Search Quality Rater Guidelines
The Search Quality Rater Guidelines are the public handbook for the outside raters Google works with to check its search results. The current version, dated September 11, 2025, runs 182 pages and covers two main jobs: judging how good a page is and how well a result fits the search. Google says the ratings don't directly set any page's position.
Source: Google, Search Quality Rater Guidelines (September 11, 2025), General Guidelines Overview and section 0.1, checked October 29, 2026
What Search Quality Rater Guidelines means for your business
Google uses the ratings to test changes before they launch. Its How Search Works site describes side-by-side tests, where raters see results with and without a proposed change and say which they prefer and why. In October 2026, Google's guide to AI-written content pointed site owners to two sections, on scaled content abuse and on pages made with little effort, and said the guidelines aren't a guide to ranking first.
We'd read it as a list of what a careful stranger checks before trusting a business online. Raters are told to find who runs the site and how to reach it, and for stores, the policies on payment, exchanges and returns. They also search for what others say about the business, leaving out its own site and the social pages it runs.
The guide tells raters to read what reviews actually say, not just the star count, and to treat a few bad ones as normal. So we'd start where they do, with what comes up when someone searches your name and leaves your own site out.
If your site reads well but says little about who's behind it or how to reach you, our citation-ready content work starts with the details a careful buyer looks for.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google's AI Overview cited agency blogs, a copy of the guide on Scribd, LinkedIn and Reddit, but no Google page. ChatGPT cited Google's guide, blog and help pages, and said raters don't directly set rankings.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
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