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A little light is shining on Google’s Search black box.
A leak of 2,500 internal documents, which Google has confirmed are real, sheds some light on the workings of its search engine—which has long been a mystery for search-engine-optimization experts and businesses—like what data Google collects, how it relies on links and how it views small websites.
“SEO has always been a black box,” said Travis Tallent, vice president of SEO at Brainlabs. “It’s always been experimental and largely driven by testing. This documentation is something we’ve been waiting on for for a very long time.”
On March 13, the leaked documents surfaced on Github, prompting analysis from SEO experts Rand Fishkin, co-founder of SparkToro, and Michael King, CEO of iPullRank.
Some details in the docs cast doubt on the accuracy of Google’s public statements. But listening to Google’s public statements about how its systems work is foolish, 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“We would caution against making inaccurate assumptions about Search based on out-of-context, outdated or incomplete information,” a Google spokesperson told ADWEEK.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’ve shared extensive information about how search works and the types of factors that our systems weigh, while also working to protect the integrity of our results from manipulation.”
Chrome factors in search
Although Google representatives have asserted that Chrome data isn’t utilized in page ranking algorithms, references to Chrome appear in sections detailing how website links are displayed in search. The docs also reveal a module called ‘Chrome in Total.’
According to Fishkin, pages like “Pricing” are among SparkToro’s most visited pages. Google surfaces this link by analyzing billions of Chrome users’ clickstreams.
“My read is that Google likely uses the number of clicks on pages in Chrome browsers and uses that to determine the most popular or important URLs on a site, which go into the calculation of which to include in the site links feature,” Fishkin said in his blog.
Quality, relevant sites really matter
The docs 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 how relevant it is to a particular subject area or industry.
Google executives including John Mueller, who leads 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 refuted the claim of maintaining a website authority score.
“Things like Domain Authority and Chrome data have all been touted as ‘not inputs’ for Google for a long time,” said Tallent.
While SEO experts aren’t surprised by Domain Authority’s role in search, for brands, it’s a reminder that quality content matters more than quantity for visibility in search results, said King.
Popular sites receive higher search
Leaked documents hint that Google has been measuring clicks to rank its algorithm through the Navboost system, which has been operational since 2005.
This means a site Google sees as popular might get a higher search rank for a query, even if a lesser-known site contains better information.
According to King, Navboost tweaks search results by boosting or demoting links with features such as goodClicks, badClicks or lastLongestClicks.
However, Google reps have previously said that clicks are not utilized in the ranking of sites.
Thwarting small websites
The docs also indicate that search is not set up for smaller sites to win, said King. A feature called smallPersonalSite indicates that Google isn’t pushing small personal sites or blogs.
Small publishers have previously raised concerns that they have “virtually disappeared” from search results, with HouseFresh noting a 91% decrease in search traffic in recent months.
Learning on external devices
The document refers to using external device data like Chromecast for Google search, but how this data is used isn’t fully understood.
“This is a Google search engineering documentation,” said Tallent. “This shows that they’re using external device data and storing this information to potentially help make decisions on search.”
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