Google has confirmed the thousands of leaked documents that first emerged earlier this week are in fact internal company documents that reveal some aspects of the inner-workings of Google Search.
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The leak of 2,500 documents is likely to cause a ripple effect across the SEO industry as many of the documents, while still being hard to decipher, reveal details about the way Google Search works, particularly the information and data Google collects to rank content on its search engine. Notably, The Verge reports the internal documents details run contrary to what Google representatives have said in the past about what contributes to webpage rankings on Search.
These thousands of documents contain a plethora of information about Search rankings, but none of the information is outlined in a way that makes it clear which data is more valuable than other data, making the entire leak very murky for interpretation. Additionally, there is a chance all of the information is completely out of date, or no longer considered valuable by Google as its data collection/ranking processes may have changed entirely.
“We would caution against making inaccurate assumptions about Search based on out-of-context, outdated, or incomplete information,” Google spokesperson Davis Thompson told The Verge in an email. “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.“
Regardless of the ambiguous nature of the leaked documents, many SEO professionals are likely to take on aboard what information they are able to extract, especially considering Google’s steadfast approach to as much secrecy as possible when it comes to revealing how Google Search works.