{"id":912,"date":"2019-10-03T11:56:10","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T11:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seoeaze.com\/blog\/?p=912"},"modified":"2019-10-03T11:56:10","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T11:56:10","slug":"three-pillars-of-google-quality-search-eat-ymyl-beneficial-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seoeaze.com\/blog\/three-pillars-of-google-quality-search-eat-ymyl-beneficial-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Pillars of Google Quality Search-EAT, YMYL & Beneficial Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a webmaster or digital marketer, you must have wondered how exactly Google\u2019s search algorithm works. You are not alone in this quest as millions of others across the globe are trying to figure out the same.<\/p>\n

Google has grown to become the de facto<\/em> point for searching for any information on the Internet. People now rely on the search giant to find any and every information they need, ranging from the latest movies screening nearby to important financial and health-related decisions, all are affected with the information found on the search giant. This is the reason why Google is particularly strict about the quality of results it responds with to the searchers. In an attempt to stay relevant to potential searchers, Google brings updates every now and then that affect website rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the time Google is tight-lipped about these updates but at times the search giant throws a random bone. Of all the information made available by Google regarding search algorithm updates, the most useful was the release of the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (SQEG) in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

These guidelines contain three golden rules that Google uses to make sense of web pages and to differentiate between high-quality and low-quality content.<\/span><\/p>\n

These rules are:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0 \u00a0Beneficial Purpose<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. \u00a0 \u00a0E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), or Page Quality<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. \u00a0 \u00a0YMYL (Your Money or Your Life)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Again, Google never officially accepted that the information used in the SQEG was exactly how the ranking algorithm functions but technically it\u2019s a helpful book for human search evaluators at Google. These search evaluators at Google are the people who rate the performance of Google\u2019s ranking algorithm and help study the impact of an update. If used correctly these guidelines can also serve as an essential tool for insights into what Google considers as high-quality web pages.<\/span><\/p>\n

    It all boils down to 3 important parameters, EAT, YMYL, and beneficial purpose. To better understand how to these golden rules apply to content, you have to know each one of them separately.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Google\u2019s definition of quality web pages\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    In the last one year, the Search Quality Evaluators Guidelines were updated twice-on July 20, 2018, and May 16, 2019. Google introduced algorithm updates multiple times between these dates including the core update in June this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

    What you are about to read further is the impact of most current updates and how the incorporated changes by Google play for EAT and YMYL. While reading the information we are about to share, keep your minds open and understand that SQEG only guides us in a direction but does not provide any definite answers related to Google\u2019s ranking factors. What we are sharing is only what we infer from the stuff that is shared in these guidelines.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s break down the three golden rules one by one.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Beneficial Purpose: A phrase every website owner must be aware of\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    As mentioned earlier, the SQEG was updated twice recently once in 2018 and in 2019 again. The prominent of the two was the last year\u2019s update that introduced the concept called the beneficial purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n

    If you have your copy of SQEG you can check out the mentioning of \u2018beneficial purpose\u2019 in the updated text in section 2.2 titled-What is the Purpose of a Web Page?<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"Google specifically mentions in the guideline that \u201cWebsites and pages should be created to help users.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    It means any page to be labeled as high-quality must fulfill the user\u2019s intent and must be user-centered serving them as a useful resource. To give us an idea of what these help pages are about, Google mentions:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

    If you have a webpage that is created only with the sole motive of making money and with no attempt to help users, it will be inevitably marked as the lowest quality page.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Mentioning the \u2018beneficial purpose\u2019 again in section 3.2, the SQEG states that it is the first step in evaluating a page\u2019s quality. Google mentions, \u201cRemember that the first step of PQ rating is to understand the true purpose of the page.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    Remember the June core update this year? It was based on a beneficial purpose too. Even Google\u2019s Danny Sullivan hinted that there\u2019s nothing to fix per se for webmasters affected by this update as it is broader in scope.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n

    We tell lots of things to do. Improve site speed. Consider secure. Etc. But that's not what this update was about. It's broad. And respectfully, I think telling people there's no particular thing to "fix" is indeed helpful. It means, hopefully, they think more broadly…<\/p>\n

    — Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n