Intro
A groundbreaking leak of Google documents has unveiled unprecedented insights into the inner workings of the search giant's ranking algorithm. This revelation highlights critical factors such as clicks, links, content, entities, and Chrome data that Google uses to rank web content.
The Leak Unveiled
On March 13, an automated bot named yoshi-code-bot released thousands of internal Google documents from the Content API Warehouse on GitHub. These documents, shared with Rand Fishkin, co-founder of SparkToro, offer a rare glimpse into Google's ranking mechanisms.
Key Insights from the Leak
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Current Information: The documents are current as of March 2024.
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Ranking Features: The API documentation details 2,596 modules with 14,014 attributes.
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Weighting of Features: While the documents outline the features, they do not specify their weightings.
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Twiddlers: These re-ranking functions adjust the information retrieval scores.
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Demotions: Content can be demoted for various reasons, including mismatched links, user dissatisfaction, product reviews, location, exact match domains, and adult content.
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Change History: Google keeps a copy of every version of a page it has indexed but considers only the last 20 changes when analyzing links.
The Importance of Links and Clicks
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Links Matter: Diversity and relevance of links remain critical, with PageRank still being a significant factor.
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Successful Clicks Matter: Google uses various metrics such as badClicks, goodClicks, lastLongestClicks, and unsquashedClicks to measure successful clicks. Quality content and positive user experiences are essential for ranking well.
Additional Insights
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Brand Importance: Building a notable and well-recognized brand is crucial for improving organic search rankings.
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Entities: Google stores author information to identify the entity behind the content.
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SiteAuthority: This concept impacts the overall ranking of a site.
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Chrome Data: Data from the Chrome browser influences search rankings.
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Whitelists: Certain domains related to elections and COVID-19 are given whitelist status, ensuring they are not adversely affected by specific algorithms.
Impact on SEO
This leak is poised to be one of the most significant events in SEO history, providing invaluable insights into Google's ranking algorithm. This revelation is comparable to the 2023 Yandex Search leak, which was a major event in that year.
Expert Commentary
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Michael King, CEO of iPullRank: Plans to offer an in-depth analysis based on the leaked documents.
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Rand Fishkin, Co-Founder of SparkToro: Emphasizes the critical importance of brand building and maintaining a strong presence outside of Google search. According to Fishkin, successful content and a strong brand signal to Google that your pages deserve higher rankings.
Further Reading
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Secrets from the Algorithm: Google Search’s Internal Engineering Documentation Has Leaked by King on iPullRank
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An Anonymous Source Shared Thousands of Leaked Google Search API Documents with Me; Everyone in SEO Should See Them by Fishkin on SparkToro
Clarification on the Leak
There is some debate over whether these documents were "leaked" or "discovered" accidentally during a code review. Erfan Azimi, CEO of EA Eagle Digital, has claimed responsibility for sharing the documents with Fishkin.
