A little light shines in the black box of Google Search.
A leak of 2,500 internal documents, which Google has confirmed that they are real, sheds some light on how their search engine works, which has long been a mystery to SEO experts and companies, such as what data Google collects, how it’s based on links and how it sees small websites.
“SEO has always been a black box,” said Travis Tallent, VP of SEO at Brainlabs. “It’s always been experimental and largely evidence-driven. This documentation is something we’ve been waiting for a long time.”
On March 13, the leaked documents appeared Githubprompting analysis by SEO experts Rand Fishkinco-founder of SparkToro and Michael KingCEO of iPullRank.
Some details in the documents cast doubt on the accuracy of Google’s public statements. But listening to Google’s public statements about how its systems work is nonsense, Fishkin told ADWEEK.
“We would caution against making inaccurate assumptions about search based on out-of-context, outdated, or incomplete information,” a Google spokesperson told ADWEEK. “We have shared extensive information about how search works and the types of factors that weigh our systems, while working to protect the integrity of our results from manipulation.”
Chrome factors in search
Although Google representatives have affirmed that Chrome data is not used in page ranking algorithms, references to Chrome appear in sections detailing how website links are displayed in search. The documents also reveal a module called “Chrome in Total”.
Chrome is referenced in a section detailing the creation of additional links.Rand Fishkin
According to Fishkin, pages like “Prices” are among SparkToro’s most visited pages. Google displays this link by analyzing billions of clicks from Chrome users.
“My reading is that Google probably uses the number of clicks on pages in Chrome browsers and uses that to determine the most popular or important URLs for a site, which go into the calculation of which to include in the links feature of places,” Fishkin said. on your blog.
Relevant and quality sites are really important
The documents reveal Google’s machine learning tool called Site Authority or Domain Authority, according to Tallent. This tool evaluates a site’s ability to be indexed in Google search based on its relevance to a particular subject area or industry.
Google executives including John Mueller, who runs Google Search Relations as a search advocate, have publicly contradicted this notion. In a video, Mueller stated, “We don’t have a website authority score.” And Google itself has it disproves the claim to maintain a website authority score.
“Things like Domain Authority and Chrome data have been touted as ‘non-entries’ for Google for a long time,” Tallent said.
While SEO experts aren’t surprised by the role of Domain Authority in search, for brands, it’s a reminder that quality content matters more than quantity for visibility in search results. King said.
Popular sites get a higher search
The leaked documents indicate that Google has been measuring clicks for its ranking algorithm using the Navboost system, which has been operational since 2005.
This means that a site that Google considers popular can get a higher search ranking for a query, even if a lesser-known site contains better information.
According to King, Navboost adjusts search results by boosting or demoting links with features like goodClicks, badClicks, or lastLongestClicks.
However, Google representatives have already said this previously clicks are not used in site ranking.
A frustrated little websites
The documents also indicate that the search is not set up for smaller sites to win, King said. A feature called smallPersonalSite indicates that Google is not promoting small personal sites or blogs.
Small publishers have previously expressed concern that they have “virtually disappeared” from search results, and HouseFresh has seen a 91% drop in search traffic in recent months.
Learning on external devices
The document refers to the use of data from external devices such as Chromecast for Google Search, but it is not fully understood how this data is used.
“This is Google search engineering documentation,” Tallent said. “This shows that they are using data from external devices and storing that information to potentially help make search decisions.”
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