Google Search Quality Guidelines released

Google has released their Search Quality Guidelines, a massive 160 page PDF which contains the guidelines Google uses to assess the quality of their search results.

Google have said they released their search quality guidelines due to the recent increase in mobile usage over the last few years. With more people searching via their mobile devices, Google wants to “provide transparency” for website owners to be able to cater to all their users’ needs.

Google’s quality guidelines are of course always changing, as search changes these guidelines change and with mobile becoming such a dominant part of search Google has had to adapt to the needs of their mobile users, just like you have to with your websites.

Google has stated that this isn’t the final version of their guidelines and it will continue to evolve overtime. However, they won’t publicly announce each change; instead they will publish big changes to the guidelines periodically.

Google’s Search Quality Guidelines

It is important to remember that these guidelines do not determine a site’s rankings; instead they are for evaluators to help Google develop their search algorithm. Evaluators provide Google with feedback on Google’s experiment, which in turn enables Google to provide better search results.

Of course, these results cover a wide range of factors that evaluators use to determine what makes a quality web page. Here are some key factors from Google search guidelines that determine the quality of a web page:

1) Characteristics of High Quality Pages

• A Satisfying amount of high quality main content
• Functional page design
• Positive reputation
• High level of E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
• Well cared for and maintained website

2) Characteristics of Low Quality Pages

• Lack of purpose pages
• Deceptive pages
• Harmful or malicious pages
• Poor quality content
• No website information 
• Negative reputation

This is just a very brief overview of the 160 page PDF but if you would like to look at the guidelines in more depth then here is the full Google Search Quality Guidelines.

But how can this benefit your SEO?

There is quite a bit of valuable information within the 160 page Google quality guidelines, however there is no huge benefits received for SEO in this release.

Although, it does give us a better understanding of what Google sees as “quality” as they give a full range of factors that go into making a high quality website.

For anyone who wants to understand what their audience and Google wants then it is definitely worth a read.