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, in order to guide
your exploration
of the
landing page and the
website associated with the
URL.
Ultimately, the goal of
Page Quality rating is
to evaluate
how well
the page
achieves
its purpose. Because
different
types of
websites
and webpages
can have
very different purposes, our expectations and standards for different
types of
pages are
also different.
Here's what you'll
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!
The examples in
these guidelines
are very
important. Please view
each one
and keep
in mind a few notes
about the
examples:
● Webpages and
websites change rapidly, so
we use
images or "snapshots" of webpages in most of our
examples. ● 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.
2.0 Understanding Webpages and Websites
PQ rating requires
an in-depth understanding
of websites. We'll start
with the
basics. Along the way, we'll
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 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 character
string 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 difference 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 usually
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 will
use the
word “website” to refer to a collection
of pages
owned and
controlled by a single
entity (individual, business, etc.). But we
will 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 different 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
usually 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 usually
find the
homepage of a website by
clicking on a “home” link
or logo
link on
subpages
of a
website.
A subpage on
a website is
any page
on the
site other
than the
homepage. For example, http://www.apple.com/iphone is a subpage on
the Apple
website,
and http://finance.yahoo.com/options is a subpage on
the Yahoo Finance website.
A webmaster is the person
who
is responsible
for maintaining
a website.
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 What is 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 users, thus
having a beneficial purpose. Some pages
are created
merely to make money, with
little or no effort
to help
users.
Some pages are even created
to cause
harm to
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 well
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'll
better
understand what criteria are important to consider
when evaluating
that particular page.
● Websites
and pages
should be created to help
users.
Websites and
pages that
are created
with
intent to harm users, deceive
users, or make money with
no attempt to
help users, should
receive the Lowest PQ rating. More on
this later.
As long as
the page
is created
to help
users, we will 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 all different
types and
purposes: shopping pages, news pages,
forum pages,
video pages, pages with error messages,
PDFs, images,
gossip pages, humor pages,
homepages, and all 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 personal
or social
information.
● To share
pictures, videos, or other forms
of media.
● To express an opinion or
point of
view.
● To entertain.
● To sell products
or services.
● To allow
users to
post questions
for other
users to
answer.
● To allow users to share
files or
to download
software.
Here are
a few
examples where it is easy
to understand
the purpose
of the page:
|
Type
of Page
|
Purpose of the
Page
|
|
|
To inform
users about recent or important
events.
|
|
|
To sell
or give
information about the product.
|
|
|
To share
a cute
video of a cat.
|
|
|
To calculate
equivalent amounts in different
currencies.
|
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) Pages
Some types of
pages could
potentially
impact the future happiness,
health, financial stability, or
safety of users. We call such
pages “Your Money or Your Life” pages, or
YMYL. The
following are
examples of YMYL pages:
● Shopping or
financial transaction pages: webpages that
allow
users to
make purchases,
transfer
money,
pay bills,
etc. online
(such as
online
stores and online banking pages).
● Financial
information
pages:
webpages that provide advice or information
about
investments, taxes, retirement planning,
home purchase,
paying for college, buying
insurance, etc.
● Medical
information
pages: webpages that provide advice or
information
about health,
drugs,
specific diseases or conditions, mental
health,
nutrition, etc.
● Legal
information
pages: webpages that provide legal advice
or information on topics such as
divorce, child custody, creating
a will,
becoming a citizen, etc.
● News
articles or public/official
information
pages important for having an informed citizenry: webpages that
include information about local/state/national government processes, policies, people, and laws; disaster response services; government
programs and social services; news about
important topics such as
international
events, business, politics, science, and technology;
etc. Please use
your judgment
and knowledge of
your locale.
Keep in
mind that
not all news articles
are necessarily
considered YMYL.
● Other: there are
many other
topics
that you
may consider
YMYL,
such as child adoption, car
safety
information, etc. Please use your judgment.
We have very
high Page
Quality rating standards for YMYL pages
because low quality YMYL
pages could
potentially
negatively impact users’ happiness,
health, financial stability, or safety.
2.4 Understanding Webpage Content
All of the
content on a webpage
can be
classified as one of the following:
Main Content (MC), Supplementary Content (SC), or Advertisements/Monetization (Ads). In
order to
understand the purpose of a webpage
and do
PQ rating, you will need to
be able
to distinguish among these different
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. Webmasters directly control
the MC
of the
page (except
for user-generated content). MC can
be text, images,
videos, page features (e.g., calculators, games),
or it
can be
user-generated content such as
videos, reviews, articles, etc.
that
users have
added or
uploaded to the page. Note that
tabs on
some pages lead to
even more
information
(e.g., customer reviews) and
can sometimes
be considered
part of
the MC
of the page.
The MC also
includes the title at the top
of the page (example). Descriptive MC titles allow 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.
|
|
|
News article page: the
purpose is to communicate
information about an event
or news topic.
|
|
|
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 part
of the
MC.
|
|
|
Type
of Page and Purpose
|
MC
Highlighted
in Yellow
|
|
Video page:
the purpose
is to
share a video about
cats.
|
|
|
Currency converter
page: the purpose is
to
calculate equivalent amounts
in different
currencies.
|
|
|
Blog post page:
the purpose is
to
share music used
on a
TV show.
|
|
|
Search
engine homepage: the purpose
is to allow
users
to enter
a query
and
search the Internet.
|
|
|
Bank login page: the purpose is
to
allow users to log
in to
bank
online.
|
|
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 controlled
by webmasters
and is
an important part of the
user experience. One common type
of SC
is navigation
links that
allow
users to visit other parts
of the website. Note
that in some
cases, content behind tabs may be considered
part of
the SC of the
page.
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.
|
|
|
Store product
page: the purpose is
to
sell or give information
about the product.
|
|
|
Video page:
the purpose
is to
share a video about
cats.
|
|
|
Blog post page:
the purpose is
to
share music used
on a
TV show.
|
|
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 several
different
ways to
monetize a webpage, including advertisements and
affiliate
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. Usually, you
can click
on the
links or
mouse over
the content
to determine whether they are Ads,
as they
often
refer to
a URL
outside of that website. Ads
may change
when you
reload
the page,
and different users may see different Ads on the same
page.
Webmasters
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 will
consider a website responsible for
the overall
quality of the Ads displayed.
Important:
For the
purpose of
this guideline,
we will consider
monetized links of any type to be
“Ads.”
See here for
different
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.
|
|
|
Video page:
the purpose
is to
share a video about
cats.
|
|
|
Blog post page:
the purpose is
to
share music used
on a
TV show.
|
|
|
Store product
page: the purpose is
to
sell or give information
about the product.
|
|
2.4.4 Summary of the Parts of the Page
Let's put
it all
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
overall 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,
reviews 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.
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, and Ads
Highlighted
|
|
News article page: the
purpose is to communicate
information about an event
or news topic.
|
|
|
Store product
page: the purpose is
to
sell or give information
about the product.
|
|
|
Video page:
the purpose
is to
share a video about
cats.
|
|
|
Currency converter
page: the purpose is
to
calculate equivalent amounts
in different
currencies.
|
|
|
Blog post page:
the purpose is
to
share music used
on a
TV show.
|
|
|
Bank login page: the purpose is
to
allow users to log
in to
bank
online.
|
|
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 the
website the page belongs
to.
In order to
understand a website, look for information about the website on
the website
itself. Websites are
usually very eager to tell
you all
about themselves!
You must also
look for
reputation information about the
website. We need
to find
out what
outside, independent sources say
about the
website. When there is
disagreement between what the
website says about itself
and what reputable
independent sources say about the website,
we’ll trust the
independent sources.
2.5.1 Finding the
Homepage
The homepage of
a website
usually
contains or has links to
important
information about the website. Webmasters usually make
it easy
to get
to the homepage of
the website
from any
page on
the site.
Here's how to
find the
homepage of
a website:
● Examine
the landing
page of the
URL in
your PQ
rating
task. ● Find and
click on
the link
labeled “home” or “main
page.”
● Having
trouble finding it? Try using “Ctrl-F”
(“command-F” on a Mac) to search
the page
for the
text
“home” or “main.” You may also
try clicking
on the
website logo, which is usually 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,” “.info,” etc. and
refresh the page.
Occasionally, your
rating task will 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 http://finance.yahoo.com/news/category-stocks is
http://finance.yahoo.com or http://www.yahoo.com.
Important: When
you have
more than
one homepage
“candidate,”
please use whichever one offers 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.
In the following
examples, we have included
the URL
of the page to
be evaluated
in the rating task,
as well
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 will
see a red
box around
the link
or logo
you would
click to navigate to
the homepage.
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 individual, company,
business, foundation, etc.) is responsible
for the
website.
● Who (what individual, company,
business, foundation, etc.) created the content on
the page you
are evaluating.
Websites are usually
very clear
about who
created the content on the page. There
are many
reasons for this:
● Commercial websites may have
copyrighted material they want
to protect. ● Businesses want users
to know
who they are.
● Artists,
authors,
musicians, and other original content creators
usually want to be
known and
appreciated. ● Foundations often want support and
even volunteers.
● High quality stores want
users to feel comfortable
buying
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. Google and Marriott
are both examples
of this,
and there are many
others:
Often a business
or organization is responsible for the
content
of a
website, not an individual
person. The IBM Corporation
is responsible
for the content on
ibm.com. The Cleveland Clinic is responsible for the
content
on clevelandclinic.org. An
individual is not responsible
for the
content on these websites,
even though many individuals
contributed to creating and maintaining the
content. In these cases,
we will
view the business
or organization
as responsible
for the
content on every single
page, as
well as
maintenance
of the
website.
On some websites, users
create the MC of
many pages,
while the business or
organization itself maintains the
website.
The company
Facebook is responsible for the Facebook website, but
individuals create the content
on their
personal Facebook pages. The
company Wikipedia is responsible
for the
Wikipedia website, but individuals
create
article content. Other websites with
user-generated
content include YouTube,
Twitter,
other social
networking websites, other article
publishing websites, Q&A websites, forums, etc. For these
websites, you must look
at each
page to
determine
the author(s)
or creator(s)
of the
content
on that
page.
Finally, there
are some
websites that show licensed or
syndicated
content. This means that the
website has paid money or
has some
business relationship with the creator of the
content. In these cases,
we will
consider the website itself
to be responsible
for the
licensed or syndicated content, even if it
wasn’t created by the website.
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 offer 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'll
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
smaller 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.
Occasionally, you
may encounter
a website
with a
legitimate
reason for anonymity.
For example, personal websites
may not
include personal contact information such as an
individual’s
home address
or phone
number. Similarly, websites
with user-generated
content may allow the author to
identify
him/herself 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 will find
the contact
information on a “corporate site” link or even on
the company’s Facebook
page.
Be a detective!
Note that different locales may have their
own specific
standards and requirements for what information should be available on
the website.
2.6 Reputation of the Website or Creator of the
Main
Content
A website's reputation is based on the
experience of real users, as well
as the
opinion of people who
are experts
in the
topic of
the website. Keep
in mind that websites often
represent real companies, organizations,
and other
entities.
Therefore, reputation research applies
to both
the website
and the
actual company, organization, or entity
that the website
is representing.
A website's reputation can also help you
understand what a website
is best
known for, and
as a
result how well it accomplishes
its purpose. For
example, newspapers may be known for
high quality, independent
investigative
reporting while satire websites may
be known
for their
humor.
Many websites are
eager to
tell users how great they are. Some
webmasters have read these
rating guidelines and write
“reviews” on various review websites. But
for Page Quality rating, you
must also
look for
outside,
independent reputation information about
the
website. When the website
says one
thing about
itself, but reputable external
sources
disagree with what the website
says, trust the external
sources.
Your job is
to truly
evaluate the Page Quality
of the site, not
just blindly accept information on one
or two pages of
the website. Be
skeptical of claims that
websites make about themselves.
2.6.1 Research on the Reputation of the Website or Creator of the Main Content
Use reputation research
to find out what
real users,
as well as
experts, think about a website. Look for reviews,
references, recommendations by experts,
news articles,
and other credible information created/written
by individuals about the website.
Stores
frequently have user ratings,
which can
help you
understand
a store’s reputation based on the
reports of people who
actually shop there. We consider a
large number
of positive
user reviews as evidence of positive
reputation.
Many other kinds
of websites
have reputations as well. For
example, you might find
that a
newspaper website has won
journalistic awards. Prestigious awards, such
as the
Pulitzer Prize award, are
strong evidence of positive reputation.
When a high
level of
authoritativeness
or expertise
is needed, the
reputation of a website
should be judged on what expert
opinions have to say. Recommendations from expert sources, such
as professional societies, are strong evidence of very positive reputation.
Reputation research is necessary
for all
websites you encounter. Do
not just
assume websites you personally
use have
a good
reputation. Please do research! You might be
surprised at what you find.
2.6.2 Sources of Reputation Information
Look for information
written
by a
person, not statistics or other machine-compiled
information. News
articles, Wikipedia articles, blog
posts, magazine articles, forum
discussions, and ratings from
independent organizations can all
be sources
of reputation
information. Look for independent,
credible
sources of information.
Sometimes, you will find information about a website that is not related to its reputation. For example, pages like Alexa have information about Internet traffic to the website, but do not provide evidence
of positive
or negative
reputation. You can
ignore this information since
it's not
helpful for Page Quality
rating.
2.6.3 Customer Reviews
of Stores/Businesses
Customer
reviews can be helpful for assessing
the reputation
of a store
or business. However, you
should interpret these reviews with
care, particularly
if there are
only a
few. Be
skeptical of both positive
and negative user reviews. Anyone can
write them,
including the creator of
the website or
someone the store or business
hires for this purpose. See
here for
a New
York Times article on
fake reviews
and here for
a Guardian
article
on fake
reviews.
When interpreting customer reviews, try
to find
as many as
possible. Any store
or website
can get
a few negative reviews. This is completely
normal and expected. Large
stores and companies have
thousands of reviews and most receive some negative ones.
It is also
important to read the
reviews because the content
of the
reviews matter, not just the
number. Credible,
convincing reports of fraud and
financial wrongdoing
is evidence
of extremely negative reputation. 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.
2.6.4 How to Search for Reputation Information
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 creator of the content,
if it
is different from that of
the overall
website.
2. Using ibm.com as
an example,
try one
or more
of the
following 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. ● For content creators, try
searching for their name or
alias.
Note:
When searching
for
reputation information, try to
find sources
that were
not written or
created by the website, the
company itself, or the
individual. For example, IBM might
have official Facebook or Twitter 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, reviews, forum posts,
discussions, etc. written by
people
about the website. For
businesses, there are many sources
of reputation information and reviews. Here are
some examples:
Yelp, Better Business Bureau (a
nonprofit organization that focuses
on the
trustworthiness of businesses and charities), Amazon,
and Google Shopping. You can
try searching
on specific
sites to
find reviews. For example,
you can
try [ibm
site:bbb.org] or [“ibm.com” site:bbb.org].
For content
creators, look for biographical
data and
other
sources that are not written by the individual.
Note:
You will
sometimes find high ratings on
the Better Business Bureau (BBB)
website because there is very little data
on the
business,
not because
the business
has
a positive
reputation. However, very low ratings
on BBB
are usually
the result
of multiple unresolved complaints. Please
consider very low ratings
on the
BBB site to
be evidence
for a
negative reputation.
4. See if
there is
a Wikipedia article or news article
from a
well-known news site. Wikipedia
can be
a good
source of information about
companies, organizations, and content creators. For example,
try [ibm site:en.wikipedia.org]
or [“ibm.com”
site:en.wikipedia.org]. News
articles and Wikipedia 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
Wikipedia 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.
Here are
some examples
of reputation information:
|
Website
|
Reputation Information About the Site
|
Description
|
|
|
|
Positive reputation information : Users in
the U.S.
can obtain
free credit reports on this website by
providing
their Social Security
Number. Note
that the Wikipedia article tells
us that
“AnnualCreditReport.com is
the only
federally mandated and authorized
source for obtaining a free
credit report.”
Note: Almost every website will
have
complaints about customer service,
so it
is important to
look at various sources
and reviews in
your reputation research.
|
|
|
|
Positive reputation information : According to
Wikipedia,
the Cleveland Clinic
“is currently regarded as one
of the
top 4 hospitals in
the United
States as rated by U.S.
News & World Report,”
which
you will
also
find in the article on
the best hospitals in
the U.S. Users can
trust
medical information on this
website.
|
Copyright
2018 16
|
Website
|
Reputation Information About the Site
|
Description
|
|
|
|
Positive reputation information : Notice the
highlighted section in the
Wikipedia
article about The Christian Science
Monitor newspaper, which tells
us that
the newspaper has
won
seven Pulitzer Prize awards. From this
information, we can infer that
the csmonitor.com website has
a positive
reputation.
|
|
|
|
Positive reputation information : We learn
in
the Wikipedia article
that “Kernel.org is a
main repository of
source code for the Linux
kernel, the base of
the popular
Linux operating system. It makes all
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
and maintainers
of Linux
distributions.”
|
|
|
|
Extremely negative reputation information :
This business has a
BBB rating
of F (i.e.,
lowest rating given
by BBB). There
is a
news article about financial
fraud. There are many
reviews
on websites describing users sending
money and not receiving anything from
various sources.
|
|
|
|
Extremely negative/malicious reputation
information :
This website engaged in
criminal behavior such
as physically
threatening users.
|
|
|
|
Extremely negative reputation information :
There are many detailed negative articles on
news
sites and charity watchdog sites
about this organization describing fraud
and financial mishandling.
|
2.6.5 What to Do When
You Find
No Reputation Information
You should expect
to find
reputation
information for large businesses and websites
of large
organizations,
as well
as well-known
content creators.
Frequently, you
will find
little or no information
about the
reputation
of a
website for a small
organization. This is not
indicative of positive or negative reputation. Many small,
local businesses or community organizations have a small “web presence”
and rely
on word
of mouth,
not online
reviews. For these smaller
businesses and organizations, lack of reputation should
not be
considered
an indication
of low
page quality.
3.0 Overall Page Quality
Rating
At a
high level,
here are
the steps
of Page
Quality
rating:
1. Understand the
true purpose of the page. Websites or
pages without
any beneficial purpose, including pages that are
created with no attempt
to help
users, or pages that
potentially spread hate, cause harm, or
misinform or deceive users, should
receive the Lowest rating. No further
assessment is necessary.
2. Otherwise, the
PQ rating
is based
on how
well the page achieves
its purpose
using the criteria outlined
in the
following sections on Lowest, Low, Medium, High, and Highest quality pages.
On Page Quality
rating
tasks, you will use the
Page Quality
sliding scale (slider) to assign the
overall 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.
In the
following sections, you will
learn about
characteristics
of Lowest, Low, Medium, High, and Highest quality
pages.
3.1 Page Quality Rating:
Most
Important Factors
Here are
the most
important factors to consider
when selecting an overall Page Quality rating:
● The Purpose of the Page
● Expertise,
Authoritativeness,
Trustworthiness: This is an important
quality
characteristic. Use your research
on the
additional factors below to
inform your rating.
● Main Content Quality and Amount: The rating should be based on the
landing page of the
task URL.
● Website Information/information
about who
is responsible for the MC: Find
information
about the
website
as well
as the
creator of the MC.
● Website Reputation/reputation
about
who is responsible for
the MC: Links to
help with reputation
research will be provided.
Note: Some tasks
may ask
you to view the
page on
your phone,
but to do
research (e.g., finding website
information
and reputation)
on your
desktop. Other tasks may ask
you to
do everything
on desktop. Please follow
instructions
in the
task.
3.2 Expertise, Authoritativeness,
and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
Remember
that the
first
step of PQ rating
is to
understand the true purpose
of the
page.
Websites or
pages without
some sort
of beneficial
purpose, including pages that
are created with no attempt to help users,
or pages
that potentially spread hate,
cause harm,
or misinform or deceive users, should
receive the Lowest rating.
For all other
pages that
have a
beneficial purpose, the amount
of expertise,
authoritativeness,
and trustworthiness
(E-A-T)
is very
important. Please consider:
● The expertise of the
creator
of the
MC.
● The
authoritativeness of the creator
of the MC,
the MC
itself, and the website.
● The
trustworthiness of the creator
of the
MC, the MC
itself, and the website.
Keep in mind
that there are high E-A-T pages
and websites of all types, even
gossip
websites, fashion websites, humor websites, forum and
Q&A
pages, etc. In fact, some
types of
information
are found
almost exclusively on forums and discussions, where a community of
experts
can provide
valuable perspectives on specific
topics.
● High E-A-T medical advice
should
be written
or produced
by people
or organizations with appropriate medical
expertise or accreditation. High E-A-T
medical advice or information
should be written or produced
in a
professional style and should be
edited,
reviewed, and updated on a regular
basis.
● High E-A-T news
articles should be produced
with journalistic
professionalism—they
should contain factually accurate content presented in a way that
helps users
achieve a better understanding
of events.
High E-A-T news sources
typically have published established
editorial policies and robust review processes (example 1, example 2).
● High E-A-T information
pages on scientific topics
should be produced by people or
organizations with appropriate scientific
expertise and represent well-established
scientific
consensus on issues where such
consensus exists.
● High E-A-T financial
advice, legal advice, tax
advice, etc., should come
from trustworthy sources and be maintained
and updated
regularly.
● High E-A-T advice
pages on
topics such as home remodeling (which can cost thousands
of dollars and
impact your living situation) or
advice on parenting issues (which can
impact the future happiness
of a
family)
should also come from “expert”
or experienced
sources that users can
trust.
● High E-A-T pages on
hobbies,
such as
photography or learning to play a guitar, also
require expertise.
Some topics require
less formal
expertise. Many people
write extremely
detailed,
helpful reviews of products
or restaurants. Many
people share tips and life experiences
on forums,
blogs, etc. These ordinary people
may be
considered experts in topics where
they have
life experience. If
it seems
as if the
person creating the content
has the type
and amount
of life
experience to
make him
or her
an “expert”
on the topic, we
will value
this
“everyday expertise” and not penalize
the person/webpage/website for not having
“formal” education or training
in the
field.
It’s even
possible to have everyday expertise
in YMYL topics. For
example, there are forums and support pages
for people
with specific
diseases. Sharing personal
experience is a form of
everyday expertise. Consider
this example.
Here, forum
participants
are telling
how long
their loved
ones
lived with
liver cancer.
This is an example of
sharing personal experiences (in which
they are
experts),
not medical
advice. Specific medical information and
advice (rather than descriptions
of life experiences)
should come from doctors or
other
health professionals.
Think about the
topic of the page. What
kind of
expertise
is required
for the
page to achieve its
purpose well? The standard
for expertise
depends on the topic
of the
page.
4.0 High Quality Pages
In this section,
we will describe
characteristics of High quality pages and
give many
examples. Examples help
calibrate your ratings, so please
review each one.
4.1 Characteristics of High
Quality
Pages
High
quality pages exist for
almost any beneficial purpose,
from giving
information
to making
people laugh to expressing
oneself artistically to purchasing
products or services online.
What makes a
High quality page? A High quality page should have
a beneficial purpose and achieve that purpose
well. In
addition, High quality pages have the
following
characteristics:
● High level of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T).
● A satisfying amount of high
quality MC, including a descriptive or helpful
title.
● Satisfying
website information and/or information about
who is
responsible for the website. If
the page
is primarily
for shopping
or includes
financial transactions,
then it should
have satisfying
customer service information.
● Positive
website reputation for a website that
is responsible for the MC on
the page. Positive reputation of the
creator of the MC, if different from that of the website.
The quality of
the MC
is one of
the most
important criteria in Page
Quality
rating, and informs the E-A-T of the page. For all types of
webpages, creating high quality
MC takes
a significant amount of at least one of
the following: time, effort, expertise, and talent/skill. For news
articles and information pages, high quality
MC must be
factually accurate for the topic and
must be
supported by expert consensus
where such
consensus exists.
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, spend a
few minutes
playing it.
The purpose of
the page
will help you determine
what high
quality
content means for that page. For
example, High quality information pages
should be factually accurate,
clearly written, and comprehensive. High
quality shopping content should
allow users
to find
the products they
want and
to purchase
the products
easily. High
quality humor or satire
should be entertaining, while factual accuracy is
not a
requirement as long as
the page
would be
understood
as satire
by users.
The amount of
content necessary for the
page to
be satisfying depends on the topic and purpose
of the
page.
A High quality page
on a
broad topic
with
a lot
of available
information
will have
more content
than a
High quality page on a narrower
topic.
Here are some examples of
pages with
a satisfying amount of high
quality MC.
|
Webpage
|
Discussion
|
|
|
The Siberian Husky (a
breed of dog) is
a narrow
topic. Although this
encyclopedia landing page has
less MC than some encyclopedia pages
on broader
topics, it has
a satisfying
amount of clearly written,
high quality MC.
|
|
|
This shopping page on
a reputable
shopping website has
a satisfying
amount of high quality
MC.
The page provides the
manufacturer’s product specs,
as well
as original
product information, over 90
user
reviews, shipping
and returns
information, multiple images of the product, etc. Note: Some
of the
MC is
behind links on the page
(“item details,” “item specifications,” “guest reviews,” etc.). Even
though you have to
click these links to
see the
content, it is still considered
MC.
|
|
|
This movie review written
by a
movie critic
has a
satisfying amount of
high
quality MC. Time, effort, and talent/skill went
into writing this movie
review.
|
4.3 Clear and Satisfying
Website Information: Who is Responsible and Customer Service
Understanding
who is
responsible for a website is a critical
part of assessing
E-A-T for
most
types of websites. High
quality pages should have clear
information
about the
website
so that
users feel comfortable
trusting
the site.
The amount of
information
needed for E-A-T assessment
depends on the type
of website. For
example, YMYL websites demand
a high
degree of trust, so
they generally
need satisfying information about who is responsible
for the
content of the
site.
In addition, High quality stores and financial
transaction websites
also need
clear
and satisfying
customer service information to help
users resolve
issues.
Other websites that are
not YMYL
websites
may need
less website
information,
depending on the purpose of the
website. For example, an email
address may be sufficient
for some
non-YMYL websites.
4.4 Positive Reputation
Reputation
is an
important criteria when using
the High rating, and
informs the E-A-T of
the page. While a page
can merit
the High rating with no
reputation,
the High rating cannot
be used
for any
website that has a convincing negative
reputation. Remember that when
doing
research, make sure to consider
the reasons behind a negative rating
and not just
the rating
itself.
4.5 A High Level of
Expertise/Authoritativeness/Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
High
quality pages and websites
need enough
expertise to be authoritative
and trustworthy on their
topic. Remember
that there
are “expert”
websites
of all
types, even gossip websites, fashion websites, humor websites, forum and Q&A pages,
etc.
In fact, some types of information are
found almost
exclusively on forums and discussions, where a community of
experts can provide valuable
perspectives on specific topics.
Think about the
topic of the page. What
kind of
expertise
is required
for the
page to achieve its
purpose well? The standard
for expertise
depends on the topic
of the
page.
For example, high quality
news articles
and
information pages on scientific topics
should represent established scientific consensus where such consensus
exists.
4.6 Examples of High
Quality
Pages
Copyright
2018 21
5.0 Highest Quality Pages
Highest
quality pages are created
to serve
a beneficial
purpose
and achieve
their purpose
very well. The
distinction
between High and Highest
is based
on the
quality and quantity of MC, as
well as
the level
of reputation
and E-A-T.
What makes a
page Highest quality? In addition to the
attributes
of a
High quality page, a
Highest
quality page must have at
least one
of the
following characteristics:
● Very high level of Expertise,
Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T). ● A
very satisfying
amount of high or
highest quality MC.
● Very positive website
reputation for a website
that is
responsible
for the
MC on
the page. Very positive reputation
of the
creator of the MC, if different from that of the
website.
5.1 Very High Quality MC
We will consider
the MC
of the
page to
be very
high or
highest
quality when it is created with a high degree
of time and effort, and in particular,
expertise, talent, and skill—this
may provide
evidence for the E-A-T of the page. Very high quality
MC may
be created
by experts,
hobbyists,
or even
people with everyday expertise. Our standards depend
on the purpose
of the
page and
the type of content. However, for
news articles
and information
pages
on YMYL
topics, there is a high standard
for accuracy
and well-established medical/scientific/historical
consensus where such consensus
exists.
The Highest rating may
be justified
for pages
with
a satisfying
or comprehensive
amount
of very high quality MC.
5.2 Very Positive Reputation
Extensive
reputation research is important
when giving
Highest
ratings, and is evidence of the
E-A-T of the
page.
Very positive
reputation is often based on prestigious
awards or recommendations from known experts
or professional societies on the topic
of the page. Wikipedia and
other informational sources can be a good starting point for reputation
research.
For some topics,
such as
humor or
recipes, less formal expertise
is OK.
For these topics, popularity, user engagement, and user
reviews can be considered evidence
of reputation. For topics that
need
less formal
expertise, websites can be
considered to have a positive
reputation
if they
are highly
popular
and well-loved
for their
topic
or content
type, and
are focused
on helping
users.
5.3 Very High Level of E-A-T
Highest quality pages
and websites have a
very high
level of
expertise
or are
highly authoritative or highly
trustworthy.
Formal
expertise is important for
topics such as medical, financial, or legal
advice. Expertise may be
less formal for topics
such as
recipes or humor. An expert page on
cooking may be a page
on a
professional
chef’s website, or it may
be someone
who posts
popular cooking videos on YouTube. Please value life experience
and “everyday
expertise.” For some topics,
the most
expert
sources of information are ordinary people sharing their life
experiences
on personal
blogs, forums, reviews, discussions,
etc.
Think about what
expertise,
authoritativeness,
and trustworthiness
mean
for the
topic of
the page. Who are the
experts? What makes a source
trustworthy
for the
topic?
What makes a website
highly authoritative for the topic?
![Search results for [clevelandclinic.org]](https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/insidesearch/howsearchworks/assets/GG/SearchResultsforclevelandclinic.org.jpg){kind=link}
![Search results for [kernel.org –site:kernel.org]](https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/insidesearch/howsearchworks/assets/GG/PQ_Examples_site-kernel.org_Google_Search.jpg){kind=link}
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét