Today Google's Quality Rater Guidelines updated September 11, 2025 with some minor changes. I think some of these are worth noting however!
Three examples were added to the guidelines that I believe are significant as they all instruct the raters to assess content that is an AI Overview.
An example was added of an answer that slightly meets user needs:
Another was added in the section with examples that failed to meet user needs.
And a third was added in the section of "fails to meet":
We know that quality raters do not just rate websites, but also SERP features. These changes show us that the raters are being instructed to look at the content of AI Overviews in their assessments as well.
Why does this matter?
AIO answers are considered a part of the entire experience that is offered to a searcher. It is important that the content we create offers far more value than a searcher can get simply from the AI answer given by Google. In order to be considered high quality, your pages should offer original value. It's worth opening up the QRG and searching for all of the places the word "original" or "originality" are used. This is important to Google!
There were other minor updates including some typo fixes and the addition of election and voting information, topics about government, civics and society to the definition of YMYL (Your Money or Your Life.)
Marie's Newsletter
For more reading:
Marie's Quality Rater Guidelines workbook - assess your site like a Quality Rater. 2025 edition.
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