Many SEOs have concluded that the Google data leak wasn’t a leak, it didn’t contain any ranking algorithm secrets, it was five years old, and it didn’t reveal anything new. Not everyone feels that way, but SEOs in general don’t tend to agree with anything.
As SEJ reported yesterday, there were indications that this wasn't just a data dump of a ranking algorithm, and that there are many unanswered questions.
Here is our take on the alleged leak:
“At this time, there is no solid evidence that this 'leaked' data actually comes from Google Search and is in no way related to how websites are ranked in Google Search.”
There is a lot more information available at this point, and many SEOs say that information is not an algorithmic data dump.
Some SEOs urged caution
While many in the search community accepted the data breach claims at face value, others who value actual facts cautioned against taking it slow, thinking first, and keeping an open mind to all possibilities.
Tweet from former Google employee Pedro Diaz
Ryan Jones first issued a gentle warning, tweeting advice to people to look at the information objectively and without preconceptions.
Former Googler Pedro Diaz tweeted:
“There is nothing wrong with the shared data. Some items should be interpreted with caution.”
In another tweet, Pedro explained why he couldn't comment on specifics.
“I can only express my opinion. You can see why I can't just correct certain items. What I'm saying is there needs to be context and there should be room for interpretation.”
Someone tweeted that Pedro's response added nothing to the discussion.
Pedro replied:
“That's not what I'm saying. All I'm saying is, please refrain from jumping to conclusions. I'm sorry if you don't think that's helpful.”
The former Googler later tweeted about the importance of having the debate.
“I want you all to remember,
– It’s healthy to bring logical arguments to a discussion.“It's not healthy to just believe everyone's opinion without discussion, especially when it's coming from a data source with no context.”
Search marketing expert Dean Cruddans tweeted:
“Nothing to give away the secret sauce.”
In response, former Google employee Pedro Diaz said:
“100%
However, this influence has led to a lot of insensitive advertising and a simplistic view of search that is less than optimal.Ultimately, I believe it does more harm than good, not because of the information it contains, but how it is interpreted and taken.”
I can't trust this SEO
As the days passed, more and more SEOs began to openly doubt the leak. Trevor Stolber (LinkedIn profile), a search marketing expert with 20 years of experience, posted his own take on the alleged leak, indicating that he “doesn't believe it.”
Part of what he posted on LinkedIn:
- “This is from an abandoned codebase (still very interesting, but old and unused)
- This is not actually from the ranking algorithm, but an API used internally.
- I already knew what was in there.
- Good product code documentation should specify ranges and values, but that's completely missing here.
- Google doesn't use DA (Domain Authority). DA is similar to PR (Page Rank), which was a distinct differentiator for Google. I don't understand why there is so much attention being paid to this nuance.”
Another SEO expert, Kristin Schachinger, who I know personally as an expert, commented during the discussion that the so-called leaked information dates to 2019.
“I've been reading the raw dumps and they're all from 2019 and you literally can't glean anything from 90% of the pages. I totally agree.”
Others involved in that discussion openly questioned whether it was actually a leak, with most agreeing that there was nothing new there and advising it would be better to focus on Google's new AI overview, especially since AI doesn't follow ranking factors.
Was this not a leak?
Of all the people involved in SEO, the man who could be considered the father of modern SEO is Brett Tabke. He is the founder of the PubCon search marketing conference and also the founder of WebmasterWorld, which was the largest and most important SEO forum in the world during the early days of SEO. Brett is also the one who coined the acronym SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
Brett spent five hours investigating the data breach and posted his observations on Facebook.
Among his observations were (to summarize):
- This is not a leak
- Nothing directly related to the algorithm, but rather an API call.
- He could find nothing to suggest how the data would be used as part of the ranking algorithm.
Ash Nallawalla, an enterprise SEO with over 20 years of experience, commented:
“As I've said a few times, this is just an API doc with a call list, not an algorithmic code dump. At best, you can learn a bit more of Google's internal jargon.”
Google data breach: where are the facts?
The SEO community is realizing that this wasn't the Google algorithm data leak that some had expected — in fact, it wasn't even a Google employee leak — and many agree that, far from algorithm secrets, there was nothing new in it, just a distraction.