In October 2022, Google implemented “Search Essentials,” providing clarity on the policies and practices Google follows to protect users and deliver high-quality results.
Sites that violate these policies may rank lower in results or not appear at all. However, they have just launched a form (“Search Quality Report for Users”) to notify you if you see results that you believe violate their spam policies.
User feedback will help them identify where their automated spam detection systems may be missing certain cases, and is also used to improve classification algorithms.
These are some features of the form.
More Than Just Spam
There are various ranking manipulation techniques that attempt to compromise the quality of our results and degrade the search experience for everyone. These techniques go beyond the traditional definition of spam.
Some sites are of extremely low quality, while others are deceptive and harmful to users. That’s why they are expanding the scope of user feedback they want to collect.
You can now report spam, paid links, malicious behavior, low quality, and other search quality issues, all in one improved form. They also added a multiple submission feature, so you can now submit up to five pages that violate the same policy in a single report.
The search quality report form allows you to select the category of the issue being reported.
Reference Spam Policies When In Doubt
Google seeks to receive actionable feedback to improve its algorithms. Therefore, they are adding granularity to the feedback form: you can now choose a category and a subcategory of the issue you are reporting. While you can only select one main issue category per submission, you will be able to submit multiple issue types within that category in the next step.
To help you select the correct category, the form links to a help page with an explanation of the different quality issues, also referenced in our spam policies. If you think the page you are reporting has many issues from different categories at the same time, you can resubmit the form reporting the same page and selecting different categories. However, the system will ignore identical reports submitted by the same user to prevent spam.
The report contains links to learn more about spam policy details.
Not sure which category to choose? No problem: you can select “I’m not sure.” The form also includes an optional comments section where you can provide more detailed information about the issue you are reporting.
Simplified Confirmation Email for Your Registrations
Some of the most valuable information comes directly from users. After submitting the report, you will receive a confirmation email. The email contains help links to external resources covering quality policies and your personalized support forum.
In short, the new user feedback form for reporting search quality issues seeks to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of search results on Google. By providing specific feedback on different categories of issues, users can help identify areas where automated spam detection systems may need improvement.
As a company, Google values user feedback and is committed to providing a high-quality and relevant search experience.
