Vital (V)
The Vital (V) rating is used for these very special situations:
• There is a dominant interpretation and clear user intent to navigate to a specific website or webpage, and the LP is exactly what the user is looking for.
• The dominant interpretation of the query is an entity (such as a person, place, business, restaurant, product, company, organization, etc.), and the LP is the official webpage associated with that entity.
In both cases, the query must have a dominant interpretation. If there is no dominant interpretation, it is not possible to assign a V rating.
The V rating is based on the LP of the title link. Result blocks with no title link (NTRBs) cannot receive the V rating. Most V pages are very helpful; however, this is not a requirement for a V rating. Some V pages are "official," but not
very helpful.
To give a V rating, the landing page and website must "work" - the LP must load, function, and be maintained. Finally, when in doubt, don't use the V rating.
Go Queries with Vital (V) Pages
For Go queries, the V page is the page requested by the user. If the query "asks" for the homepage of a website, only the homepage gets the V rating. If the query "asks" for a subpage, only that particular subpage gets the V rating.
|
Query and User Intent |
LP of the Result Block, Result Block, Utility Rating |
Description of the LP |
|
[nytimes], English (US) Go to the New York Times online newspaper. |
Landing page link: LP
|
The New York Times homepage and target of the query. |
|
[nytimes sports], English (US) Go to the sports section of the New York Times online newspaper. |
Landing page link: LP
|
The New York Times sports section page and target of the query. |
|
[walmart.com], English (US) Go to the official homepage of the Walmart online retail site. |
Landing page link: LP
|
The Walmart homepage and target of the query. |
|
[walmart storefinder], English (US) Go to the storefinder page on the Walmart website. |
Landing page link: LP
|
The Walmart storefinder page and target of the query. |
|
[lady gaga twitter], English (US) Go to Lady Gaga's official Twitter page. |
Landing page link: LP
|
Lady Gaga's Twitter page and target of the query. |
|
[google maps], English (US) Go to Google Maps. |
Landing page link: LP
|
The Google Maps site and target of the query. Note that even though the title link just says "welcome," the rating is Vital. |
Entity Queries with Vital Pages
For entity queries, the official homepage of the entity is Vital. Some entities show a "splash page" to announce something to visitors to their website. A splash page should be rated V if the page behind it is V.
|
Query and User Intent |
LP of the Result Block, Result Block, Utility Rating |
Description of the LP |
[Madonna], English (US) Go to the homepage of Madonna's official website or find information about her. |
Landing page link: LP
|
Homepage of Madonna's official website. |
|
[Gary Danko], English (US) Go to the homepage of the Restaurant Gary Danko website or find information about the restaurant. |
Landing page link: LP
|
Homepage of Restaurant Gary Danko. |
|
[Bourne Legacy], English (US) Go to the movie's official homepage or find information about it. |
Landing page link: LP
|
Homepage of the movie (on the movie studio's website). |
|
[Maytag], English (US) Go to the homepage of this appliance manufacturer or find information about the brand. |
Landing page link: LP
|
Homepage of the Maytag website. |
|
[ipod nano], English (US) Go to the iPod nano page on the Apple website or find information about it. |
Landing page link: LP
|
iPod nano page on the Apple website. |
|
Query and User Intent |
LP of the Result Block, Result Block, Utility Rating |
Description of the LP |
|
[Baseball hall of fame], English (US) Go to the Baseball Hall of Fame website or find information about it |
Landing page link: LP
| Homepage of the Baseball Hall of Fame website. |
|
[Masters Golf Tournament], English (US) Go to the Masters website or find information about it. |
Landing page link: LP
|
Homepage of the Masters Golf Tournament website. |
|
[Freakonomics blog], English (US) Go to the Freakonomics Blog. |
Landing page link: LP
|
Freakonomics Blog page on the Freakonomics website. |
|
[Harvard], English (US) Go to the Harvard University website or find information about it. |
Landing page link: LP
|
Homepage of the Harvard University website. |
Queries with No Vital Result
Most queries do not have Vital results. Here are situations for which there is no V result.
• The query does not have a dominant interpretation.
• The query is not an entity or is not a navigation query.
• No official website or webpage exists for the entity.
• No person or entity can "own" the topic of the query.
|
Query |
Vital Result? |
Description |
|
[ADA], English (US) |
No V result is possible. |
There is no dominant interpretation. The following entities are all common interpretations. Each interpretation has an official homepage, but none is V since there is no dominant interpretation. • Americans with Disabilities Act • American Dental Association • American Diabetes Association |
|
[knitting], English (US) |
No V result is possible. |
This is an information query. Knitting is an activity anyone can do and that anyone can create a website for. There is no one official source for knitting information. No one can own this topic. |
|
[diabetes], English (US) |
No V result is possible. |
This is an information query. No person or entity can claim ownership of the query [diabetes]. |
|
[ipod reviews], English (US) |
No V result is possible. |
The query [ipod] English (US) has a Vital result, but [ipod reviews] does not. [ipod reviews] is an Know query. Users are looking for information that many sites can provide. |
|
[how old is britney spears?], English (US) |
No V result is possible. |
The query [Britney Spears] is an entity query, but [how old is britney spears] is not. This is an Know query. Users are looking for information that many sites can provide. |
Be careful with queries such as [diabetes], [knitting], [furniture], [cars], [toys], etc. There is no Vital result possible because no one can "own" the topic of these queries. TLRBs with URLs that match the query may not even be helpful.
Sites claiming to be official may not actually be official sites. The V rating should NOT be assigned on the basis of the result block or appearance of the URL alone. You must visit the LP and examine the website. Here are some examples of result blocks that may look Vital, but are not:
|
Query |
LP of the Result Block, Result Block |
Vital? |
|
[Ashley Tisdale] , English (US) |
|
No: This LP is not an official homepage for Ashley Tisdale; it is a fan site. This is the "real" official V result: Official Ashley Tisdale
|
|
[Branson, Missouri] , English (US) |
Landing page link: LP
|
NoThe title of the TLRB and the LP display the words "Branson.com Official Website," but it is the homepage of the Branson.com website, not the homepage of the official city of Branson, Missouri website: Official Vital Result for the
|
|
Query |
LP of the Result Block, Result Block |
Vital? |
|
[Diabetes], English (US) |
|
NoNo V result is possible for this query because it is an information query and no one can claim ownership of it. |
|
[fabric], English (US) |
Landing page link: LP
|
NoNo V result is possible for this query because it is an information query and no one can claim ownership of it. |
|
[chairs], English (US) |
Landing page link: LP
|
NoNo V result is possible for this query because it is an information query and no one can claim ownership of it. This is an example of a spam page (see Section 14.4.2, Parked Domains). |
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