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It will be a real shock if true i.e. if really comes from Google.
Recently I came across a small pdf file (download link in the end) which is being circulated as a leak document from Google internal training manual for ‘Quality Rater’. (The above is a screenshot from that report and the last line is underlined by me). It is not known whether it is a fake report or a real one. However, if it is a real report then it reveals interesting (and a bit shocking information) on the methodology being adopted by Google to rate the quality of its search results.
It appears that in its bid to outperform itself in search quality (there is no serious search competitor actually 
) and to constantly improve the relevance of its search results Google is applying many innovative ways. Recruitment of Quality Raters, who are being trained to manually assess the quality of webpages that appears in search results for billions of queries generated everyday, is one such important step. Yes. they are actually recruiting Quality Raters.
Coming back to guidelines being imparted to these Quality Raters at Google, it seems that Google is very serious about filtering low quality content from its results and the guidelines provided to the Raters demonstrate it very clearly. There is a full detailed chapter on what Google perceives as Webspam. Explained with many real life examples, it clearly shows what in Google’s view a spam is. I have provided a link at the end of the post where you can download this whole report, but here for your convenience here is a list of web content considered as spam by Google :
- PPC Pages
- Parker Domains
- Thin Affiliates
- Hidden Text and Hidden Links
- JavaScript Redirects
- Keyword Stuffing
- 100% Frame
- Sneaky Redirects
If you are into some kind of web business on net, you can easily understand what the above methods are and how they are being used by black hat marketers to promote their sites. However, I am a bit shocked to find that the ‘Thin Affilaites’ has also been considered as a part of webspam by Google.
The ‘Thin affiliate’ is nothing but the traditional method of promoting products of other merchants using your affiliate links. It is a very normal thing and has become a part of web life. Anybody wanting to make money using affiliate programs will have to use the links/banners provided by the merchant to promote the products.
If this is considered a spam by Google then I think a huge majority of webmasters is at the mercy of Google’s Quality Raters who may stamp a page as spam just because of the presence of an affiliate link on it. In fact affiliate from ebay & Amazon have also come under the category of spammers (See screenshot above, page 42 of the report)
However, while considering affiliate links as webspam, Google has also given additional instruction to the Quality Raters that if a particular webpage offers some value (by means of original content, price comparison, product review etc) it should not be considered as spam.
What is the message for webmasters in it ?
Simple speaking : Please don’t build a webpage which is a collection of scrapped content, PPC ads and affiliate links. Sooner or later it will catch the attention of a Google Quality Rater who will stamp it as a webspam thus removing it from the search results.
Instead, build a quality rich, informative and original webpage which enhance the perception of your affiliate products to visitors. Do it by providing a honest review, a price comparison or any other piece of original content which make that webpage rich in quality. Once you do this, you can be assured of a place in Google Search result.
This also means that the days of copy/pasting just one text link/banner code of an affiliate product on your webpages are over. Now you need to get involve in the selling process by pre-selling the product. This is the only way to ensure the quality of your links. It is also indicative of a trend (which may start soon) of directly linking to the order page of a product by completely bypassing the merchant page. This method will ensure that the product appears to be your own product instead of belonging to some other party. This is a tricky issue though and many merchant will not be comfortable with it. However, if Google’s perception of considering an affiliate link as a webspam do not change, this will be the only way to save affiliate marketing industry.
As promised here is the direct download link for that leaked report on ‘Google’s guidelines for Quality Raters’. It is a pdf direct download. And let me clarify once again its authenticity is yet to be verified.
Google’s guidelines for Quality Raters’
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CBM said,
Wrote on April 4, 2008 @ 7:26 pm
Hello, thank you for breaking this down in detail. Even though these guidelines haven’t been verified as coming from Google, I notice that the crackdown on spammy websites with scraped content and many aff links is already happening.
I have hundreds of domain names that I purchased for very specific niches and I plan on setting them and monetizing them with combinations of Adsense, affiliate links, direct ads and paying for traffic from the Big 3 search engines. I’m wondering if the market is being oversaturated and, being new to the world of “making money online”, my number 1 concern is staying in good graces with the number 1 search engine.
Thanks for the post.
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A. N. Nanda said,
Wrote on April 11, 2008 @ 6:34 am
Hi,
Your post is really informative. I knew that Google keeps it a closely guarded secret as to the relative placement of the search results, but with the details you have just hinted I can guess how difficult it is to come on the first page of the search results!
Recently my blog is adjudged as one of the best Indian blogs by a benchmarking webportal. I don’t know how it happened. When one searches through Google engine with the search words ‘Best Indian Blogs’, the result brings the link of the benchmarking portal at the top of the list. Then going there one finds my name A. N. Nanda under the subheading “Writers, poets, critics”. Now reading your post, I know that a lot of efforts go behind such selection. I’m happy about that.
Thanks.
Nanda
http://ramblingnanda.blogspot.com
http://remixoforchid.blogspot.com
[Reply]
Nguyen said,
Wrote on April 17, 2008 @ 2:19 am
Hello,
Your post is very informative and helpful for newbies as well as all marketers. That news is really importance and I will consider seriously when putting referal links in my website. It is still too difficult to understand search engine’ working algorithms. I find some bad and poor websites are in high pr while some better sites are vise versa. My website is in top 10 sites with certain keywords but it changes very quickly . When I don’t promote my site much, and it is in good pr. I really can’t understand why.
Minh
Http://businessallianceonline.com
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make money blogging said,
Wrote on April 20, 2008 @ 5:58 am
Hey Eklavya.
Lets be upfront here, there are tons of SE spammers, and sploggers, auto bloggers and just about everything else out there.IF this report is a leaked doc and I somehow doubt that it is, think about it google doesnt know its got a leak?, hmmm well maybe it doesnt, who knows.
Point is like the last page rank slap it should weed out at least temporarily the spammers and those who don’t really know what the heck they’re doing. Take john chow for instance. He openly flaunts he disregards Google and look at him, doesn’t rank anywhere, got slapped and his only source of income is selling over priced ads that don’t convert well.
Pay attention to what google wants, give them what they want and you can rank a new site on page 1 over night. This is the difference and what google is trying to get to, relevant SE content to search. it should also open the eyes of some merchants who have some bad seeds in the neck of the woods, and they should be weeded out as well.
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