Platform by going to this link: http://www.raterhub.com/evaluation/rater As a Search Quality Rater, you wil work on many dif erent types of rating tasks. This section provides guidance on how to use certain features of the Evaluation Platform that you wil encounter frequently in Page Quality (PQ) and Needs Met (NM) rating tasks. Some of these concepts may apply to other types of rating tasks as wel . Important: Many tasks that you receive wil display project -specific instructions on the task page. You should always fol ow these project-specific instructions when they are provided. 26.0 Acquiring Tasks Here is a simplified screenshot of the task acquisition page on the Evaluation Platform. Please note that changes are sometimes made to the appearance of this page, so it may not look exactly as it appears below. A few notes about how to acquire tasks from this page: ● rater@gmail.com: Make sure you are logged in to the account you used to sign up for the rating program. ● Acquire if available: Click this button to acquire a new task. ● Headphones or speakers required: This label indicates that the task requires headphones or speakers (for example, to listen to an audio file). Please note you may see other types of labels next to the button on the task acquisition page. Sometimes there wil be only one button, while other times you may see more than one button displayed to distinguish tasks with dif erent requirements. When there is more than one displayed, you may choose the one you want to acquire. 27.0 Rating Tasks Using the Rating Interface Here is a general outline of the steps you should fol ow upon acquiring a task: 1. Read the instructions: Pay close attention to any project-specific instructions and examples if provided. 2. Fill out the task: Assign ratings to result blocks, provide comments, answer questions, etc. (as applicable). 3. Check your work: Verify that you entered your ratings as intended. Additional y, make sure that you provided a response to al required questions. 4. Submit the task: Click the "Submit" button at the end of the page to submit the task and continue rating. Alternatively, click "Submit and Stop Rating" to submit the task and return to the Evaluation Platform homepage. Copyright 2025 174 Additional y, here are a few general things to keep in mind when rating tasks: ● Result blocks are sometimes slow to load: Before assigning any ratings, please scan the task page to make sure that al result blocks have loaded. Please note that result blocks may be slow to load and/or that the task page may need reloading if there are empty result blocks. If the result blocks fail to load after refreshing a few times, please release the task by fol owing the instructions in Section 28.0 below. ● Sometimes a side will not have any result blocks: If one side displays the message “This side did not generate any results,” please do not release the task. ● Do not refresh the task page after assigning ratings: If you refresh the page after assigning ratings, you wil lose them and they wil have to be entered again. 28.0 Releasing Tasks Most raters have dif iculty rating some tasks now and then. Some queries are about highly technical topics (e.g., computer science or physics) or involve very specialized areas of interest (e.g., gaming or torrents). You wil report problems and release tasks using the “Report a Problem / Release this Task” button in the rating interface. Here is what the “Report a Problem / Release this Task” button looks like: Clicking the red button displays a menu with several reporting and release options: Please note that changes are sometimes made to this menu, so it may not look exactly as it appears above. Copyright 2025 175 In general, you should choose whichever option best describes your reason for releasing the task. If you are unsure, please select the closest option, or contact your employer/company for further guidance. Please leave a comment explaining the release when it makes sense to provide additional information, for example, when you are releasing for a “technical problem.” Here are some examples for the "lack expertise” and “technical problem” release options. Lack expertise: These queries require specialized knowledge and may be dif icult for some raters. Query General Query Topic [cortisol secretion shows a blank pattern of secretion] Scientific query [minecraft gun and vehicles 1.1 mod instal er] Gaming query [python pandas index like matrix] Technical query Technical problem: These result blocks have question marks and other characters where text should be. Note: Based on the number and/or type of tasks that you release, you may be asked to provide additional details about the reason for some of the releases. Copyright 2025 176 29.0 Understanding the User Location on the Task Page The location of the user should be inferred from the map provided. The map can help clarify where the user was physical y located when the query was issued. On the map, the user location can be precise (blue dot), approximate (blue rectangle or circle), or missing altogether if the user location is unknown. Here are some examples of what you might see at the top of the task: A precise user location Sometimes you will see is represented by a blue a shaded blue circle dot ( ). around the blue dot. The blue dot is the user’s most likely location, but it is possible they are located anywhere within the larger shaded blue region. The user can be located The map includes a anywhere within the response pin, which is a blue rectangle on the marker for a map. visit-in-person result block in the task. If there are three visit-in-person result blocks in the task, there should be three response pins on the map. 30.0 Reporting Duplicate Results in Tasks In some rating tasks, you may be asked to determine whether any results are Duplicates (dupes). This section provides guidance and examples of how to report duplicate results In Needs Met (NM) rating tasks. 30.1 Pre-Identified Duplicates Some duplicate results are automatical y detected and wil be pre-identified for you. They wil be annotated by the text “ Same as ...” right below the slider and above the result block. This is what these pre-identified dupes look like: Left Side Right Side Please note : You cannot unselect dupes that have been automatical y detected and pre-identified. Copyright 2025 177 30.2 Rater-Identified Duplicates You are also asked to help identify duplicate results that have not been automatical y detected. Please mark two results as dupes if they have essential y the same content on the main landing page AND you would not want a search engine to return both results for the query. Please note that in Needs Met rating and other query-based tasks, dupe identification is query-dependent . ● Specific queries : For queries where the user is looking for a specific piece of content (such as queries looking for song lyrics, queries looking for a specific article, etc.), obtaining that piece of content from different sites could be helpful for users to verify the information, so they should not be rated as dupes. ● Broad queries : If the query is broad, results may be considered dupes even if they have minor content dif erences on the page (such as dif erent ads, images, or related links). Please identify dupes both within the same side and across sides. Even for cross-side results, you should stil ask yourself the question, “Would users want to see both results if they were returned by the same search engine?” Note : If two result blocks have very dif erent types of content or very dif erent appearances, do not mark them as duplicates even if they have the same landing page URL. For example, these two blocks should not be marked as duplicates of each other. Copyright 2025 178 30.3 Reporting Duplicate Results When you notice that the results in two or more result blocks are duplicates, please click on the Select Dupe link at the top of one of the results. The current result (the result you clicked on) wil be highlighted in red at the top of the block. You can then check results that are duplicates of the current result, and the checked results wil be highlighted in yel ow. You must select the “ Dupe of …” button. The duplicate results that you checked wil be annotated by " Dupe of ..." text at the top of the block. After selecting al dupes, click on the finish selecting dupes link to return to the normal rating mode. The link’s name wil change back to Select Dupes , and you wil be able to report other sets of dupes, if there are any. If you change your mind, you can always uncheck a result. Dupes QUERY: [choosing and instal ing a motorcycle battery] URL 1: http://www.caimag.com/wordpress/2010/03/06/motorcycle-battery-how-to-choose-instal URL 2: http://www.articlesbase.com/motorcycles-articles/choosing-and-instal ing-a-motorcycle-battery-47798.html Reason : Both of these results display the same article (which also appears on many other pages on the web). The only real dif erence between the landing pages are the Ads displayed around the article. The query is broad enough that users would not benefit by search engines returning more than one of these results. Dupes QUERY: [jason castro] URL 1: http://www.myspace.com/jasoncastromusic URL 2: http://www.myspace.com/jasoncastromusic?MyToken=503599bf-01cf-4427-bdf4-d63920c107f9 Reason : These two results have the same landing page, even though the URLs are dif erent. Users would not benefit by search engines returning both results. Not Dupes QUERY: [material girl lyrics] URL 1: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/madonna/material+girl_20086925.html URL 2: http://www.lyrics007.com/Madonna%20Lyrics/Material%20Girl%20Lyrics.html Reason : Even though both pages display the lyrics to the song “Material Girl,” users would probably want to have the option to visit both pages so that they could verify the accuracy of the lyrics. Users could benefit by search engines returning more than one page with the lyrics to the song. Copyright 2025 179 31.0 Simplified Needs Met Tasks Some Needs Met rating tasks may not require ratings for al blocks. In these blocks, the Needs Met and Page Quality rating scales wil be greyed out and annotated with the text "No Rating Required". The greyed-out results (sometimes referred to as "contextual results") are shown to help you understand the query and inform your ratings. You can click on them when you feel like they wil be helpful in determining your ratings. Here is an example: Copyright 2025 180 Appendix 2: Guideline Change Log This guideline is updated regularly to remain relevant over time. Changes from the past two years (January 2023 - January 2025) are summarized below. Date Published Summary of Changes January 2025 ● Updated Page Quality Lowest and Low sections to better align with Google Search Web Spam Policies ; added il ustrative examples ● Expanded guidance on assessing minor interpretations and intents for Needs Met ratings and added il ustrative examples ● Minor changes throughout (updated rating ranges, removed outdated examples; fixed typos; updated browser requirements; etc.) February 2024 ● Updated characteristics of untrustworthy pages and added il ustrative examples November 2023 ● Simplified Needs Met scale definitions and added guidance for specific types of Needs Met ratings; refreshed rating guidance and examples accordingly ● Modernized examples by adding examples for popular platforms and video formats and removing outdated and redundant examples ● Minor changes throughout (expanded rating guidance for forum pages; updated language, examples, and explanations for consistency across sections; fixed typos; etc.) Copyright 2025 181