Google just made you a search quality rater. You won't get paid

11 hours ago

Links have traditionally been the primary trust signal for Google's search rankings, but they have become increasingly susceptible to manipulation through tactics like guest posting and Private Blog Networks (PBNs).
The rise of AI-generated content and zero-click searches—where up to 60–80% of searches may result in no clicks—diminishes incentives for creating and linking to content, threatening the reliability of link-based ranking signals.
Google is shifting towards user feedback mechanisms, such as thumbs up/down ratings and Preferred Sources in AI Overviews, effectively turning users into unpaid search quality raters to gather new signals for content ranking.

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