Internal documents leaked from Google This suggests the company may have lied about its search algorithms.
Google is the most powerful search engine in the world. The largest U.S. antitrust case of the 21st centurySearch rankings can help determine whether your business succeeds or fails.
This week, 2,500 pages of internal Google search documents were published by SEO experts. Detailing the data Google collects from websites and users, the documents suggest that Google may be using information such as Chrome data to rank websites, which contradicts its public statements about how rankings work. Google confirmed the document's authenticity to The Verge. The company did not immediately respond to Quartz's request for comment or questions about the contents of the document.
“Google Search is one of the most secretive and closely guarded black boxes in the world,” said Rand Fishkin, the SEO expert who published the documents online. “Never in the last 25 years has a leak of this magnitude or detail been reported from Google's search division.”
“I feel a strong obligation to share information about how the world's dominant search engine works, especially information that Google would prefer to keep private.”
Fishkin and his fellow SEO expert Mike King cautioned that the document is not a definitive look at how search rankings work, but said:[u]Ultimately, this leak gives us a clearer picture of what is being taken into account in determining what to focus on and what to ignore in SEO going forward,” King said.
“Google's official statement is probably not an intentional lie, but rather an attempt to fool potential spammers (and many legitimate SEOs) and hide from us how it affects search results,” he continued.