Google Search updates rankings, rater guidelines to prioritize original reporting

For original reporting, the raters are also instructed to consider the publisher’s overall reputation.

Search giant Google recently made some changes to Google Search ranking and rater guidelines to recognize original reporting, make it visible in search results and ensure its stay in the spotlight for long. The Google Search index contains hundreds of billions of webpages which are selected and ranked by algorithms to provide the best and most relevant results to readers.

"While we typically show the latest and most comprehensive version of a story in news results, we've made changes to our products globally to highlight articles that we identify as significant original reporting. Such articles may stay in a highly visible position longer. This prominence allows users to view the original reporting while also looking at more recent articles alongside it," Richard Gingras, Google's Vice President of News, wrote in a blog post.

To provide better access to original and helpful information, the Google search engine organizes content including news articles, investigations, exclusive interviews or other work by using algorithms that are composed of hundreds of different signals that are constantly and improved validated by more than 10,000 third-party Search Quality Raters from around the world. 

Revealing what kind of content Google values while ranking, Richard wrote- "We instruct raters to use the highest rating, “very high quality,” for original news reporting “that provides information that would not otherwise have been known had the article not revealed it. Original, in-depth, and investigative reporting requires a high degree of skill, time, and effort.”

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For original reporting, the third-party Search Quality Raters are also instructed to consider the publisher’s overall reputation. For example, if a newspaper with an associated website has won prestigious awards such as the Pulitzer Prize award, or if a publisher or news outlet has a history of high-quality original reporting then it would be recognized at the page level.

"We hope these updates to elevate original reporting will provide people with a deeper understanding of their changing communities and the conversations going on around them," the post concluded.