Google Revamps Search Quality Raters Guidelines Yet Again
Sep 12, 2019
10 min read
Before we get into discussing the changes in Google’s QGR, let us understand briefly what it is all about. As we know, Google’s search algorithm is updated numerous times during the year. Suffice to say that updating the entire search algorithm for the biggest search engine in the world is no easy task. This is why Google employs dedicated teams of search quality testers, who follow a predefined search guidelines to test each web page and rates them accordingly. This pattern of quality ratings is then translated into Google’s search algorithm which enables Google to perform automated tests and rate each page that we can see in Google’s search index.
The first glimpse of significant updates to these guidelines came about back in May 2019. With the recent push on EAT & Page Quality gaining more and more importance for Google, these updates laid special emphasis on how each content and advertisement media is presented on a website. For instance, the pop-ups, information and page relevancy to where the ad is shown, user readability or navigation hindrance due to information obstruction (ad size exceeding specific sizes, incomplete or misleading information, etc).
This leads to a very important question for a lot of marketers and webmasters alike.
How Does This Affect My Website?
Unlike core search algorithm updates like Panda or Penguin which had direct impact on search rankings for website, Search Quality Raters Guideline is more of an instruction manual from Google for websites and Quality Testers alike, to see how Google wants to rate the quality of a website or page.
So, this update may not have a direct impact to your overall search positions. However, it still should be treated as a strong checklist to make sure your site content adheres to it to get a strong preference from Google.
If Google rates your site content high, then that quality parameter would go a long way in boosting your site’s visibility on the SERP.
To summarize, you can say that quality guidelines doesn’t impact the ranking signals but rather helps in predicting algorithm trends. This makes these updates a lot more important as it can help you identify the change in trends for any core algorithm updates that have or will be taking place in the near future. This is because the algorithm changes affecting ranking signals or site evaluation for search engine positions, would be governed by these QRGs.
What Changed in QRG
The major chunk of changes this time round has been centered around YMYL, EAT and Main Content (on the website) and it is quite significant for all marketers and seo professionals. These changes are bound to keep SEO experts and online marketers on the edge as they can use these updated guidelines to predict the next set of changes that could be coming in the Google’s core algorithm.
Let’s take a closer look at the changes and updates in the recent Quality Rater’s Guidelines.
Your Money Your Life (YMYL)
The first set of changes can be noticed in section 2.3 of the QRG under YMYL section. With special focus on the News and Government topics available online. The news topic section now gets its own section as against earlier when it was clubbed under Public/Official Information Pages.
With this latest update it becomes clear that Google wants to emphasize information available on news sites and evaluate it more consistently based on the merit of the content and information sources.
“Civics, Government & Laws” were also categorized under their own category further reflecting Google’s intention on evaluating these sub-sections separately than just as another news and information content. Some of the other significant categorizations in the YMYL sections are:
- Shopping and Finance to get separate categories
- Medical Information section has been renamed to Health & Safety
- Groups of People has been added as a new section
‘Main Content’ Evaluation
Content quality guidelines across the world have a subjective nature to it when being evaluated by human beings. But for a machine or program to set the benchmarks, a specific set of guidelines needed to be administered. This time round, the QRG has been updated with new paragraphs about evaluating and rating content across various industries.
News
For any news based sites, Google has indicated that it will be looking at the source, relevancy and bibliography of citations that can verify the authenticity of a particular news article.
Creative Content
Focusing on content like videos, photographs, vlogs, infographics, etc. Google would ascertain the quality of the content, uniqueness and skillset of the content creator/publisher posting these content. Google algorithm is programmed to evaluate visual content quite capably.
Research Content
Setting examples of scientific research papers & a simple stamp collection article in terms of given weightage of evaluation, Google has signaled it would rate these types of content on the basis of consensus and expertise to validate the claims and information being presented in the article. Adding to this Google would also set different evaluating parameters for each of the content depending on nature, purpose and importance.
Linguistic Change in “Hate Pages”
Some of the changes in language of their evaluation checklist for websites/pages that promote hatred or violence.
- Citizenship, Socio-economic, political beliefs, victims of atrocities were removed from their evaluation parameters.
- Gender was renamed to Gender or Gender Identity
- Ethnicity was changed to Ethnic Origin
Reputation Checks for YMYL Content Creators
Let’s take an example of ecommerce sites to best explain this point. Based on the updates on QGR, Google is suggesting that it would evaluate the authenticity of the site based on user reviews of people who have made a purchase on the site. This small instance would apply according to each service or product based business or informational website available online. However the degree and nature of authenticity would vary depending on the details that are on offer and value proposition of each site.
Reviews, Testimonials and trustable citation sources will become strong parameters that validates the quality of a site which should be a food for thought for all content creators across all domains and industries operating online.
Journalist Quality Parameter Expands
Uptil the last guidelines, Pulitzer prize was the predominant benchmark based on which any journalistic piece was measured on the basis of credible citations or accreditations to Pulitzer prize winning authors or publishings. This has now been revamped with significant change to the language of the guidelines now suggest “...Newspaper (with an associated website) has won journalistic awards. . . . “ where as previously it didn’t feature extension of the newspaper in terms of its association with one or other award winning site.
Source
Outcome
While it is still early to comment on these changes as they don’t reflect directly on your websites performance as of yet, but we are sure to see some incoming changes and patterns of shift in terms of the overall content and trust evaluation of each website and thereby its’ positioning by Google.
Popular influencer Glenn Gabe has taken to twitter to highlight some of the more indepth changes and sections and shared his opinion with his followers that has been sparking constructive debates.
Source
With these latest updates, Google has cleared the shroud of ambiguity on content quality evaluation and reinstated that it is going to give importance to YMYL and EAT parameters for evaluating the quality and trust of the website which consequently could have a long term impact on your site’s visibility on SERP.
If you’re concerned or even worried about what these updates could mean for your business, you can schedule a free consultation call with our SEO experts today.
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The Ultimate Guide to SaaS Account Management: Boosting Revenue and Customer Satisfaction
SaaS account management is critical to the success of software-as-a-service (SaaS) organizations, which differ from traditional techniques by stressing not just client relationship management but also long-term retention, revenue development, and consistent value delivery. This tutorial delves into the fundamentals of SaaS account management, including its advantages, day-to-day tasks, and best practices, all within an ABM framework. The focus is on increasing income and customer pleasure through strategic approaches such as SaaS email marketing. Navigating this comprehensive resource will enable SaaS workers to learn the art of account management, assuring long-term success in a dynamic and competitive marketplace. What is SaaS Account Management? SaaS account management is the strategic practice of cultivating and maintaining long-term client relationships in the software sector. The major purpose is to boost income by instilling confidence, increasing client retention, and boosting the usage of the SaaS platform. Key responsibilities include advertising new software, directing clients through trials, maintaining custom solutions, collecting use statistics, diagnosing problems, and providing customer assistance. 4 Benefits of SaaS Account Management: Reduce Customer Churn Reducing client turnover is critical in the highly competitive SaaS market. A strong account-based marketing approach helps in this quest by providing clients with specialized assistance, bespoke solutions, and ongoing advice. The objective is to increase customer pleasure and loyalty, reducing the danger of consumers switching to other platforms. Effective account management addresses current demands as well as predicts and meets evolving requirements through proactive involvement and specialized help. This strategy not only protects existing income streams but also helps to the long-term profitability and stability of SaaS enterprises in a volatile market landscape. Maximize Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Account managers play a critical role in increasing customer lifetime value (CLV) by focusing on subscription renewals and discovering upsell possibilities. Account managers leverage their expertise in identifying high-value customers and implementing account-based marketing best practices to drive growth. Their proactive efforts increase cross-sells and upsells, resulting in increased recurring income. This strategic strategy results in a mutually advantageous scenario that benefits both the SaaS provider and the client. Account managers maintain current income streams while also unlocking the full potential of client relationships, leading to sustainable growth and profitability in the competitive SaaS market. Streamline Business Processes Account management plays a pivotal role in business efficiency by identifying high-value customers. This strategic insight allows companies to streamline processes and allocate resources more effectively. With a clear understanding of customer priorities, account managers can tailor their efforts to meet specific needs, ensuring client satisfaction and retention. This division of labor enables the sales team to concentrate on acquiring new customers, leveraging the expertise of account managers to nurture and enhance relationships with existing ones. In essence, this collaborative approach optimizes resource utilization and enhances overall organizational performance in the dynamic landscape of customer-centric businesses. Integrating B2B content syndication into account management strategies can further enhance customer engagement and retention. Get More Referrals Effective account management not only keeps customers happy but also converts them into zealous brand evangelists. Nurtured connections with delighted customers frequently result in lucrative recommendations, which attract new and more loyal customers, have a higher lifetime value, and spend more than non-referred peers. The ripple effect of favorable word-of-mouth advertising supported by account managers broadens a SaaS company's reach and influence, capitalizing on the credibility and trust established with current clients. Harnessing the power of referrals via effective account management becomes a powerful motivator for long-term success, cultivating a network of loyal customers and extending the customer base with high-value, engaged clients. The Day-to-Day Roles of a SaaS Account Manager: Providing a Point of Contact: Account managers play a pivotal role as the "face of the company," handling customer inquiries, troubleshooting issues, and harmonizing customer needs with organizational objectives. The daily interactions require effective communication and negotiation skills, establishing a reliable and responsive connection with customers. Account Planning and Project Management: Strategic account planning involves comprehensive mapping of crucial customer details, understanding decision-making processes, and setting transparent sales goals. Account managers collaborate seamlessly with project teams to craft tailored solutions, ensuring the successful execution of projects and meeting key customer expectations. Shaping Customer Workflows: Account managers concentrate on refining customer workflows, and creating a personalized experience. Valuable insights obtained from customer interactions contribute to product improvement, enhanced user experience, and informed decision-making in sales and marketing strategies. Reducing Friction and Building Confidence: Account managers aim to deliver a seamless end-to-end customer experience, actively seeking and implementing feedback. Through adept management of sales quotas, they build confidence, transforming satisfied customers into vocal brand advocates who contribute positively to the company's reputation. Managing Sales Quota: Achieving and surpassing sales objectives is a primary focus for account managers. This involves setting and attaining volume and revenue quotas, with performance-based bonuses adding an extra layer of motivation and recognition for their efforts in driving sales success. Preparing Sales Reports: Account managers are responsible for generating periodic reports, including routine sales reports and forecasts. These reports, coupled with quarterly business reviews, serve as valuable tools to showcase customer performance metrics, obtain stakeholder feedback, and contribute to data-driven decision-making within the organization. 6 Best Practices for SaaS Account Management: Understand Your Clients Inside Out: Creating detailed buyer personas is crucial for developing profound insights into your customers. Dive deep into their needs, budget constraints, communication preferences, and demographic information. This comprehensive understanding enables the effective tailoring of your value proposition to precisely meet their expectations and preferences, fostering stronger connections. Focus on Strategic Account Management: Prioritize key accounts that significantly impact revenue or offer avenues for new growth. Devote extra time and effort to cultivate enduring relationships with these accounts, ensuring a personalized approach that addresses their unique needs. Strategic account management becomes instrumental in fostering loyalty and maximizing the potential of high-value partnerships. Develop an Effective Onboarding Process: Craft a robust onboarding process that creates a positive first impression and guides users through your software's features. Personalize onboarding experiences based on customer data, ensuring swift value realization. A well-structured onboarding process not only enhances user satisfaction but also lays the foundation for long-term customer engagement and success. Be Authentic, Helpful, and Indispensable: Serve as a trusted advisor by blending authenticity, friendliness, and a helpful approach. Striking the right balance between professionalism and a personal touch establishes a robust customer-manager relationship. This authenticity builds trust and positions the account manager as an indispensable partner, increasing the likelihood of customer success and satisfaction. Track the Right Data for Actionable Insights: Leverage sales data analytics tools to monitor crucial key performance indicators (KPIs) like Customer Effort Score (CES), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Net Promoter Score (NPS). Analyzing this data provides actionable insights into customer behavior, allowing for informed decision-making and continuous improvement to meet evolving customer expectations. Use the Right Tools: Implement powerful tools, with a specific focus on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. A robust CRM system serves as a centralized hub for contact and account data, facilitating efficient organization, analysis, and automation of tasks. This technology empowers account managers to streamline processes, enhance collaboration, and ultimately deliver a more seamless customer experience. Conclusion SaaS account management is a dynamic and important factor driving the growth of SaaS businesses. Its influence is felt via key actions including minimizing churn, increasing Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), optimizing procedures, and encouraging customer referrals. These activities are critical to increasing revenue growth and guaranteeing increased customer satisfaction. Effective account management, based on best practices, requires a thorough understanding of customers, which may be aided by developing rich buyer personas and using powerful analytical tools. Additionally, it is crucial to understand what is PPL, as they can be integrated into account management approaches to drive targeted leads and maximize conversion rates. The proper usage of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions enables account managers to properly traverse the ever-changing SaaS market. Embracing these tactics places account managers as major drivers of success in the competitive and dynamic world of Software as a Service, rather than simply custodians of relationships. Hire the best of the experts from Saffron Edge for your SaaS businesses and enable them to grow with an exponential ROI. ...
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Thinking about web-design, 7 crucial steps to help you out
Web design, what comes in your mind when you hear this word? Attractive, eye-catching, captivating or coming straight on point something that can hold your audience. There’s a lot to talk about the aspects of web designing. You will hear different things from different individuals. A ton of things to talk, but still not enough. Time to ask yourself, do you find your website attractive? If the answer is a ‘no’ then it’s time to face the truth and do something. “There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.” –Milton Glaser What gives a web design the ‘wow’ effect? Every year new trends come up, generating the need for new design. Well, here are 8 different design aspect you should be looking for: Large, responsive images A lot of text can be boring, a lot images can do the same. But a significant ratio of both can grab the attention you need. Use of large and responsive images can add to the beauty of the website, in addition a bit of text can do wonders. Giant Product Images It's important to have images of your product. No matter how much descriptive your text is, but the job of an image is done by an image.Use large product images that give all the detailing. if need be, highlight all the necessary details within the image. Card Design With the rise of new picture based platforms like Pinterest, designers and marketers equally fascinated with cards. Individual cards help distribute information in a visual way so the visitors can easily consume bite-sized pieces of content without being overwhelmed. Short Product or Feature Videos Use autoplay videos in the background which can tell a story. Short videos of your product rather than writing tons of words to describe it. Using videos can make user experience achieve a new heights. Keep in mind videos should be descriptive, detailed and good. About us and Contact Info A short, precise and purely detailed page describing your company. Answering all the question like, where are you located, what are your services and how they can find you, Answer all these and your website is running ahead of its competitors. A page dedicated at contact info of all the important contact person in the company can be a good thing to look for. Search An additional search button to help the users who are facing difficulties. When you know your needs, it gets annoying to go through all the unnecessary stuff again and again. ‘Better we skip the page and look somewhere else’ this might be your user’s words. SO consider adding a search option. Informational Footer Instead of using the header for the important details, use the footer. This is a trending new way, used by most of the websites these days. Make the footer useful and simple. Couple of buttons or link style design, the footer should connect with the website design. ...
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The ABCs of PPC - 10 Things You Need to Know
PPC marketing, or Pay-Per-Click marketing, is a type under the digital advertising model where an advertiser pays a fee every time an ad is clicked. While it may sound like there is a lot of investment required for the campaign to take off but in reality, there is very little investment for a very big payout. For instance, you pay $4 for a click. If a click transforms into a $200 sale, the margin in between is quite hefty. This article shall cover everything related to PPC and how, contrary to belief, it is one of the most cost-effective methods to market your business/product. So read on to debunk some myths. The ABCs of PPC - 10 Things You Need To Know! Pay-Per-Click is one of the best marketing techniques if you are a business looking for a result-oriented strategy to up your revenue numbers. Here is a list of 10 things that will brief you about the basic concepts involved in devising a PPC strategy. Google and Paid Searches Google has a great monopoly over the industry of paid marketing, and this is not news to anyone. People access google the most on their mobile phones owing to their inherent flexibility of use. It is important that ensure your ads are optimized for mobiles. Your PPC campaigns need to run smoothly on all devices so as to not miss out on any big opportunities. Immediate Results When it comes to digital marketing, results can be tricky to track. When we say tricky, we mean the popular practices of SEO and content marketing can take time before giving results. You can’t begin to gauge the results immediately as these campaigns take time to pan out. This is not the case with PPC marketing. If a campaign is run properly and efficiently, you can see the number increase and leads increase. And if there are significant changes observed, you can always rework your strategy Local Targeting Location targeting can be an incredibly powerful way to make the most of your budget. It allows you to target people in a specific area, which means that they're more likely to be interested in your product or service and therefore click on the ads you're paying for. It is a great way to save costs by lowering traffic acquisition costs (TACs), allowing you to spend more money on ads that convert more visitors into customers. Keyword Bidding The amount you pay per click is usually based on the competition for that keyword from other advertisers. If many advertisers are bidding on a particular keyword, then those who can afford it will pay more to have their ads appear at the top of Google's page. You may get a better deal on a less competitive keyword if it's less likely to be used by others. Still, usually, this isn't possible without investing some time and resources in order to identify new keywords and build out your PPC campaigns accordingly. The best way to use Competition Data is through an automated tool like Adwords Keyword Planner or SEMrush Keyword Suggestions Tool (SEMrush also has some great features such as Rank Tracker). These tools allow you to see what keywords other businesses are bidding on in real-time so that you can make educated guesses about which ones might work well within your own niche market while minimizing exposure outside of your brand's sphere of influence. Ad Conversion The trick with Google Ads is that you have to pay for each click, whether or not it converts into a sale for your business. This means that you'll never get paid if someone lands on a page and then clicks away without buying anything. To avoid this problem, use negative keywords in conjunction with broad match keywords—which are all variations of your target keyword—to prevent your ads from showing for certain keywords in search results pages (SERPs). For example, if you're selling dog collars online and want people searching for "dog collar" to see your ad but not those who are searching specifically for "collars," then create two different lists: one list containing only words related to dogs (such as "puppy") and another containing all other terms related to collars (such as “leather”). Then set both lists up so that they're turned off when targeting these specific queries! The Role of Optimization In order to get the best results from your PPC campaign, it must be set up and optimized correctly. This means that you need to plan ahead and start with a solid foundation before you begin running adverts. When launching a new campaign, there are a few points that one should keep in their mind. Setting up keywords and ad groups takes precedence—you’ll want to choose keywords relevant to your business, then create ad groups based on those keywords so that all related ads get placed together in one spot. You can also add negative keywords if they apply within those specific campaigns; this will help prevent irrelevant traffic from being sent through them later on down the line when someone searches for their desired product or service again but doesn't find what they're looking for initially because there weren't any ads placed near where people might have searched previously without knowing about it beforehand! Diverse Ad Campaigns for Different Devices You should start testing across every device type you wish to target. Different devices react differently to ads, so it's important to start testing across every device type you wish to target. For example, if you're advertising on a desktop computer, test the same ad copy and landing page as well as varying ad formats like video and image-based ads. Similarly, if you're advertising via mobile phone or tablet apps, test different landing pages with different prices and call-to-actions (CTAs) as well as how much time people spend on each page before converting into a sale or lead. Effectiveness of an Ad Campaign It’s crucial that your website is optimized before starting any PPC campaigns. This will ensure that you make the most of every visitor to your site, so it's well worth spending some time ensuring that all aspects of the design and functionality are up-to-date. One of the main reasons why people don't convert on Google AdWords is because they don't have a good experience when they arrive at their destination page. Ensure that all relevant pages load quickly, especially if you're using images or videos in an ad campaign; these can significantly slow down page loads! Another thing to keep in mind is security: if someone else has accessed your website before or if there are any malware issues on board, then this could affect how well other users interact with your brand online - especially those who may not be familiar with terms like "optimisation" or "hosting company". Advantages of Remarketing PPC networks like Google are there to provide a mechanism that helps in marketing products to website visitors who left without taking any action. By this, we mean the lack of actions like making a purchase from your website, subscribing to your newsletter, installing an app, etc. Remarketing is the practice of essentially re-engaging past customers by displaying pertinent advertisements to them on any platform they may be using. For instance, if someone clicks on your Google ad using their phone can later see a remarketing ad when they are reading the most recent blog post from their preferred blogger. Track Everything Diligently Your PPC marketing approach will fail regardless of how much money you spend if you don't monitor your progress. Set up a conversion tracking system to make every dollar count. This will provide you with an understanding of how to adjust your advertising and determine your actual ROI. Avoid launching campaigns solely on instinct. Utilize the wealth of data that PPC provides to inform your marketing choices. In Conclusion As you've probably gathered, PPC is an incredibly effective way to grow your business. It's also one of the most misunderstood parts of digital marketing. With so many tools and platforms to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start when setting up a campaign or optimizing it for maximum results. In this blog post, we've covered 10 things that every person should know before starting their first PPC campaign and if you are still in doubt, reach out to Saffron Edge, a leading digital marketing company to advise you for all your digital needs. ...
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