Meredith's husband 0:34

Some pretty big news , oh , really , in the world of SEO and Google , specifically Google . Oh , if I said to you Google algorithm , what does that mean ? What does that phrase mean to you ? The Google algorithm ?

Meredith 0:47

That means how you appear in search engines .

Meredith's husband 0:54

It's how . It's Google's internal program that determines all the rankings .

Meredith 1:00

Yeah .

Meredith's husband 1:00

The Google algorithm .

Meredith 1:01

Yeah .

Meredith's husband 1:02

And it's been top secret since forever . Shh don't say anything For many , many years . It was like the Holy Grail . It was like this big , huge . That's all SEO was about was like trying to figure out what is in the Google algorithm . Yeah , out what is in the Google algorithm ? Yeah , and I think it's . I think the name algorithm makes it seem overly simplistic , makes it seem like it's short , but it's got to be the most , one of the most massive programs .

Meredith 1:30

I think algorithm is , I mean , but also doesn't it ? Isn't it always changing and evolving ?

Meredith's husband 1:37

Parts of it are . I mean , yes , well , it's so massive that parts of it are . I mean yes , well , it's so massive that parts of it have to be . I mean they're you know ?

Meredith 1:44

so , anyway , the reason I'm asking yeah is because there's been a leak . What ?

Meredith's husband 1:50

there's been a leak . Somebody leaked part not the whole thing , but part of the google algorithm somebody was angry , somebody . I don't know . I don't know what it was , I don't know why .

Meredith 2:03

There's got to be a reason , a personal reason .

Meredith's husband 2:06

Well , they know who the leaker is .

Meredith 2:08

Oh .

Meredith's husband 2:08

I mean , the guy came out and if it's him , if this is true , who knows ? Maybe this guy was just making this up , but a guy claims to have leaked the , the information , the , the information that was leaked has been verified , so it does appear to be real , it appears to be real and it appears to be current , so it's not like leaking data from 20 years ago .

Meredith 2:28

Very exciting , we're on the edge you know ?

Meredith's husband 2:32

yes , that's the kind of kind of anyway . This guy claims to have leaked the data and , under the guise of like , shedding light on all the Google lies , all the lies that Google has been telling . They've been lying about everything , have they ? And the headlines ? So the leak was , I think , about three or four weeks ago . I see it in the headlines all the time . I realize my own algorithm feeds me stories about SEO , probably doesn't feed everybody stories about SEO , so you might not be seeing these headlines .

Meredith's husband 3:04

If you do see any headlines , they will likely be things . They will have something to do with the Google lies . Wow , it's very sensational .

Meredith 3:13

I would think so .

Meredith's husband 3:14

And this guy's video was like he took . He , I don't know . I watched this video . It seemed to me this was a load of shit , but he seemed to take like a very solemn stance , like he was a whistleblower , and he said phrases like it's time for this to come to light and all these things . Meanwhile , he's also he's a former Google employee . Duh of course , and he has you know , is starting his own SEO agency .

Meredith's husband 3:42

No , so I wonder . I mean , this is really you know , talk about good publicity when you're starting an SEO agency .

Meredith 3:50

Yeah , this is the way to do it , holy cow , like you know .

Meredith's husband 3:53

if that's his game plan , I mean props to him for doing that .

Meredith 3:56

Well done . Sure enough , everybody's got to have a gimmick .

Meredith's husband 4:00

So the leak happened at three or four weeks ago . Headlights have been coming out Now the size of the leak . I don't know what percentage of the algorithm has leaked , but people are still going through it . Like I've seen it . I've seen some of the raw data . I can't understand any of it , like it's a really engineering code . I've heard people who have even more technical knowledge than I do say it's like data for map nerds , like Google Maps . It's like stuff like how Google Maps , how Google Street View , interprets repeating symbols such as a crosswalk .

Meredith's husband 4:36

A crosswalk is like a repeating symbol , so it's . How does Google identify and determine things like that , like not earth-shattering stuff ?

Meredith 4:45

Yeah .

Meredith's husband 4:46

And not interesting really .

Meredith 4:48

Oh well , maybe it could be interesting for Sort of .

Meredith's husband 4:51

Who knows ? Anyway , in the leak there are almost 15,000 ranking features described . I don't know exactly what that means .

Meredith 5:03

But is he going to share it ? Oh , he has shared it .

Meredith's husband 5:07

I'll get to that in a second , he has shared it .

Meredith 5:09

It's all out there .

Meredith's husband 5:11

But we need to wait for people to translate it .

Meredith 5:16

Can Google AI translate it ?

Meredith's husband 5:19

There's almost 15,000 ranking features whatever that means I'm not exactly sure and twenty five or twenty six hundred modules . So twenty six hundred modules with a bunch of features within each one . That's all kind of cryptic to me . I don't know what that means , but it seems to suggest it's pretty big . There's a lot of information there . But it seems to suggest it's pretty big , there's a lot of information there . So a guy named Rand Fishkin is probably the most well-known person in the SEO industry . He's pretty cool . Actually , I have to say everything I know about him and what I've seen him and he's really cool . One of his business partners is going . They're going through the data now and they have a webinar scheduled for the 27th of this month .

Meredith's husband 6:03

June 27th , to kind of explain .

Meredith 6:06

Oh , have you reserved your seat ?

Meredith's husband 6:09

I have . Good job have you ? Not yet Now some people have some people have already sort of dug in and tried to translate some of this , so I'll go over a few of the things and I'm going to try to talk about some of these lies the big lies that people are saying are now uncovered .

Meredith 6:32

Google's quote lies yeah , google's lies .

Meredith's husband 6:35

So the tone of these articles and the headlines is that oh , google is super evil . They've been lying to us and that is very much not the case .

Meredith 6:44

Yeah , that's really not the case , so .

Meredith's husband 6:46

I'm going to go through a few of these . I think we're going to do another episode after June 27th after somebody explains to me and kind of summarize what you might be able to take away and do as a result , if any helpful information has been uncovered . So one of these Google lies is that Google has always said not always , but Google has said spokespeople for Google have said they don't have an authority score .

Meredith 7:15

So websites like .

Meredith's husband 7:16

SEMrush and Moz and all these other sites they often assign . They have some way to rank websites and say this website has an authority score of 80 .

Meredith 7:27

Sorry , buster , it's okay .

Meredith's husband 7:29

So I guess it's been uncovered in this thing that there is some sort of authority score . Well , yeah , duh , of course there is , and I don't know the details , but that's not really surprising . But the fact that they're making a big deal like , oh , google said they don't have an authority score , and they do have an authority score , they're evil , I don't know .

Meredith 7:48

Comparatively , I could name Okay , maybe social media , okay , okay , that's yeah , maybe social media , okay . So there's another one , there's a few more .

Meredith's husband 7:55

I bet They've also . Google has also said they don't use clicks for rankings , right , so they don't use the number of clicks that a website gets to help determine what to do , how high it should be in the rankings .

Meredith's husband 8:07

Okay , Evidently they do use clicks in some aspect and they have said they don't use clicks , but they've at the same time in the past said they kind of do . And I think what's dangerous here ? And people have always asked me , or they seem to think that if you click on a website , if you sit at home and click on your own website over and over and over , you're going to push your site up in the rankings . That is way not true . That is way not true . That is way not true .

Meredith 8:34

Pretty clearly .

Meredith's husband 8:34

And people have said , oh , they're going to pay people in China to sit there and click on their website . Way , not true . That is not what happens . Now . What might happen is if , hey , Google displays a website on , say , the first page of search results , say 100,000 times , and nobody ever clicks on it , yeah , I would say yeah , like Google should probably take that into consideration .

Meredith 8:58

I'm sure they do .

Meredith's husband 8:59

I'm sure they do . So this is not a simple situation , but people are pointing to this one a lot . I don't think it's a very big deal .

Meredith 9:09

No .

Meredith's husband 9:10

I still don't think it's the case where , if a website gets a lot of clicks , it's going to go right to the top of Google . That would be a self-reinforcing situation . You'd go to the top , you'd get lots of clinks , clinks get lots of clicks because you're at the top .

Meredith's husband 9:23

You'd stay at the top because you get lots of clicks . You get more clicks . It just doesn't make sense . Yeah , so something else is that Google has said for a long time now there is no sandbox . A sandbox would be like a kind of penalty area , so if you do something against Google guidelines , they sort of kick you out , they put you in this sandbox .

Meredith 9:44

Okay .

Meredith's husband 9:45

And they said there is no sandbox . Well , of course there's a sandbox . It is not . It is probably not a single sandbox for all bad websites , so they go to this sandbox but of course there is , of course there is some little shovels and pails yeah , because then people would ask well , how do you get out of the sandbox ?

Meredith 10:02

it would be this big thing .

Meredith's husband 10:04

Of course , there is some sort of to the sidelines type of measure , that where you're not going to appear in search if you break google's guidelines , like that's a no-brainer , but people are making a big deal about that one too . Okay , they've also said google has said they don't use information from chrome , the browser , in any way to help determine rankings and evidently and this , to me , is the most interesting one , this to me is the most interesting one , this to me , would be the most egregious lie .

Meredith 10:35

Let's say Because Google owns Chrome .

Meredith's husband 10:37

Yes , so they should like . That would start to be or I would think it would start to look like a privacy concern if they were using your . They're not going to use your personal data with your name on it , but they might use data in aggregate to see what people are doing and where they are going . I can see where people would be concerned about that . Or perhaps you want to use a browser where what you do is not being shared in any way whatsoever .

Meredith 11:04

Isn't that Brave .

Meredith's husband 11:06

There are privacy browsers . Yeah , brave is one , duckduckgo is one . What was the other one ? We used to use , epicenter , I don't remember , I forget . There are more and more . If you're using Google's browser , I personally I would think it's probably safe to assume that somehow your anonymized data is going to be fed to Google . I would expect that .

Meredith 11:30

I don't think this is really On Google's search , of course , yes , yeah yeah , yeah , I don't think it's that surprising .

Meredith's husband 11:37

I do see some concern there . If you're privacy-minded , you don't want that happening . Well then you probably should choose another browser . What ?

Meredith 11:43

if you're privacy minded , you don't want that happening . Well then , you have probably should choose another browser . What if you go on private ?

Meredith's husband 11:47

incognito , yeah , incognito , incognito , doesn't it ?

Meredith 11:50

look like I don't know what that is . Ha , ha , ha , ha , ha ha incognito , like doesn't keep search history .

Meredith's husband 11:59

it's not what people think it is , it it's not anonymous , it just doesn't keep history , basically .

Meredith 12:06

But were something to go wrong , the authorities would be able to go back and track . When you said , like how to make your own beep .

Meredith's husband 12:14

I don't know about that . An incognito ? Probably not . If you're not using incognito , then probably hopefully , if you're making your own , let's not go there . I was going to say if you're going , to make your own .

Meredith 12:25

I hope you're using All right .

Meredith's husband 12:27

So something else is so . Google has downplayed the importance of links . We've talked about links a lot right .

Meredith 12:36

That's how Google was .

Meredith's husband 12:38

That's how the entire thing started was . It was built on links . Yeah , that's what set Google apart from every other search engine .

Meredith 12:46

Just ask , jeeves .

Meredith's husband 12:48

Yeah , really A little more recently they have kind of downplayed the importance of links because people try to spam that . There are all sorts of schemes that people use to try to get links and I think Google's saying , or trying to downplay the importance of links has been to combat people trying to do that , stuffing everything with links , yeah . So evidently in this leaked documentation it's obvious that links are still pretty important .

Meredith 13:15

Well , yeah , we knew that too . Of course they are . Yes , we knew that too . A leaked link .

Meredith's husband 13:21

So these are some of the things hitting headlines . More will be coming and after the 27th I will be very excited to tell you so much . But yeah , so far nothing . Earth shattering .

Meredith 13:33

No , except this guy is going to get a momentary . There are 15 minutes of notoriety .

Meredith's husband 13:39

He's going to get a lot of attention . He's also probably going to get sued .

Meredith 13:43

I was just going to say I wonder .

Meredith's husband 13:46

I would think you know , I don't know , I saw this . I don't know how I came across this video . It was linked in one of these articles . I wouldn't be surprised if the video were a fake , if this guy did not leak it , if he was claiming , if you really did this , why would you go make it public and point yourself out ? Because I would think that you can have 100,000 lawyers on your case the next minute .

Meredith's husband 14:09

Yeah , yeah , my brain just doesn't even visit that planet . But if I went out and made a video and put it on social media and said I leaked all the information and that video went viral and I did not leak all that information , I still got all that attention .

Meredith 14:24

Yeah , but you're also known as a liar .

Meredith's husband 14:28

Still get a lot of attention .

Meredith 14:31

Yeah , I guess . So yes , yes , correct .

Meredith's husband 14:34

Okay . So my point is there's a decent chance you're going to be seeing a lot of headlines about Google lies about this , and then Google's awful . Chance you're going to be seeing a lot of headlines about Google lies about this , and then Google's awful . Just before you rush to any judgment , let's give it a little time . Yes , even the most technically proficient people I know in the SEO industry are taking like this guy . I'm looking at an article here that actually works with Rand Fishkin and it says he has only had .

Meredith's husband 15:01

when he wrote this article , he had only had a dozen hours to really dive in in deep concentration mode on this . Okay , which amounts to basically nothing is what he's saying . So he's going to probably spend 100 more hours trying to figure this stuff out . So we need to wait a little while .

Meredith 15:18

Yeah .

Meredith's husband 15:19

It's not like the secret is going to be like one sentence and I can just spread it around Very interesting All right , that's all I got .

Meredith 15:27

Okay .

Meredith's husband 15:29

Oh , you know what else . I want to make a small announcement . I don't want to put this announcement into the closing of the podcast or the intro of the podcast , because I don't know how it's going to work . So if you scroll down and look at the show notes , there is a link in the show notes . Now you can send a text message to us . Wow , so I host this and it's not my phone . It won't link go to my phone number .

Meredith 15:52

Stay away , people . He's mine , hence the podcast name .

Meredith's husband 15:58

I use Buzzsprout to host the podcast . And this is a feature that Buzzsprout has just announced . You can have a link here and if you send a text message it will go to Buzzsprout and then I'll just get it as an email . So I'm not getting your phone number . I don't even know if I can reply yet . I literally just put this thing on here and I'm just curious how it goes . So if you want to try it out , please , how it ?

Meredith's husband 16:22

goes . So if you want to try it out , if you want to request a topic , if you want to make a complaint . You can write it down on a $50 bill and mail it to us . Thank you , Brandon .