Leaked Google documents reveal secrets behind the world's biggest search engine

Google is the most powerful search engine in the world — so much so that it’s the subject of the largest antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. in the 21st century. Its Search rankings can help determine whether a business succeeds or fails.

This week, 2,500 pages of documents from inside Google’s Search division were shared by SEO experts. The documents, which detail the data Google collects from websites and users, suggest that Google might be using information such as Chrome data to rank websites, which would conflict with public statements about how its rankings work. Google confirmed the authenticity of the documents to The Verge Thursday. The company did not immediately respond to Quartz’s request for comment nor its questions about the nature of the documents.

“Google search is one of the most secretive, closely-guarded black boxes in the world,” said SEO expert Rand Fishkin, who shared the documents online. “In the last quarter century, no leak of this magnitude or detail has ever been reported from Google’s search division.”

“I feel a deep obligation to share information about how the world’s dominant search engine works, especially information Google would prefer to keep quiet.”

Fishkin and his colleague, SEO expert Mike King, warned that the documents don’t conclusively show how Search rankings work, but “[u]ltimately, thanks to this leak, we now have a clearer picture of what is being considered that can inform what we focus on vs. ignore in SEO moving forward,” King said.

“Google’s public statements probably aren’t intentional efforts to lie, but rather to deceive potential spammers (and many legitimate SEOs as well) to throw us off the scent of how to impact search results,” he continued.