Google and Yandex Assessors: Impact on Search Results

Have you ever wondered why certain websites occupy leading positions in the search results of Yandex and Google? Special algorithms, utilizing artificial intelligence, are used to select the most qualitative and informative sites. Each web resource is analyzed by a robot that evaluates the code, content, and visitor reactions to it. The combination of this data and the user’s query forms the list of results. Assessors, who train artificial intelligence, play an important role in this process. Today we will talk about these people.

What is the work of Assessors?

Assessors are remote employees who manually analyze web pages. A person working in this area must undergo special training, as this is not handled by programmers or marketing experts. They visit websites like ordinary users, but they must be more vigilant and focused. During the evaluation process, they follow instructions and pay special attention to individual indicators. They need to be able to recognize plagiarism, determine whether the site’s content answers users’ queries, and ensure there is no intrusive advertising.

An assessor does not pass judgment on a site or affect its ranking position. However, the results of their analysis influence the ranking. Almost all SEO specialists believe that in Yandex, live people exclusively affect the search results. The likelihood of this is quite small, and Yandex itself does not comment on such rumors.

In short, an assessor concludes which web pages are of high quality. The robot takes this information into account and uses it when analyzing other web resources. It’s also worth mentioning that Yandex and Google differ in their work with assessors.

Google Evaluators

Target agencies are responsible for searching evaluators, Google itself does not do this. A person wishing to take such a position must fill out a form, answer test questions, and go through an interview (also requiring English proficiency). Knowledge of the English language is mandatory, as programs are delivered in it.

For their work, assessors earn from five to fifteen dollars per hour. In their work, they are guided by criteria from a rather extensive instruction.

Evaluating a webpage, an assessor applies so-called sliders or scales. The first slider shows how well the site satisfies user desires, including requests and results. The specialist needs to understand what query a user might enter and what they would want to receive as a result. The second slider denotes the overall quality of the page, independent of the query.

Let’s consider the criteria that Google takes into account when evaluating a web resource:

• Presence of information about authors and the site itself. There are so-called YMYL sections (legal, medical, financial, and other directions), requiring the presence of author information. Without it, the score is significantly reduced, regardless of the content quality.
• How authoritative sites evaluate the resource. Sites can say anything about themselves, so any information needs to be verified. Trust should be placed only in authoritative websites.
• Informativeness and size of content. Every web resource has its own task – it can be informational, entertaining, or commercial. Low ratings go to sites that publish false data, contain malicious content, or incite hatred among users.
• Conformity to E-E-A-T criteria. It is important that the content is created by an expert, reliable, and authoritative. The evaluator considers whether the author is knowledgeable in the direction they write about.

Yandex Evaluators

To become a Yandex assessor, one can successfully complete three steps – data entry into a form, passing testing, and an interview with a manager. The position first appeared in Yandex in 2008. Assessors manually evaluate web resources and individual pages. They take into account the search results and the relevance of the web address to the query entered by the user.

Over time, Yandex realized that large volumes of work require more hands. That’s why they have broken down large tasks into sets of tasks that can be completed without high qualification. This is how the Toloka platform developed. Anyone can register there. Participants of this platform complete small tasks, thus helping to improve the search results.

The assessor role exists in Yandex today. Their responsibilities include evaluating web resources and many other narrowly targeted tasks. Typically, assessors are sought for work on a specific project.

Responsibilities of Yandex Tolokers

Yandex.Toloka today counts more than 1 million people who earn 1-5 dollars per day for their work. The tasks completed by Toloka include:

• Image evaluation, their quality, and relevance.
• Finding connections between the search query and the found page.
• Evaluating ad blocks on the site (how much space they occupy, whether they interfere with content engagement, whether they impose their product on the user).

To find out if Tolokers visit your resource and what actions they perform there, you can use Yandex.Metrica.

As of today, both Yandex and Google rely on specialists who manually check search results. It is precisely the living people, not robots, who facilitate the work of artificial intelligence in searching for the most informative resources.

This should be considered and applied when improving your sites:

• Fill the resource with content that is interesting, useful, and easy to understand.
• Use guidelines from Google, which describe in detail how the site should be rated highly.
• Speak about your authors. Google places importance on whether the content is expert. Articles and other content without authors create doubts not only among people but also robots. Do not hide your authors.
• Improve your reputation. When evaluating a site, assessors search authoritative resources for information and reviews about it. Thus, the more reviews about you, the better.

Additionally, remember that when evaluating your resource, image quality, the presence of ad blocks, and the relevance of titles will be taken into account. Therefore, if you aim to get high points, work in all directions.