On March 13th, 2024, thousands of documents outlining aspects of Google’s search algorithm were either leaked or inadvertently shared on Github. The documents have been reviewed by a number of marketing experts and technologies and fair number of details have been compiled on sites such as Search Engine Land.

I have no intention of going through the roughly 3,000 documents myself, but I do want to share the items that stand out from articles written on the topic thus far. I don’t believe there is anything that will cause a fundamental shift in the way search engine optimization for Google is conducted, but there are opportunities for reprioritization based on the findings. Additionally, I have no doubt that Google’s competitors are analyzing the documents for things they could use in their marketing strategies or product development roadmaps.

To start, here’s a summary of the conclusions (or lack thereof) of what’s been included in the documents:

• 14,000+ ranking “features” are included in the documents
• Each ranking factor’s weighting is still unknown
• Google demotes content for predictable reasons like bad product reviews, pornography, user signals that show dissatisfaction, etc.
• The last 20 changes to a URL are used in Google’s algorithm despite the fact that they keep records of all changes ever.
• Re-ranking functions called twiddlers are used to change the rank of a document/URL.
• Links still matter as a factor in a website or URL’s rank.
• Site Authority is a real ranking factor likely relating to the quality of a site’s content. It’s also used as a proxy for new pages until they have their own PageRank.
• Google tracks spikes in spammy anchor links.
• Google uses Chrome browser data for ranking. (I think they are probably looking at how users interact with websites.)
• Clicks indicating high levels of engagement matter.
• Page title optimization is still very important.
• The freshness or recency of a page’s content impacts rank.

When I contemplate this list, there’s very little that jumps out at me. The principles of developing good content remain, as do the mysteries of what to do if a high-quality site suddenly loses rank and organic traffic. These are concerns for digital marketers, but not so much for everyday users of Google. Yet, the backdrop of Google’s ongoing legal battles pertaining to antitrust legislation is hard to ignore.

While it remains to be seen how Google responds to these developments, I plan on sticking with the status quo in my SEO efforts for the foreseeable future. I am keen to see how the antitrust lawsuits affect their business model and how Google’s competitors react to these documents. I could easily envision scenarios where Google is forced to change or remove ranking factors that favor larger businesses over smaller ones. I could also foresee governments attempting to set criteria for black and white lists (countries like China do this anyway). Nevertheless, it may still be a while before this impacts the search experience for everyday people or the SEO tactics employed by marketers.