We think about Google as something sophisticated and complex with all the variety of AI algorithms that are constantly learning and developing. We assume that there is something magical in how Google works, and this is why we are always alarmed and ready to take action if something is changing in the algorithm.

Google, indeed, takes the second place after Apple in the list of the most technologically advanced companies, according to Technology Board. But it’s actually more human than you think.

Whenever another update rolls out, we are clutching at our heads redesigning our SEO tactics and approaches in hopes to outsmart the algorithm or to keep up with the changes. Today it’s pretty much impossible to keep up with Google updates because it changes its ranking algorithm 500-600 times per year.

The one. The inhuman

In 2015, Google launched the well-known RankBrain machine-learning algorithm that is used to analyze user queries and serve them the most relevant content, literally making the revolution in how search works.

What we think we know about RankBrain is that it’s something difficult to grasp for a human being, because this is some kind of self-improving AI algorithm. This is certainly not, at least, it wasn’t.

Every AI starts with a human. The algorithm had to actually learn how to serve better content for the end users. Who was the teacher then? Or how many teachers it needed to process billions of queries?

Hiring 10 000 Google search quality raters, Google managed to train the algorithm and, possibly, still does. This is the exact number you can find on the web, the number of people who are working for Google performing very routine tasks, doing blind quality tests and filling in rating forms.

Here is what a user at WebmasterWorld says.

We have done some research, however, we found no actual proof of this relatively big number of people working for Google on this particular task.

According to Statista, there are 88,110 full-time employees as of 2017 which makes the 10 000 human evaluators a possible number of either outsourced or in-house workers.

From these numbers, we can see that the evaluation process plays a huge role in developing the RankBrain algorithm. However, the evaluation doesn’t mean that it affects rankings directly. It is more about fighting spam on the web and assorting websites according to their relevance and value to a user.

In his video, Matt Cutts explains how the blind evaluation test works were the team of quality raters are to choose a better variant of shown pages in response to a user’s query. It’s pure taste nothing else. However, we could definitely see the improvements in search for some 5 or 10 years.

RankBrain explained

So, how does the RankBrain algorithm work?

According to Backlinko, this is how the algorithm may work. When a user types in any keyword in searchline, Google will give you the best results that fit the context.

Google can actually understand the contextual meaning of the keyword, however, it only understands it because a lot of human raters have put their time and effort into it. So, if Google showed you the page that you don’t like the page will be taken down for you and other pages will uprank if you liked them. How does it know which page to rank? Google uses bounce rate and the time spent on the page statistics. If you escaped the page instantly, then it’s probably an irrelevant page for you.

How to become a search evaluator

If you try to look for some job offers at Indeed.com, you can find that there are actually such positions. More precisely, they were.

You’ll find that Google Quality Rater hourly salary is $15 per hour. This position seems to be inactive now, but if you really want to apply, you can check it regularly.

In his article, Darren from Small Biz Geek shares his experience on how he worked as a Google rater. He says that it was a freelance job where he needed to estimate different search results and submit the quality ratings for the improvement of the search engine.

His position did not give him any advantages on the search engine optimization, and everything he learned was that there is a lot of spam on the web which Google effectively deals with. That’s it.

Will Search quality guidelines update kill your rankings?

Recently, Google has announced an update of their quality guidelines that starting from paragraph 2.5.3 explain details about author credibility.

Such an update can probably be a part of the RankBrain algorithm which determines not only the relevancy of the content but also its quality. If the RankBrain itself may not directly affect rankings, this new update has a full right to do it.

From the new update, you can understand that if the author of the content is trustworthy, has been cited here and there and also has positive reviews their pages will not be ranked higher, at least, in the nearest future.

In the SEO world, there is still practice to write content for Google and not for users. It’s clear that soon such content may be considered spam and will not be served to the end users. Google is getting better at recognizing and assorting valuable content, so there is a real need to write good information because we are slightly shifting to the new generation C era.

Can Generation C be your leads?

The Generation C, also The Youtube Generation are people who care about connection, building a community and appreciate the creative approach to the production of whatever you do, according to Think with Google.

These ladies and gentlemen are very picky about the content they are served. They do not like the feeling of being sold on. This is why the first thing that matters to them is the emotional connection with the idea, product or other people.

Another peculiarity of Generation C is that it’s “mobile connected” which means that they have already switched or are switching from laptops and desktops to mobile devices and smartphones. These technologies allow users to be online 24/7 and consume information on the run.

If not this, what else can be the motivation for business owners to optimize websites for mobile devices and make them fully responsive.

Conclusions

Google knows that the big change is coming and quickly, this is why they make algorithm updates nearly twice a day.

Speaking about Google being more human also means that they are trying to engage users to stay with them and to not go to any other search engines. And Google does it successfully which better content and the less-than-a-second response time for each query tells us.

New consumer generation wants trust, comfort, speed and friendliness from you. In this light, we may think that very soon we will have to optimize not for Google and technical SEO features but for more sophisticated psychological traits of individuals and even whole communities.