Takeaways from the Google algorithm info

Google, Bing, DDG and more forum
1

Here’s what I gathered from the info:

Seems like Google spokespeople weren’t fully honest about some ranking factors, like claiming they don’t use a site authority score.

Links still matter for ranking, but they need to be top-tier links with different anchor texts.

Google has a classifier that identifies smaller publishers, which might mean updates target blogs specifically.

EEAT mostly just applies to author authority.

Focusing on a specific topic for your site seems to be a factor tied to a ‘siteFocusScore.’

Also, SEOs may have been off about word counts.

2

Can you explain what ‘tier 1’ links are? :slight_smile:

3

Kace said:
Can you explain what ‘tier 1’ links are? :slight_smile:

Links from high-profile sites like major forums.

4

Johnas said:

Kace said:
Can you explain what ‘tier 1’ links are? :slight_smile:

Links from high-profile sites like major forums.

Funny enough, this is true. I removed posts on a big forum during a core update, and my traffic dipped. After reposting, things recovered quickly.

5

Kace said:
Can you explain what ‘tier 1’ links are? :slight_smile:

Basically, links from sites Google considers as ‘big players.’ If Google marks small sites, it probably tags big ones too and treats them differently.

6

Kace said:
Can you explain what ‘tier 1’ links are? :slight_smile:

Links from places like Forbes, Yahoo Finance, etc.

7

Dorian said:

Kace said:
Can you explain what ‘tier 1’ links are? :slight_smile:

Links from places like Forbes, Yahoo Finance, etc.

I have links from those but still got hit by the update.

8

Dorian said:

Kace said:
Can you explain what ‘tier 1’ links are? :slight_smile:

Links from places like Forbes, Yahoo Finance, etc.

If you’re in healthcare, links from places like WebMD or university sites could help too.

9

You mentioned that EEAT isn’t really a factor except for author authority—any clues on how they verify authorship based on this info?

10

Jerome said:
You mentioned that EEAT isn’t really a factor except for author authority—any clues on how they verify authorship based on this info?

From what I saw, they check if the author exists, what content they’re tied to, where they’re from, and if they have a social presence. But there’s no clear info on how it affects ranking.

11

Jerome said:
You mentioned that EEAT isn’t really a factor except for author authority—any clues on how they verify authorship based on this info?

I tried looking into it more with a chatbot and found that the system stores basic author info. It might check for things like name, location, and social media presence.

12

Calling this an algorithm leak isn’t really accurate. It’s an API, not an actual algorithm. No specific ranking variables or thresholds are included.

13

Evan said:
Calling this an algorithm leak isn’t really accurate. It’s an API, not an actual algorithm. No specific ranking variables or thresholds are included.

Thanks for clearing that up!

14

So basically, we were all right all along!

15

OptimizedObsession said:
So basically, we were all right all along!

Many SEOs used to say that clicks weren’t tracked, but it’s always been clear that click data could be a signal. Google tracks this data easily.

16

Some key points:

  • Google does use some type of site authority score, but how it’s used isn’t clear.
  • EEAT is mostly about author authority, but it’s not clear how much it impacts things.
  • Word count was never a specific ranking factor, just something some ‘SEO experts’ emphasized.
17

@Terrance
It seems like word count isn’t a factor, but more words might help cover more relevant topics, which indirectly helps ranking.