SEO’s biggest news story of the year

About that HUGE Google Leak…

Read Time: 3 minutes

Highlights:

• What the leak contained
• Why you should care
• How you can use this new information

What the Google Leak Contained 🧐

A library of 2,500 pages from Google’s Content Warehouse API was uploaded to GitHub, then resurfaced by SparkToro’s Rand Fishkin this week.

The documents described the algorithmic details that go into ranking features on Google Search – including 14,014 attributes across 2,596 modules, covering various aspects like content, links, and user interactions.

Many of these attributes are direct contradictions to previous statements from Google on what the Search algorithm prioritizes.

Google says: domain authority isn’t used to rank sites.

Leaked docs say: the existence of a “siteAuthority” feature implies that domain authority does matter.

Google says: click data isn’t used to rank sites.

Leaked docs say: Google uses click data for ranking through systems like NavBoost. Personally, I tested this theory years ago and have always used user actions as a signal for ranking.

Google says: there’s no “sandbox” mechanism.

Leaked docs say: a sandbox mechanism does exist and uses host age to gauge potential spam.

Google says: Chrome browsing data doesn’t matter.

Leaked docs say: Chrome browsing data does matter! This is a major confirmation of what was long suspected.

If you want to get your developer hat on and see the full list of 14,014 attributes, check them out here.

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1. Hire Top 2% ex Googlers and Reporters who provide you with what is working in SEO. ScaledOn is here to help!
2. Optimize for SEO using AI. Koala.sh can help you create effective, high-ranking content with a simple AI prompt.

Why You Should Care 💡

First of all, this is Google’s largest release of internal data to date. Google has confirmed it as real.

It’s true that it doesn’t tell the full picture of Google’s Search algorithm – we still don’t know the actual weight behind each ranking factor, as we did in last year’s Yandex leak. But it’s the most transparency we’ve gotten from Google, well, ever.

And second, this leak confirms the hypotheses SEO experts have had about Google’s algorithm for years.

Google is understandably opaque about how it ranks websites. But as you can see above, many of the claims Google has made in keynotes, articles, or interviews are completely false compared to what the documents tell us.

The leak allows marketers to focus on what’s really essential to ranking in Google’s Search algorithm and gives us a better idea of which SEO tactics to prioritize for the most impact.

How You Can Use This New Information 🧠

The key to succeeding on Google’s algorithm hasn’t really changed. Create Top 10% content that can help users and publish frequently. You can’t cheat your way into performing well over the long term.

Invest time into growing your brand – Google likes bigger and better – create an online brand presence that drives engagement and geniune relevance to your customers (aka 2 clicks deep or more time on site).

Aim to meet the user’s needs over the algorithm. EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness was the last Fad)and from the leak data is clearly less important. You can’t optimize for 14,014 factors. Embrace your brand Superpower. What can only you do authentically?

Talk to your team about using these insights for your brand. Despite what some may think, SEO isn’t dead. While Google’s been rolling out its Search Generative Experience (SGE) by using AI-generated search results, links and authority clearly matter. AI may be on the rise, but they’re only as good as the information that’s being served to them – and so SEO lives on.

In my experience, when leaks like this drop, more and more information tends to come out with it. I expect we may learn even more about Google’s secret sauce as the media talks to more sources and developers do more digging. I’ll keep you updated…