Sandboxed sites, shadow bans and other traps from Google - what do you need to know to be successful?
At the end of May, the largest leak of Google's confidential data occurred - on the night of May 27-28, about 2,500 documents ended up online. It is known that information about the possibility of a leak came from an anonymous user to the mail of the founder of Moz.com, Rand Fishkin, as early as May 5, but at that time it was not paid attention to.
Now that the hype has died down a bit, let's analyze what exactly got into the network and how seoshnikovs can use this information in their work.
Unclassified: domain authority metric
The use of the “siteAuthority” metric has been denied by Google employees, as it would imply that a site's authority and date of creation affect a page's search ranking.
While it is unclear from the leaked documents exactly how this metric is taken into account and how much it affects search results, the fact that it exists and is used is significant news.
Unclassified: clickstream data is used for search ranking
This isn't technically news, as many search engines use user click frequency data to improve search results. Click analysis systems such as NavBoost and Glue have been around since about 2005 and work as follows:
1. Collection of click data:
- The system captures every user click on the links in the search results.
2. Behavior Analysis:
- Based on this data, the system analyzes user behavior to understand which results they find most useful.
3. Results Adjustment:
- The system uses the collected data to adjust ranking algorithms to provide users with more relevant search results in the future.
But just clicks aren't enough. The leaked documents contain information about clicks codenamed “votes” from users who are “voters,” as well as data about:
- unsuccessful clicks;
- clicks by country and city;
- the longest clicks during an internet session.
The last point indicates that the search engine is tracking time spent on the site. This wouldn't be a big deal if Google hadn't previously denied tracking clicks.
Google Search engineer Paul Haar mentioned the use of NavBoost's click counting service in his 2019 resume, although he had previously denied the fact. His colleague, Harry Iyesh, also stated at the SMX West conference in 2016 that “directly using clicks in ranking would be a mistake.”
Such lies could lead Google to future lawsuits from Western users, who are particularly sensitive to privacy issues.
It's been disclosed: “sandbox” sites - they exist!
In August 2019, company representatives denied the very existence of the Sandbox, or “sandbox” filter.
“Sandbox” sites are a filter that keeps new sites under special control by hiding them in a shadow filter. Although the site is formally ranked for all indicators, it does not actually appear in the search results.
The Sandbox filter lasts for three months, after which it is removed if the site's content complies with search engine rules.
Declassified: links to credible sources improve website ranking
At the same time, links to sites that occupy high positions in the output, as well as to news resources, have more weight. It is not difficult to use this in your work: when filling sites with content, refer to official sources, primary sources and major sites.
For example, if you talk about the Google data leak, provide a link to the resource with the leaked documents as a primary source. Keep in mind that Google evaluates the “weight” of links based on the internal Homepage Trust criterion.
Unclassified: keywords in title and description matter
It is better to insert keywords in titles and headings. Google evaluates how well the titles match the user's queries. The “freshness” of content is also important.
Not only the date of publication is important, but also the date of changes and updates. Therefore, ideally, the date of content update should be specified separately.
Declassified: Google lowers Trust and Page Rank for new sites
New sites are flagged as “small personal site”:
It is not yet clear from the leaked documents whether the “small personal site” checkbox applies to all new sites or only to one-page sites and mini-blogs.
Conclusion:
A leak from May 2024 has caused quite a furor in the SEO world, revealing closely guarded secrets of Google's ranking algorithms. The accidental discovery of internal Google documents revealed more than 14,000 factors that influence website rankings, providing unique insight into the mechanisms by which websites rise in the search rankings.