Many SEOs have come to the conclusion that the alleged Google leak is not a leak, contains no ranking algorithm secrets, is five years out of date, and shows nothing new. Although not everyone thinks so, SEO professionals generally don’t tend to agree on anything.
As SEJ reported yesterday, there were signs that this was not a data dump from a ranking algorithm and that there were many unanswered questions.
Our take on the alleged leak was:
“At this time, there is no hard evidence that this ‘leaked’ data is actually from Google Search… and is not related in any way to how websites are ranked in Google Search.”
At this point, we have more information, and many SEOs say that information is not an algorithm’s data dump.
Some SEO experts urge caution
While many in the search community were quick to take the data leak claims at face value, others interested in the actual facts warned to slow down and think first and be open to all possibilities.
A tweet from former Google employee Pedro Diaz
Ryan Jones was the first to offer a modest note of caution, advising people in a tweet to view the information objectively and without preconceived ideas.
Former Googler Pedro Diaz tweeted:
“You have no problems with shared data. And it recommends caution in interpreting some items.
Pedro followed up with another tweet to explain why he couldn’t comment on the details:
“I can only speak for myself. I think you understand why I can’t just fix specific items. What I am saying is that context is needed and room for interpretation should be given.
Someone tweeted that Pedro’s response added nothing to the discussion.
Pedro replied:
“I did not say that. All I’m saying is, please be careful about jumping to conclusions. If you don’t think this is helpful, then I’m sorry.
The former Googler later tweeted about the importance of the discussions:
“Let’s remind everyone:
– It is healthy to bring logical arguments into a discussion.– It’s not healthy to expect everyone to buy opinions without discussing them. Especially when it comes from data sources without context.”
Search engine marketing expert Dean Cruddens tweeted:
“There’s nothing to give away the secret sauce.”
To which ex-Googler Pedro Diaz responded:
“100%
But the impact of this fuels a lot of tinfoil hat and simplistic search in search that is suboptimal.Ultimately, I believe it does more harm than good. Not about the information it contains, but how it will be spun and interpreted.
This SEO is not buying it
As the day went by, more and more SEO professionals began to openly doubt the leak. Twenty-year-old search marketing expert Trevor Stolber ( LinkedIn profile ) posted his observations on the alleged leak, indicating that he doesn’t “buy it.”
Some of what he posted on LinkedIn:
- “This is from an outdated codebase (still very interesting – but old and unused)
- It’s not actually from their ranking algorithm, it’s an API used internally
- We already knew most of the things that were there
- Good production code documentation will specify ranges and values - I don’t see any of that here
- Google doesn’t use DA (Domain Authority) – DA is the counterpart to PR (Page Rank) which was Google’s standout feature – I’m not sure why so much attention is paid to these nuances.”
Christine Schachinger, another SEO who I personally know as an expert, commented in this thread that the information in the so-called leak is from 2019.
“I read the raw dump and they are all dated 2019 and there is literally nothing you can glean from 90% of the pages – I agree. “
Others in this discussion openly questioned whether this was actually a leak, and almost all agreed that there was nothing new about it and advised that it was better to focus on Google’s new AI reviews, especially since the AI does not follow the ranking factors.
Isn’t that a leak?
Of all the people in SEO, the person who can most be described as the father of modern SEO is Brett Tabke. He is the founder of the search marketing conference PubCon and also the founder of WebmasterWorld, which in the early days of SEO was the largest and most important SEO forum in the world. Brett is also the guy who came up with the acronym SERPs (for Search Engine Results Pages).
Brett devoted five hours to studying the leak and then posted his observations on Facebook.
Among his observations (paraphrased):
- This is not a leak
- There are nil in it that are directly related to the algorithm, but rather they are API calls.
- He found nothing to indicate how some of the data could be used as part of a ranking algorithm.
Ash Nalawala, a corporate SEO with over 20 years of experience comments:
“As I’ve said several times, this is just an API doc with a list of calls, not an algo code dump. At most we can learn a little more internal Google terminology.
Google Data Leak: Where Are the Facts?
It is understood in the SEO community that this is not the data leak from Google’s algorithm as some expected. In fact, it wasn’t even a leak from a Google employee. And far from the secrets of the algorithms, many agree that there is nothing new there and that it is just a distraction.
