Well this is kind of big. Google’s Algorithm was leaked. And it seems to be legit.
Head of all things at iPullRank Michael King has a great run through of the leak as well!
Here’s search engine journalist and go-to for things like this Barry Schwartz’s take!
This is huge because a lot of what Google’s been saying doesn’t matter to rankings does — what a surprise!
[W]hen I spoke to the party that sent me this information, I found them credible, thoughtful, and deeply knowledgeable. Despite going into the conversation deeply skeptical, I could identify no red flags, nor any malicious motivation. This person’s sole aim appeared quite aligned with my own: to hold Google accountable for public statements that conflict with private conversations and leaked documentation, and to bring greater transparency to the field of search marketing. And they believed that, despite my years removed from SEO, I was the best person to share this publicly.
Rand Fishkin of Sparktoro
Michael, over at iPullRank, does some great analysis as well and it’s worth reading.
I have reviewed the API reference docs and contextualized them with some other previous Google leaks and the DOJ antitrust testimony. I’m combining that with the extensive patent and whitepaper research done for my upcoming book, The Science of SEO. While there is no detail about Google’s scoring functions in the documentation I’ve reviewed, there is a wealth of information about data stored for content, links, and user interactions. There are also varying degrees of descriptions (ranging from disappointingly sparse to surprisingly revealing) of the features being manipulated and stored. You’d be tempted to broadly call these “ranking factors,” but that would be imprecise.
Mike King of iPullRank
All in all, most of this info that was leaked and denied by Google for so long, was suspected to be contrary to what the search/advertising giant has been saying all along.
I’m still reading through all of this and will report back more on what I figure out and gleen.
Until then! Happy reading and analyzing
