Yukon Project at Appen: What It Is, Guidelines, Exam, Pay & More
What is the Yukon Project?
Project Yukon is a search engine evaluator job at Appen for its client Google. The core of this online job is to rate the quality of web pages and the relevance of search results. Google uses raters' feedback to evaluate whether tweaks in the algorithm would produce a beneficial outcome (i.e. search results that are, on average, more relevant and of good quality).
Besides the basic quality and relevance evaluation, participants of Project Yukon may also be requested to perform dozens of other tasks that are related to how the search engine performs. For example:
- Rate how much an automated voice sounds natural
- Determine what topics are central or secondary to explain what a given web page is about
- Classify local or online businesses according to a list of predefined categories
- Classify the user intent for a given search query
- Etc.
The Yukon project at Appen is one of the best entry-level opportunities in the work-from-home industry as it requires no prior experience or specific technical skills.
How to Apply
To apply for the Yukon Project at Appen, first, you need to complete the registration form that is available after selecting your country of residence on this page. This is the application page for the Internet Analyst position, which is the name by which Appen refers to their home-based, independent agents.
Once you are admitted as an Internet Analyst, you need to check if the Project Yukon is available in their projects dashboard. Yukon is one of the many entry-level online jobs that can be available for Appen raters. To increase your chances of being successful, make sure to read our post with tips on working from home with Appen.
Yukon Guidelines
The General Guidelines used in the Yukon Project are made publicly available by Google. You can download it here.
The guidelines are usually updated once or twice a year. The latest version of that document dates from December 2022 and has 176 pages, which are organized into three main sections.
Part 1 is the Page Quality Rating Guideline, where Google provides details on the quality attributes that should be observed by raters. Special attention is given to the E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) of pages, particularly YMYL pages -- which stands for "Your Money or Your Life", meaning topics or pages that could potentially impact a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety.
Part 2 is about Understanding Mobile User Needs, which is a fundamental step to the process of defining a relevance rating for the search result.
Part 3 is the Needs Met Rating Guideline, where Google provides details and several examples of factors that affect the relevance of a search result. The rating levels are named after the extent by which the results meet the needs of the users, hence the term Needs Met.
Yukon Project Exam
Project Yukon's qualification exam is divided into three parts:
- A multiple-choice exam directly based on the theoretical content of the guidelines
- A hands-on Quality rating exam
- A hands-on Needs Met rating exam
Candidates must pass each exam in order to progress to the next one. For example, to take the Needs Met rating test, the candidate must have already passed the two previous exams.
The multiple-choice test is considered the easiest of the three, as candidates can refer to the guidelines for the correct answers. The hands-on tests are more difficult because candidates must rate pages and results that are not exactly the same ones used as examples in the general guidelines.
Most candidates that fail in any of the three tests are given a second chance -- unless they fail badly. This second chance is not guaranteed though, so preparation is the key for anyone serious about passing the tests.
What are the exam answers?
Part 1 is the only test of the Yukon qualification exam that is always the same, so if you are looking for the exam answers, you are probably referring to those multiple-choice questions. It makes no sense to look for the answers in parts 2 and 3 since the tasks used on these exams change from time to time.
Disclosing Yukon exam answers is not part of our proposal. First, because doing so would be unethical. Secondly, it wouldn’t be beneficial for you, since you would probably fail the next two parts without mastering the concepts provided in the general guidelines.
Most importantly, cheating on the exam would likely result in you leaving the project within a few weeks or months of receiving an offer, as the performance of newly hired evaluators is closely monitored by their quality team.
If you are looking to boost your preparation for the exam, we suggest you enroll in the courses available at the Search Evaluator Academy.
Yukon Project Pay
The current pay rate for newcomers can range from $3/hour (i.e. rate in India) to $14/hour (i.e. rate in some European countries). The pay rate varies depending on the rater's country. For the US, the rate also varies by state.
In general, the pay rate for Appen home-based agents does not vary too much from project to project. Therefore, you can get an idea about the hourly rate that Yukon pays in your country once you are admitted to some project through Appen Connect.
Search engine evaluators earn by the hour and are paid on a monthly basis, no matter their locale or position type.
Payment Method
Appen uses Payoneer, a widely-used international payment platform, as their primary means of disbursing earnings. Through Payoneer, workers at Appen can access their payments and have several withdrawal options. This system is a part of Appen's approach to facilitate consistent and straightforward payment procedures for its global workforce.
When you sign up for a Payoneer account with our link, you receive 50 USD cashback immediately when your account reaches a minimum accumulated amount of 1,000 USD.
How to prepare for the Yukon Exam?
You can prepare for the Yukon exam by reading the general guidelines in advance and enrolling in our courses at the Search Evaluator Academy.
Courses
The Guidelines Training course slightly targets Part 1, and moderately targets Parts 2 and 3 of the Yukon Project exam.
The SEA Model course isn't helpful for Part 1, but it moderately targets Part 2 and highly targets Part 3.
Legend:
Slightly Targets = Some parts of the course are somewhat helpful for that part of the exam
Moderately Targets = Some parts of the course are helpful for that part of the exam
Highly Targets = Some parts of the course are very helpful for that part of the exam
If you are on a budget, a plausible preparation strategy would be to enroll in the SEA Model course only if and after you've failed your first attempt at the exam -- considering that many applicants who fail are given a second chance.