Google's John Mueller said it is not true that Google's own engineers do not "know the exact composition of their highly complex algorithm." Many folks in our industry, including myself, doubt that one person at Google knows all the details of the algorithm. Some believe the algorithm has run away without most engineers knowing exactly how it works.
John Mueller responded to such accusations saying it is not true on Twitter. Here is a screen shot:
Danny Sullivan was quoted saying this:
Google’s own engineers tell me and others they don’t even really understand how it works. Ultimately, the best way to “rank” for RankBrain remains that same boring thing no one wants to hear despite it being true. Have really good, descriptive content.Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land
Truth is, Google has implied this to me as well. So I am not sure how far off it is for Danny to say that.
Do you think Google is on top of their algorithms? Do you think Google engineers know everything that is going on?
What I believe is that not one person does but that most can debug the algorithm and get to the bottom of why a query is handled this way versus the expected way. Hope that makes sense.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
