All About The Biggest Google Search Algorithm Leak in History

In today’s digital age, it’s no secret that people search for information online. From news to products or services, reviews to eBooks, movies to articles and a wide range of other data, the internet is used to share knowledge and find information on numerous subjects. 

The vast expanse of the internet can be tough to navigate, especially since there are over a billion websites to cater to user searches. This is where search engines come in. One common website that scours the internet to deliver search results in a matter of seconds. 

In the middle of all this is Google, which comes in with its mighty search engine that enjoys the lion share of the search engine market. 

In fact, Google boasts of over 90% of the search engine market share worldwide. 

In order to deliver relevant content from search queries on its results page, Google’s search engine needs to rank websites to ensure they satisfy a consumer’s needs.

As such, the search engine works by running algorithms to determine the efficacy of a website’s content against specific keywords. This allows the search engine to display more relevant websites upfront and on top. 

While some key factors of how Google's search engine ranks pages have been made public and professionals such as SEO experts optimize websites to rank higher, there are obviously elements that would be hidden; proprietary algorithms that allow it to stay ahead of the search engine market. 

However, as per reports, a massive leak of API documentation from inside Google’s Search division may have inadvertently revealed “top secret” information related to its search engine algorithm and ranking, which Google could have been lying about for a long while.

So, what was revealed through the leaked data? Let’s explore!
 

What Is The Google Document Leak About?

 

• On May 5, 2024, Rand Fishkin, the Co-founder and CEO of SparkToro received an email from a person with internal API documentation pertaining to Google’s search division. The idea of sharing the leak was to counter the “lies” that Google had shared previously on how its search algorithm works.

• The email also mentioned ex-Google employees verified the documents as authentic.

• Fishkin then assessed the documents, working with Mike King, the Founder and CEO of iPullRank and uncovered various features that revealed how Google Search uses clicks, links, content, entities, Chrome data and more to rank websites.

• A day after Fishkin and King published blog posts (May 27), the anonymous source came forward, announcing his name (Erfan Azimi, an SEO practitioner and the founder of EA Eagle Digital) through a video posted on YouTube.

• As per the blog posts and following reports, the leaked data provides people with an unprecedented look inside Google Search and important elements used by the company to rank content, making it one of the biggest leaks in the history of SEO and Google Search.

• The leak contains thousands of pages of internal documents, which includes 2,596 modules with 14,014 attributes that act as ranking features.

• Furthermore, the documents reveal how re-ranking features (Twiddlers) can change the ranking of documents, while specific content can demote a website’s ranking.

• Demotions can occur due to links not matching the target site, SERP signals indicating user dissatisfaction, product reviews, location, exact match domains, porn and other factors.

• However, these ranking features don’t mention how much weight is given to them but rather just clarify that they exist.

• Ahead of this, link diversity, relevance and PageRank (in which the homepage is considered for every document) is key.

• Essentially, key factors include links used in content, garnering successful clicks, maintaining a strong brand identity, checking if the entity and author are the same, freshness, page and site embeddings, page titles, average font size, anchor text and more.

• Google can even push small sites using Twiddlers (re-ranking parameters) and can whitelist certain domains to remain unaffected when “specific algorithms inadvertently impact websites.”

• The leak, which remains quite technical, doesn’t guarantee that Google uses the data and signal mentioned while determining search rankings.

• However, it does reveal what data is collected by Google from webpages, sites and searches.

• At the same time, Google has previously said it doesn’t use Chrome data to rank pages at all, however, Chrome was specifically mentioned in sections related to site ranking.

• Google hasn’t responded to comments about the legitimacy of the documents, which remains uncertain of whether the documents were “leaked” or “discovered”.

• As per a report, “it’s likely the internal documents were accidentally included in a code review and pushed live from Google internal code base, where they were then discovered.”

 

What Did Experts Say?

 

• Through a post on X, Rand Fishkin, Co-founder and CEO of SparkToro and former CEO and Founder of Moz, said, “Google search is one of the most secretive, closely-guarded black boxes in the world. Well, maybe not anymore. In the last quarter century, no leak of this magnitude or detail has ever been reported from Google’s search division.”

• Fishkin also posted a blog on SparkToro saying, “On Sunday, May 5th, I received an email from a person claiming to have access to a massive leak of API documentation from inside Google’s Search division. The email further claimed that these leaked documents were confirmed as authentic by ex-Google employees, and that those ex-employees and others had shared additional, private information about Google’s search operations.”

• [Contd.] “Many of their claims directly contradict public statements made by Googlers over the years, in particular the company’s repeated denial that click-centric user signals are employed, denial that subdomains are considered separately in rankings, denials of a sandbox for newer websites, denials that a domain’s age is collected or considered, and more.”

• Mike King, the Founder and CEO of iPullRank published a blog, saying, “’Lied’” is harsh, but it’s the only accurate word to use here. While I don’t necessarily fault Google’s public representatives for protecting their proprietary information, I do take issue with their efforts to actively discredit people in the marketing, tech, and journalism worlds who have presented reproducible discoveries.”

What do you think about the leaked information surrounding Google’s search algorithms? Do you think this leak will dent Google’s market share of the search engine market?

Let us know in the comments below!