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Does Google manually influence
its search results?
Some webmasters have seen referrer URLs in their web site
log files that start with eval.google.com and end
with an email address. The eval.google.com web site exists
but it is only available if you have login information and
access it from a special network.
Do humans change Google's search results?
It has turned out that eval.google.com is some kind of quality
center. Google pays people from all over the world US$10 to
US$20 per hour to check Google search results every day.
These people, called International Agents at Google,
seem to have been recruited through universities. There is
also a job
posting for Google quality raters on Monster.com:
Google Inc. is recruiting part-time, temporary, home-based
workers to help with work on a search quality evaluation
on a project basis. [...]
Candidates will evaluate search results and rate their
relevance. Thus, all candidates must be web-savvy and analytical,
have excellent web research skills and a broad range of
interests. Specific areas of expertise are highly desirable.
An official Google spokesman has confirmed that the quality
center exists and that real people rate the quality of search
results.
What does this mean to your web site?
As long as you didn't optimize your web site with shady tricks,
this means nothing to your web site. The human reviewer try
to filter web pages that use unethical search engine optimization
methods such as cloaking, hidden text, etc. from the search
results.
We've said it before in our newsletter: ethical search engine
optimization is about everyone winning.
- Search engines: They win as they are provided with pages
that are easy to understand and that contain the quality
information that their visitors search for.
- Searchers: They win as they are getting what they ask
for from the search engines. They search for "green
widgets" and get a page about green widgets.
- Web site owners: They win as they are getting quality
visitors who are interested in what their web site has to
offer.
As long as you optimize your web pages with ethical search
engine optimization methods, you don't have to be afraid of
human reviewers.
If you want to know how to optimize your web site with ethical
search engine optimization methods, take a look at our free
guide to ethical search engine optimization.
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