In the world of SEO, staying updated with Google’s practices is crucial for success. Recently, a leak of Google’s Content API Warehouse documentation has provided valuable insights for link builders and digital PR professionals. This article delves into the 12 significant takeaways from the leak, offering a comprehensive understanding of how Google may value and evaluate links.

1. Google Ignoring Links from Irrelevant Sources

Relevancy has always been a critical factor in link building, and the leaked documents suggest that Google may ignore links that don’t come from relevant sources. The anchorMismatchDemotion attribute indicates that links might be demoted if there is a mismatch between the source and target pages. Furthermore, topicEmbeddingsVersionedData and webrefEntities highlight the use of topic embeddings and entity recognition to measure relevancy.

2. Locally Relevant Links Are More Valuable

The AnchorsAnchorSource module sheds light on the importance of local relevance. The localCountryCodes attribute suggests that links from the same country as the target page may be more valuable. This finding emphasizes the need to prioritize earning locally relevant links to enhance SEO success.

3. Google’s Sitewide Authority Score

Contrary to Google’s public statements, the documentation reveals the existence of a SiteAuthority score. While this score may not directly correlate with Moz’s Domain Authority (DA) or Ahrefs’ Domain Rating (DR), it indicates that Google evaluates the authority of an entire site. This sitewide metric likely influences the value of links from trusted sites.

4. Value of Links from Newer Pages

The SourceType attribute suggests that links from newer pages are often more valuable than those from older ones. This reinforces the importance of consistently earning fresh links, as newer content appears to carry more weight in Google’s ranking algorithms.

5. Trust in a Site’s Homepage Affects Link Value

Google seems to assess the trustworthiness of a site’s homepage through the homePageInfo attribute. This attribute may indicate whether a site’s homepage is fully trusted, partially trusted, or not trusted. Internal pages likely inherit the trustworthiness of the homepage, affecting the overall value of links from the site.

6. High-Quality News Site Links

The EncodedNewsAnchorData attribute indicates that Google tags links from high-quality news sites. This suggests that links from reputable news sources, such as The New York Times or BBC, are more valuable due to their high authority and trustworthiness.

7. Seed Sites and Their Importance

Google appears to prioritize links from seed sites through the PageRank-NearestSeeds attribute. Seed sites are authoritative and well-connected hubs on the web. Links from or connected to these seed sites are likely among the most valuable, reinforcing the importance of securing links from highly reputable sources.

8. Trusted Sources and Spam Calculation

The IndexingDocjoinerAnchorSpamInfo module indicates that Google uses trusted sources to calculate the probability of link spam. This suggests that links from trusted sources can help mitigate the impact of spammy links, emphasizing the importance of building links from credible websites.

9. Identifying and Ignoring Negative SEO Attacks

Google likely identifies negative SEO attacks by measuring link velocity, as indicated by attributes related to spam detection in the documentation. By analyzing the rate and pattern of spammy link acquisition, Google can ignore links resulting from negative SEO attacks, protecting the target site from penalties.

10. Link-Based Penalties and Adjustments

The Demoted Anchors attribute suggests that Google can apply link-based penalties on a granular level. This means that certain links can be ignored or penalized without affecting all links pointing to a page. This granular approach allows Google to accurately assess and demote spammy links while preserving the value of high-quality ones.

11. Existence of Toxic Links

Despite Google’s public denial, the documentation references BadBackLinks, indicating the presence of toxic links. This boolean measure likely works in conjunction with spam demotions, suggesting that Google does penalize pages for having bad backlinks.

12. Contextual Content Surrounding Links

The documentation highlights the importance of the content surrounding a link through attributes like context2, fullLeftContext, and fullRightContext. This suggests that the surrounding content, along with the anchor text, provides additional context to the link, influencing its relevancy and value.

Key Learnings and Takeaways

The leak of Google’s documentation offers several critical insights for link builders and digital PRs. Here are the key takeaways:

  • Relevancy Matters: Prioritize earning links from relevant sources to avoid being ignored by Google.
  • Local Relevance: Focus on acquiring locally relevant links to enhance SEO success.
  • Authority Scores: Recognize the existence of sitewide authority scores and target trusted sites for valuable links.
  • Consistent Link Building: Maintain a consistent link-building strategy to leverage the value of fresh content.
  • Trustworthy Homepages: Understand the impact of a site’s homepage trustworthiness on the value of its links.
  • High-Quality News Sites: Aim to secure links from reputable news sites for higher link value.
  • Seed Sites: Focus on earning links from or connected to authoritative seed sites.
  • Trusted Sources: Build links from trusted sources to mitigate the impact of spammy links.
  • Negative SEO Protection: Be aware of Google’s mechanisms for identifying and ignoring negative SEO attacks.
  • Granular Penalties: Understand that link-based penalties can be applied on a granular level, preserving the value of high-quality links.
  • Toxic Links: Acknowledge the existence of toxic links and strive to avoid them.
  • Contextual Content: Ensure the surrounding content of links is relevant and informative.

Conclusion

The insights from Google’s leaked documentation provide valuable information for link builders and digital PRs. Relevancy, local relevance, consistent link building, and targeting trusted sources are essential strategies to enhance SEO success. By understanding and applying these findings, professionals can adapt their tactics to align with Google’s potential ranking factors, ensuring a more effective and impactful approach to link building.