Google has confirmed that the 2,500 pages of internal documents leaked Monday detailing how its Internet search algorithm works are authentic, as The Verge reported Wednesday evening and confirmed to CNET.
The massive leak of API documentation appears to confirm what search engine optimization experts have been speculating about for years, although these speculations are often debunked by Google. For example, this leaked documentation appears to indicate that click-through rate affects rankings, that subdomains have their own rankings, that newer websites are thrown into a separate “sandbox” until they are starting to rank higher in search and that the age of a domain is a consideration in ranking.
The documents were first leaked to SEO expert Rand Fishkin, co-founder of SparkToro and Snack Bar Studio, by Erfan Azimi, CEO of EA Eagle Digital, a digital marketing agency. Documents were also leaked to iPullRank’s Mike King.
In all honesty, it’s still unclear exactly how useful this information leaked today is. These internal machinations of Google’s search algorithm may now be obsolete or these data points may have been collected but never used. Google also tends to regularly tweak its search algorithm. Still, it’s a rare behind-the-scenes look at Google’s core business.
“We caution against making inaccurate assumptions about search based on out-of-context, outdated, or incomplete information,” Google spokesperson Davis Thompson said in a statement. Google says it has shared information about how search works in the past while also ensuring it protects “the integrity of our results from manipulation.”
Google is the most dominant player in online search, holding over 90% market share. Its dominance is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit against the company by the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging that it maintains a monopoly. Since Google is the primary route to the Internet for almost all computers, iPhones and Android devices, this gives the company considerable power over how information is consumed. Ads sold in search results are also the company’s main source of revenue. Last year, Google generated $175 billion in revenue from search alone. Given the amount of money invested in online search, a $68 billion industry of SEO companies and experts who attempt to game or predict the behavior of Google’s search algorithm has been born.
Google is waging a constant battle against sites that fill search results with low-quality content simply to capture easy ad clicks. This is why Google doesn’t publish transparent details about how its search algorithm works, otherwise bad actors would only take advantage of it. Publishers, blogs and other small sites that produce good content are caught in this struggle. The problem of spam sites only gets worse with AI-generated content.
Changes to Google’s search algorithm last September, called the Useful Content Update, were devastating for many small sites like HouseFresh and RetroDodo, both of which detailed the impact of Google’s decisions.
News Source : www.cnet.com
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