Search engine evaluation is an excellent way to work part-time from home and earn decent money. As a search engine evaluator, your job will involve looking at the results a search engine serves for various keywords and phrases and determining if they are indeed relevant to those searches.

You will be required to write a report about your findings and recommendations. But why exactly do search companies hire search engine evaluators?

If you’ve been into search marketing in one or way or another, you probably already know that they use complex algorithms that match keywords and phrases to web pages and employ various algorithmic metrics to determine trust, relevancy, and various other factors.

Problem is, algorithms are not people and they cannot predict with 100% certainty what a human being actually desires to see when they type in a given phrase into a search engine’s search bar. To solve this problem, search engines hire real humans to help them refine their search results so that they can serve their customers better.

Getting a Job as a Search Engine Evaluator

Search evaluation jobs are usually work-at-home jobs that pay by the hour. Most of the search companies do not employ the search engine evaluation experts directly. They usually outsource the function to an outside contractor who then hires search engine evaluators on a contract basis.

The benefits of landing a search engine evaluation job is that you will get yourself a consistent freelancing gig for the duration of the contract, you will be able to work from home and set your own hours, you won’t have to use the phone to make calls, and that the pay is relatively decent compared to other starting freelance positions on the net. The work is also interesting enough to inspire you to get out of bed and get stuff done.

How long your contract lasts with the contracted company will depend on the scope of the search engine evaluation project. If you do a good job, chances are high that the contractor will hire you again when they issue a new batch of evaluations to be done.

People who speak two languages are usually favored when hiring search engine evaluators. As a rule of thumb, they must be native speakers of the language the evaluation will be done in, and they must be familiar with most of the popular informational and news websites in their region.

Companies Hiring Search Engine Evaluators

The position of search engine evaluator usually comes in different titles depending on the company you are working for. If you are doing the evaluation for Google, you will be called ‘a search quality rater’ or ‘an ads quality rater’.

The major companies that hire search engine evaluators include Google, Appen, Leapforce, ZeroChaos, Lionbridge, and iSoftstone. Google usually outsources its search engine evaluation jobs to Leapforce which then subcontracts to freelancers. To be hired by Leapforce, you have to take a qualification exam that is based on study materials they will provide you. Most of Leapforce’s hires work from home.

If you are hired by Appen, you will be assured of some level of consistency in income as they require you to commit to a certain number of hours per day and per week. You will be working from home as well. Appen also happens to have some very interesting opportunities outside of the search evaluation space. Building some good will with them when working as a search engine evaluator may propel you to land a higher paying assignment with the company.