Matthew Widdop
Matty is a Junior SEO Executive at Intelligency, helping our clients to improve their digital performance. Matty is currently studying for his Level 3 Multi-Channel Marketer apprenticeship and has completed a Sport Journalism Degree at the University of Huddersfield.
Last week Google leaked thousands of internal documents revealing some of the hidden secrets behind the companies search algorithm.
The document contained over 2,500 pages revealing some of the factors influencing search results, Google have now confirmed that the biggest leak in the company’s history is authentic.
What was contained in the leak?
The leak of the ‘’Google API Content Warehouse’’ was published on GitHub and contains some of the ‘ranking factors’ that Google attributes to the content. Some of the key findings included:
- Google has a site authority score.
- Google tracks Chrome visits across the web.
- Google has a keyword stuffing score.
- Poor navigation can lower your rankings.
- Google stores 20 versions of your web pages.
Contradicting Google?
Google has a monopoly in the search engine industry and has long remained secretive about the algorithm that dictates its rankings. Therefore, many companies survive based on the information that Google feeds to them on how to appear higher up the Search engine results page (SERP).
However, the leaked API Document appears to contradict some of the statements Google has made in the past regarding the ‘ranking factors’ that they use in their algorithm. For example, Google have in the past denied having a website authority score and using Chrome data in website search rankings.
Information in the API document suggests that google tracks data from its Chrome web browser and has a factor called ‘’domain authority.’’
What was Google’s Response?
Google have now confirmed the authenticity of the documents but urged users not to make assumptions based on the ‘’out-of-context, outdated or incomplete’’ information that had inadvertently been made public.
Due to Google’s response, it is unclear whether any of the search factors in the document are currently in use and up to date features of the algorithm.
The Future for SEO?
Despite the document being a revelation into the inner workings of Google, the likes of which we have never seen before, SEO Experts do not suddenly have all the answers and will have to continue looking to Google to improve SEO efforts in the future.
