Next, assess the page to determine if any of the criteria for Lowest apply:

Lowest Page Quality Assessment Any one of the following is justification for Lowest

Quality of the MC ● The page is hacked, defaced, or spammed.

● The page is gibberish or otherwise makes no sense.
● The MC is copied, auto-generated, or otherwise created without
adequate effort.
● The MC is created with so little effort, originality, talent, or skill
that the page fails to achieve its purpose.

The title of the page The page title is extremely misleading, shocking, or exaggerated.

The role of Ads and SC on the page The MC is deliberately obstructed or obscured due to Ads, SC,
interstitial pages, download links or other content that is beneficial to
the website owner but not necessarily the website visitor.

Information provided by the website and A complete lack of information about who is responsible for the
content creator website and its content for YMYL pages or other pages requiring trust.

Reputation of the website and content creator A very negative reputation, including a reputation for malicious or
harmful behavior.

Trustworthiness of the page: E-E-A-T ● The page or website is highly untrustworthy.

● The lack of experience, expertise, authoritativeness or trust
causes the page to fail to achieve its purpose.

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4.1 Types of Lowest Quality Pages

There are many different shapes and forms that Lowest pages can take. To help you keep track, the table below
organizes Lowest pages into three broad categories: Harmful, Untrustworthy, and Spammy. These categories can
overlap (e.g., pages that contain Harmfully Misleading Information are also Untrustworthy).

Type of Lowest Page Description Reference Section

Harmful to Self or Pages that encourage, depict, incite or directly cause physical, mental,
Other Individuals emotional or financial harm to self or other individuals.

Examples include: Section 4.2

● Detailed instructions on how to commit suicide
● Detailed, realistic, and serious instructions written with the
intent to help someone commit murder

Harmful to Specified Pages that promote, condone, or incite violence or hatred against a
Groups Specified Group of people (as defined in Section 4.3).

Examples include:
● Content that encourages violence or ill treatment towards a Section 4.3
Specified Group
● Content with extremely offensive/dehumanizing stereotypes of
a Specified Group

Harmfully Misleading Pages that misinform people in a way that could cause harm.
Information
Examples include:
● Clearly inaccurate harmful information that can easily be Section 4.4
refuted by straightforward and widely accepted facts
● Harmful unsubstantiated theories/claims not grounded in any
reasonable facts or evidence

Untrustworthy Pages or websites that are deceptive or have untrustworthy

Webpages characteristics.

Examples include:
Section 4.5
● Pages or websites with deceptive purpose or design
● Pages or websites designed to manipulate people into actions
that benefit the website or other organization while causing
harm to self, others or Specified Groups

Spammy Webpages Pages with characteristics of webspam as defined in the Google

Search Essentials Guidelines and/or Section 4.6 of these guidelines.
Section 4.6
Examples include:
● Pages deliberately created with no MC or gibberish MC
● Hacked, defaced, or spammed pages

Important: There is lots of content that many people would find controversial, one-sided, off-putting, or distasteful, yet
does not meet the criteria for Lowest as described in these guidelines. Use your judgment to follow the standards
outlined throughout Section 4.0 rather than relying on personal opinions.

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4.2 Harmful to Self or Other Individuals

Use the Lowest rating for pages with content that encourages, depicts, incites, or directly causes harm to self or other
individuals.

Harm includes physical, mental, emotional, or financial harm to people. Pages should be considered Harmful to Self or
Other Individuals if they directly attempt to harm people; encourage behavior that may result in harm; depict extremely
violent or gory content without a beneficial/educational purpose; or otherwise are severely traumatic to people who view
the page.

Pages do not have to be harmful to all people to be considered Harmful to Self or Other Individuals. Different people have
different levels of vulnerability to scams, awareness of potential dangers (e.g., dangerous feats depicted in stunt videos),
and tolerance for viewing violent/disturbing content. If there is a reasonable possibility that viewing a particular page
would cause harm to those who are most vulnerable, it should be considered harmful.

Pages created with a beneficial purpose that report on, discuss, or inform about harmful actions or events (e.g., fictional
entertainment, reputable news, education) should typically not be considered Harmful to Self or Other Individuals. For
example, advocacy aimed at drawing attention to harmful, real-world actions or events (such as a webpage describing a
protest against domestic violence) would not be considered Harmful to Self or Other Individuals.

Here are some examples of content that is vs. is not considered Harmful to Self or Other Individuals:

Harmful to Self or Other Individuals NOT Harmful to Self or Other Individuals

● Incitement of violence towards Other Individuals ● Depictions of violence in an action movie

● Serious death threats or realistic-sounding threats ● A news story about violent events
● Exposing personal information belonging to others ● Educational content that may depict violence or
with malicious intent to target them or promote gross imagery
harassment towards them (i.e., “doxxing”) ● An explanation of scams meant to raise
● How-to information that describes how to commit awareness about them
violent acts in an easy-to-replicate way ● Portrayals of dangerous activities in a manner that
● Advocating for, glorifying, or trivializing violence discourages others from attempting the same feat
and atrocities, or to disparage victim(s) of (such as by clearly explaining the risks, describing
violence/atrocities the expertise and equipment required, etc.)
● Depicting or promoting information that facilitates
or leads to serious harm to people, or discussions
that attempt to justify abuse of people
● Encouraging unsafe behavior or substantially
downplays the risks of dangerous activities (e.g.,
consuming household cleaning products)
● Suicide promotion or pro-anorexia content that
encourages people to engage in behavior that can
result in hospitalization or death
● Health-related advice that contradicts
well-established expert consensus and could
result in serious harm or could prevent someone
from undertaking a life-saving treatment

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4.3 Harmful to Specified Groups

Use the Lowest rating for pages that promote, condone, or incite hatred against a Specified Group of people.

For the purposes of Search Quality rating, a Specified Group is a group of people that can be defined on the basis of:
● Age (e.g., older adults)
● Caste (e.g., Dalits)
● Disability (e.g., people who are blind)
● Ethnicity (e.g., Roma)
● Gender Identity and Expression (e.g., transgender people)
● Immigration Status (e.g., student visa holders)
● Nationality (e.g., Italians)
● Race (e.g., Asians)
● Religion (e.g., Christians)
● Sex/Gender (e.g., men)
● Sexual Orientation (e.g., lesbians)
● Veteran Status (e.g., Marines)
● Victims of a major violent event and their kin (e.g., victims of the Holocaust)
● Any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization (e.g., refugees, people
experiencing homelessness)

The tone of the harmful content must be either serious (i.e., not joking or satirical) or mean-spirited (i.e., with an intent to
demean or promote intolerance) to be considered Harmful to Specified Groups. Comedy or artistic expression related to
a Specified Group should not be considered harmful unless it is clearly mean-spirited or has other clear harmful impact.

Criticism of objects, philosophies, and ideas are generally not considered Harmful to Specified Groups. For example,
negative criticism of a religious doctrine should not be considered targeted at the Specified Group that follows that
religion. Remember that the content must promote, condone, or incite hatred of people to be considered Harmful to
Specified Groups.

Educational pages (e.g., definitions, research, academic papers), news stories, or other pages that have a beneficial
purpose of informing society should not be considered Harmful to Specified Groups. Similarly, historical
documents/videos that aim to capture the beliefs of different eras should not be considered Harmful to Specified Groups.

Here are some examples of content that is vs. is not considered Harmful to Specified Groups:

Harmful to Specified Groups NOT Harmful to Specified Groups

● Encourages violence or ill treatment towards a ● A historical documentary of WWII featuring

Specified Group speeches from Nazi leaders
● Promotes intolerance by demonstrating a staunch ● A stand-up comedy routine that plays off of
unwillingness to allow for the views, beliefs, or stereotypes in a way that is not mean-spirited
behavior of a Specified Group ● A newspaper article about a hate organization
● Implies that one Specified Group is superior or ● The dictionary definition of a slur
inferior to another ● A discussion about a particular religious text and
● Contains extremely offensive/dehumanizing its views on women
stereotypes of a Specified Group. Note that
stereotypes can be negative or positive.

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4.4 Harmfully Misleading Information

Use the Lowest rating for pages that mislead people in ways that can cause harm to people and society.

Misleading pages may have been produced with the intent to misinform people, or the content creator may believe that
the inaccurate information they are sharing is true. There is an especially high standard for accuracy on clear YMYL
topics or other topics where inaccurate information can cause harm. Be sure to research consequential facts or claims as
necessary and to the extent the task time allows.

Pages should be considered to contain Harmfully Misleading Information when they contain at least one of the following:

Type of Harmfully Description Examples

Misleading Information

Harmful and clearly Content that can be refuted by ● False claims that a world leader died
inaccurate information straightforward and widely accepted facts ● False dates for an election

Harmful claims that contradict Content that is inconsistent with positions, ● Claims that lemons cure cancer
well-established expert facts, or findings that are widely agreed ● Claims that buying lottery tickets is a
consensus upon by authorities in the relevant field guaranteed way to save for retirement

Harmful unsubstantiated Content that is not grounded in any ● Claims that the 9-11 attacks were
theories/claims reasonable facts or evidence, especially planned by the U.S. government
those that could erode confidence in ● Claims that world leaders are lizard
public institutions. This includes people
unsubstantiated theories that have been
thoroughly debunked or are too outlandish
to be given credence.

Harmfully Misleading Information can occur from any websites or content creators - even seemingly "expert",
"authoritative" or "official" ones. Any type of page with Harmfully Misleading Information should be rated Lowest,
regardless of the source.

However, note that some types of information are subjective, debatable, unverifiable, or inconsequential. For example,
pages should not be considered to contain Harmfully Misleading Information if they exclusively contain:
● Non-YMYL content created with a clear entertainment purpose, containing no hard claims of factual accuracy and
are not harmful to people or society. Examples include many types of fiction, satire or parody, astrology, folklore,
myths, and urban legends.
● Reviews expressing personal preferences, opinions, or value-based judgments about a product, restaurant,
book/movie/TV show, etc.
● Claims or statements that are reasonably debatable when there is not a single established correct answer or truth
(e.g., discussions about the relative effectiveness of different healthcare systems)
● Insignificant errors or inaccurate information about a trivial topic (e.g., inaccuracies in the height of a celebrity)

Pages that aim to persuade others that a certain position or perspective is correct are fairly common on the Internet.
Pages with one-sided/opinionated/controversial/polarizing content should not be considered to contain Harmfully
Misleading Information unless they could create harm to individuals or Specified Groups (as described above) and contain
clearly inaccurate information, contradict well-established expert consensus, or are not grounded by reasonable
facts/evidence.

A webpage may be considered to have Harmfully Misleading Information based on the MC or on other characteristics of
the page or information about the content creator (e.g., the title of an article is harmfully misleading, even if the article on
its own is not; a creator blatantly misrepresenting their medical credentials for a video on medical topics).

Harmfully Misleading Information can be especially hard to identify because it may require research from outside sources.
Reputable fact-checking websites can't always keep up with the volume of unsubstantiated theories/claims produced by

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the Internet, and some theories may even claim that debunking information is inaccurate. You should attempt to find
high-quality, trustworthy sources to check accuracy and seek out the consensus of experts if you are unsure. Please
research theories and claims to the extent the task time allows. If a theory/claim seems wildly improbable and can't be
verified by independent trustworthy sources, you should consider it unsubstantiated.

4.5 Untrustworthy Webpages or Websites

The Lowest rating should be used for pages or websites you strongly suspect are engaging in deceptive or malicious
practices.

Some untrustworthy pages are created to benefit the website or organization rather than helping people. Some
untrustworthy pages may even exist to cause harm to people who engage with the page, such as scams or malicious
downloads.

Your assessment of untrustworthiness may be based on the content of the page, information about the website,
information about the content creator, and the reputation of the website or content creator.

Your assessment may also be based on a lack of critically important information. For example, any website involving
financial transactions or sensitive information should have comprehensive information about who is responsible for the
site and a way to contact the site if something goes wrong. If some aspect of a page or website makes you suspect
deception or maliciousness, please look for information about the site. If you cannot find reputation information to confirm
your suspicion, carefully explore the site.

Sometimes a single page on an unknown website in isolation may seem odd but subsequent exploration shows no
concern. However, if you see a pattern of what appears to be deception or manipulation or become concerned about your
own safety, please use the Lowest rating and leave the website immediately.

Pages with the following characteristics should be considered Untrustworthy:

● Inadequate information about the website or content creator for its purpose
● Lowest E-E-A-T or Lowest reputation
● Deceptive purpose, deceptive page design, or deceptive intent
● Deliberately obstructed or obscured MC
● Characteristics of scams, malicious downloads, or other harmful behavior
● Any webpage or website designed to manipulate people into actions that benefit the website or other organization
while causing harm to self, others, or Specified Groups

Important: Highly untrustworthy pages should be given the Lowest rating even if you are unable to "prove" the webpage
or site is harmful. Because many people are unwilling to use a highly untrustworthy page, an untrustworthy page or
website fails to achieve its purpose.

4.5.1 Inadequate Information about the Website or Content Creator for the Purpose of the Page

For pages that require a high level of trust, information about who created the content and who is responsible for the
content is critical.

As discussed in Section 2.5.3, we expect most websites to have some information about who (e.g., what individual,
company, business, foundation, etc.) is responsible for the website and who created the MC and some contact
information, unless there is a good reason for anonymity. As you will see in the examples below, many types of Lowest
pages such as malicious downloads and scams typically have no information or fake information about who is responsible
to prevent recourse by people who are harmed.

Any site that handles personal, private or sensitive data must provide extensive contact information. This includes sites
that ask users to create passwords, share personal information, or conduct financial transactions.

YMYL pages or websites that handle sensitive data with absolutely no information about the website or content creator
should be rated Lowest.
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