Leaked Google Docs Lead SEOs to Wild Assumptions

The Google documents leak, discovered by a bot called yoshi-code-bot on Github on March 13th, 2024, has garnered significant attention across major sites and social media. These documents, which were shared through a chain of individuals including Erfan Azimi, Rand Fishkin, and Mike King, were removed on May 7th. The leak has sparked debates about the authenticity and implications of the documents, particularly regarding Google's internal systems and ranking factors. However, it's important to note that the documents contain descriptions and storage information rather than explicit code or weights for ranking factors.

SEOs interpret the leaked Google documents based on their own experiences and biases. For instance, link sellers believe the documents prove the importance of links, while Semantic SEO advocates think it validates their approach. Niche site owners and agencies also draw conclusions that align with their perspectives. This diversity in interpretation highlights the subjective nature of SEO analysis and the potential for creating new myths based on incomplete or misunderstood information.

Site Authority, as discussed in the leaked documents, appears to be related to compressed quality metrics rather than a direct ranking factor like Domain Rating (DR). While PageRank could be a component of Google's quality signals, the concept of Site Authority is not explicitly confirmed as a ranking factor. Instead, it may align with broader quality signals that Google uses, such as PageRank, mentions on authoritative sites, and site queries. The leak does not provide definitive proof that Site Authority is used in rankings.

Clicks are used by Google for various purposes such as personalization, timely events, testing, and feedback. Models trained on click data, including navBoost, predict which pages and features will be clicked and help reduce the number of returned results. However, the leaked documents do not confirm that click data of individual pages directly influences rankings. While some SEOs interpret this as CTR being a ranking factor, there is no conclusive evidence that increasing clicks on individual results will improve rankings.

The controversy stems from some SEOs accusing Google Search Advocates of lying or providing misleading information. However, these advocates are generally well-intentioned individuals doing their job, and any inaccuracies in their statements are likely due to misinformation or the need to obfuscate certain details to prevent abuse. The SEO community's frustration is understandable, but it's important to approach these issues with a mindset of testing and verification rather than outright blame.