PQ rating requires an in-depth understanding of websites. We’ll start with the basics. Along the way, we’ll share important information about Page Quality rating, so please read through this section even if you are a website expert!
Important Definitions
Here are some important definitions: A search engine is a tool to help people find or interact with content available on the Internet. In these guidelines, the word “user” refers to a person trying to find information or accomplish a task on the Internet. Keep in mind that users are people from many different backgrounds, whose experiences and needs may differ from your own: people of all ages, genders, races, religions, political affiliations, etc. A webpage is connected to the World Wide Web and can be viewed or “visited” using a web browser (e.g., Chrome), a browser on your phone, or a search app. In the 1990s, webpage content was mostly text and links.
Today, webpage content includes many forms of media (such as images, videos, etc.) and functionality (such as online shopping features, email, calculator functionality, online games, etc.). A URL is a character string that your web browser uses to “find” and display a webpage. Page Quality rating doesn’t require you to have in-depth understanding of the structure of URLs, i.e., you don’t need to know the difference between host, domain, etc. But if you are interested, see here to read more. A website or site is a group of World Wide Web pages usually containing hyperlinks to each other and made available online by an individual, company, educational institution, government, or organization.
Popular websites include Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo, YouTube, etc. Note: In these guidelines, we will use the word “website” to refer to a collection of pages owned and controlled by a single entity (individual, business, etc.). But we will also use “website” to refer to major “independent” sections (or hosts) of some websites that were created to achieve separate purposes. For example, the Yahoo website is organized into different sections (or hosts), such as Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com), Yahoo Mail (mail.yahoo.com), Yahoo Sports (sports.yahoo.com), etc.
Each of these has its own purpose. It’s OK to refer to each of these sections as a website; for example, the Yahoo Finance website and the Yahoo Sports website. You may also refer to pages on Yahoo Finance or Yahoo Sports as belonging to the Yahoo website.
A homepage of a website is the main page of the site. It is usually the first page that users see when the site loads. For example, http://www.apple.com is the homepage of the Apple site, http://www.yahoo.com is the homepage of the Yahoo company site, and http://finance.yahoo.com is the homepage of Yahoo Finance. You can usually find the homepage of a website by clicking on a “home” link or logo link on subpages of a website. A subpage on a website is any page on the site other than the homepage. For example, http://www.apple.com/iphone is a subpage on the Apple website, and http://finance.yahoo.com/options is a subpage on the Yahoo Finance website.
A webmaster is the person who is responsible for maintaining a website. Important: You must be very comfortable exploring websites, both by clicking links and modifying URLs in the address bar of your web browser. Become a website detective and explorer!