Excuse me... Google's algorithm leaked - now what? - YouTube
A massive leak from Google has shaken the world of SEO. It basically revealed a lot of secrets about how Google determines which websites appear first in search results. More than 14,000 different workers have been mentioned! Some key things included how Google actually uses things like domain authority and data from people's clicks in Chrome to rank sites – things Google previously rejected.
The leaked documents came from this man Irfan Azimi, a digital marketer who explained in his video, that he had some contacts with a former Google employee and received files from that anonymous former employee of Google. He sent the files to two SEO industry leaders, including this guy in the screenshot, Rand Fishkin, who is largely considered a legend in the SEO world.
Rand and another SEO expert, this guy here, Michael King, reviewed these very technical documents and published articles that confirmed a lot of things that people who have been doing SEO for years have questioned, but we haven't had evidence of it yet. I want to start with the part that I found most interesting, especially since one of the people on the Google search team previously denied this.
Use Chrome data: It has been leaked that Google uses data from Chrome to track user behavior and influence labels, demonstrating the importance of user interaction across all Google platforms and even other platforms that users may visit through the Chrome browser. This is critical because it highlights a larger topic about the power of user behavior in SEO.
Well, imagine using Google Chrome to browse the internet, check out various websites, articles, or maybe even shop. So Google seems to be using all this information from your browsing on any website you've visited, to determine which content should rank higher in search results. Why does this matter? Because this could mean that a user finding your article through a Pinterest pin, or a Facebook post, and reading it for an extended period can boost your SEO, and just because it happens in Chrome and Google, they have had the opportunity to collect some data about this visit.
Google seems to be heavily inclined to machine learning and user behavior signals, which are difficult to deal with using older SEO methods. If your content performs well on social media platforms and attracts users in Chrome, it seems that Google may consider it a sign that your content is valuable, making search rankings more than just a reflection of your overall online success.
Personally, I love this news! Because I've always done my best to drive traffic to my website from Pinterest and other traffic channels, as well as take care of my interactive email list. I talked about it in my last video – and I'll link it to you there. But to give you a quick idea, I get about 85k clicks per month from Pinterest, I get too much traffic from this Youtube channel to my blog, I use a little paid ads, and I'm currently exploring Flipboard to drive traffic too. You can create Facebook Pages and Facebook groups. You know
In some areas such as technology and digital marketing, you may use X (formerly known as Twitter), in other areas Tiktok can attract you a fair amount of traffic. But if Google tracks all of these activity through Chrome in real terms, maximizing our presence across all the platforms where our audience is present becomes critical to your SEO performance.
And the next thing that we have now discovered through these documents is that 2. The user experience on your website is much more important than we thought. Based on leaked ranking factors, Google tracks metrics such as clicks on your site, duration of visits, and how long users stay on your page after clicking search results.
So it's important for website owners to prioritize creating an exceptional user experience. This means delivering your message clearly and quickly, updating your content regularly with reliable information, knowing that you shouldn't change the date on your post. You need to make important updates to help with your labels.
Establish your credibility from the start, and provide unique insights that differentiate you from others in search results. By the way, technical SEO still plays a vital role in the user experience. For example, a site that loads slowly is frustrating for visitors even before they start reading your content. Similarly, ad-cluttered pages can immediately drive away visitors.
This, in turn, will affect your Google rankings. And the next thing we've learned is that 3. Backlinks are important but they have to be the right ones, so these leaked documents point to a certain type of links may be useful, but one thing has become more than clear: unwanted or toxic links will definitely hurt your rankings.
SEO has questioned this for years, but the leak contains actual references to penalties for bad backlinks. Google seems to prefer links from well-established websites with a high page rating. These links should use appropriate body text and come from pages that are already attracting a lot of traffic.
For example, a high DA link from an actively updated site is invaluable. However, the same DA from a site that hasn't been updated in a decade and barely receives any visitors won't do you much good. So, quite frankly, proper digital PR is the right way. Get links from reputable news sources. Platforms like Connectively can be very important in this process.
That actually brings us to the next exciting thing – just mentioning your brand name, and even the actual hyperlinks don't matter for Google! 4. Signals are important for SEO So, in my case, it could be my Anastasia Blogger brand and the entities or keywords that are often mentioned near my brand could be for example Pinterest marketing, a topic I've covered in more than 150 videos on my channel.
I have to be completely honest, over the years, I have done almost nothing to get backlinks to my blog. Well, I did several interviews but that was when people invited me, and I never paid for a backlink in my life. But my brand Anastasia Blogger ended up having its own search volume on Google, I think people know me from YouTube or Pinterest and maybe search for me, and when I get frequent brand name references, even if it's not a backlink, it also helps my website build a Google reference. You also know all the pins I post on
On Pinterest, for example, put my brand name in the profile next to it. In fact, Google loves Pinterest Photos and often ranks high in Google Image Search. I won't go into too much detail about Pinterest SEO in this video, but if you want to learn more about getting free visits from Pinterest, you can watch my on-demand classroom, and I'll give you a link to it there and in the description below, it's free to watch! Links from all social media platforms are no-follow links and do not have the same value as follow links but remain through me only
Pinterest pins, I get thousands of mentions for my brand name, it's 100% free and it takes a maximum of 5-10 minutes to create each pin. So I never did anything on purpose to grow the authority of my DA domain, but I always had the feeling that my Pinterest activity helped me with Google SEO indirectly. Now, these leaked documents contain proof of this.
I have already mentioned that one of the SEO industry leaders who had early access to leaked documents and published a comprehensive analysis about them was Rand Fishkin, founder of MOZ, a SEO company. I strongly advise you to check out his SEO course on Skillshare which kindly sponsored this part of the video.
My favorite lessons here in this chapter are first – about taxonomic factors because Rand highlighted in a 12-minute lesson the most important factors you should work on. Another lesson I love has to do with on-page SEO – it will help you improve the UX factor on your website. According to leaked Google docs, this is a ranking factor.
You can find this class on Skillshare, the largest online learning community for creators, offering a wide range of classes to help you succeed online. In addition to this chapter, you can simply search for SEO and find plenty of courses that will help you find something more specific to you – it has SEO for many platforms, including Shopify, Squarespace, Etsy, and even Youtube SEO.
There's also a wide range of classes on topics from marketing and entrepreneurship to photography, filming, and user experience design – whatever skill you want to learn as a creative, Skillshare will have you covered. And you can try it for free! The first 500 people to use the link in the description will receive a free month from Skillshare.
Start learning today! 5. Small personal site tag Now, we go back to the things that were the most surprising in the leaked documents – there's something else about what's called the "smallPersonalSite" tag – yes, Google literally uses those words in their documentation which is really sad for us, small business owners, to see that it's written there in clear words.
You probably know that in the last few updates, Google has ruined the traffic of many small publishers and freelance bloggers no matter how good their content is. Big companies get a large number of clicks and links without making any effort. People tend to click on brands they already know. They also have great tools and an SEO era to make their content stand out more.
This vicious circle makes it difficult for small websites to keep up with Google searches. It's frustrating to see large companies grow bigger while small businesses don't get a chance to grow. However, we don't know exactly how much Google uses this small site tag and whether it's used to punish the small person.
Again, you can still win with SEO if you focus on diversifying traffic sources, and on getting more signals across other platforms. So, even if you're a small business owner, I think we can still compete and succeed.
The source of the article is from this videothis video