Google updated its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines to explicitly include election and voting information within YMYL coverage. The change appears in the Government, Civics, and Society section and is live on Google's official raterhub site.
Google expands YMYL guidelines to cover election and civic content
The latest edition clarifies that election and voting information falls under the YMYL Government, Civics, and Society category. Quality raters are instructed to apply YMYL standards when assessing civic information. Read the new edition.
Key details
- Google published a new edition of the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines on its raterhub domain.
- Election and voting information is explicitly included in the YMYL Government, Civics, and Society category.
- Raters must apply higher Page Quality scrutiny to YMYL topics, reviewing experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust.
- The document includes examples and instructions for government and civics topics to support consistent ratings.
- Google explains how rater evaluations are used in its How Search Works resource.
- The guidance emphasizes accuracy, sourcing, and timeliness, including whether information is current and well-supported.
Background context
Google publishes the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines to align human rater evaluations with defined criteria. Raters use these guidelines to assess sampled search results, and aggregate feedback helps Google measure how well its systems perform.
YMYL covers topics that can affect people's lives and well-being. Government, civics, and society content is part of this framework, and the latest update clarifies that election and voting information is treated as YMYL. Google notes that rater evaluations inform the assessment of search improvements, and the guidelines are publicly accessible and updated periodically.
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