Major Google Search Document Leak Exposes Inner Workings of Ranking Algorithm

Recently leaked documents have provided an unprecedented glimpse into the factors that Google Search uses, or has used, for ranking content. These factors include website clicks, backlinks, content, Chrome data, and more.

On March 13, 2024 an automated bot named “yoshi-code-bot” released thousands of documents on GitHub, which appear to originate from Google’s internal Content API Warehouse. These documents were shared with Rand Fishkin, co-founder of SparkToro, earlier this month. This leak is poised to become one of the most significant events in the history of SEO and Google Search.

Here’s what the leak has revealed:

Link diversity and relevance remain crucial, with PageRank still playing a significant role in the ranking features. PageRank for a homepage influences the ranking of all its documents. This does not necessarily contradict Google’s previous statements about links not being a “top 3 ranking factor” or links mattering less for ranking, as the specific weight of these features is still unknown.

For our clients, the information so far tells us what we already knew: To rank well, creating great content and providing excellent user experiences are essential. Google uses various technical measurements, including badClicks, goodClicks, lastLongestClicks, and unsquashedClicks, which help Google measure if the user is engaged with the content.

Getting to look “behind the curtain” of Google’s algorithm could potentially cause knee-jerk adjustments to many SEO strategies. In the coming weeks, Firefly may tweak its own strategies for clients. However, the main techniques will remain in place:

• Driving more successful clicks through diverse keyword strategies
• Earning more link diversity offsite and onsite
• Strong content naturally attracts more qualified traffic and sends positive signals to Google

Building a notable, popular, well-recognized brand in your space, in and out of Google search, is crucial. Google also considers entity authorship and uses something called “siteAuthority,” despite past denials of a website authority score.

Firefly continues to stay on the cutting edge of long-term strategies to help build and maintain our clients’ strong rankings. This leak has reinforced nearly all of our ideas of how to provide SEO for our clients. That said, we will always be looking for opportunities to give our clients the edge.