SEA Model

The SEA Model is the search engine evaluator course for Google raters. It’s tailored to applicants who are preparing for the qualification test at Appen or Lionbridge and also evaluators who are looking to improve their performance and rating skills at work. It's also suitable for SEOs and marketers looking for a competitive edge by learning more about search evaluation and applying this knowledge in their content and optimization strategies.

Google’s General Guidelines on search quality rating consist of a PDF document with 150+ pages. To work as a search engine evaluator for Google, you must read and understand those guidelines. It’s official, mandatory and made available for free. The SEA Model is an online course that was designed to be used as a supplementary resource to the general guidelines. It’s not mandatory and it's paid. The SEA Model is innovative both in terms of methodology and content. It organizes all aspects that should be considered when performing search evaluation in a systematic, didactic and entertaining way.

Probably not. You should think of it more as an alternative, advanced version of the guidelines. What you will find in the SEA Model took me years of hard work to put together. It’s those kinds of things that separate top raters from average raters. Experienced raters from newbies. It’s funny that when you first read the guidelines, you will probably find it complex and after a couple of weeks on the job, you will probably find it vague. One of my challenges with this project was to create something more meticulous than the guidelines, but that wouldn’t feel very complex. Independently on whether you find it easy or not, you can rest assured that the tips, tricks and techniques you will learn in this course will substantially improve your repertoire as a rater. If that will make you get to the top 10%, top 20%? Time will tell, but it will definitely help!

Nope. The SEA Model is tailored only to participants, enthusiasts and applicants for Google’s search quality rating project.

Just as important as understanding what this course is, is understanding what it is not. The SEA Model is not a video lesson version of Google's guidelines. It wouldn’t be anywhere near as valuable if it was. Everything in this model was thought so that it makes sense on its own and in a way that facilitates the use of mnemonics, which are techniques to help the brain retain and recall important information. So, for example, you will notice that the rating labels used in the model are Bad, Below Average, Medium, Strong and Strongest, while the labels used in the general guidelines are Fails to Meet, Slightly Meets, Moderately Meets, Highly Meets and Fully Meets. It doesn’t matter! Google may change these labels tomorrow and everything will still work the same.