Key Insights From Google Documentation Leak: Implications For Link Building

The SEO landscape has been profoundly shaken by Google’s core updates, further intensified by the recent leak of documentation for Google Search’s Content Warehouse API.

Consisting of 2,500 pages and detailing over 14,000 attributes, the leak provides us with underlying mechanisms of Google rankings that confirm some of our biases and personal best SEO practices. 

Many articles covered their own takeaways from the leaked Google’s internal algorithm documentation. In this article, I’d like to focus on my actionable tips, specifically on link building – most tactics haven’t changed much. It has only reaffirmed what we currently do as a link building agency. 

Actionable Link Building Takeaways From Google Documentation Leak 

1. Build Localized Backlinks 

The leak mentions “localCountryCodes,” signifying that backlinks from sites within the same country or region carry more weight and impact than those from other regions or countries.

This isn’t groundbreaking, but it only confirms what should be prioritized when handling local clients or even national brands that serve different regions in the country. 

What we have been doing:

• For clients targeting a national audience, we invest most of our time prospecting for country-specific link opportunities (i.e. .co.uk, .au.). Then, once we’ve exhausted all link opportunities within that country’s industry, we could extend it to generic non-country-targeted domains (i.e. com). 
• We assess the impact of a few local links to a targeted page and see its immediate effect on rankings. Instead of bombarding dozens of links, we test out a few ones to know how easy it is to rank for the target keyword (with just a few links).
• Create more localized content as much as we build local links. Aside from link acquisition, it’s critically important to have a solid content strategy for a local audience. 

2. Add More Fresh New Links 

The leaked document explicitly states that “TYPE_FRESHDOCS” is similar in its type as TYPE_HIGH_QUALITY. 

This implies the significance of earning and building high-quality backlinks from new pages. 

What we have been doing:

• Look over the site’s current backlink profile and spot opportunities to earn or build new links from the exact referring domains. The approach could be providing new content pieces or identifying their existing networks within the space through external links they have on pages. 
• Set up alerts to monitor unlinked mentions of the brand, assets, product, or content. As such, it could sprout new links by reaching out and asking for credits in the form of links. 
• Continuously improve link building campaign to target existing relationships and new sets of publishers with strong appeal to a target audience. Balance out getting links from new publications and recurring links from existing connections. 

3. Invest in Author and Entity Authority 

As with the concept of E-E-A-T becoming part of SEO’s systems and practices, some still argue its validity regarding how Google uses it. 

Several times, it’s been discussed and proven that E-E-A-T is considered a quality signal instead of an absolute ranking factor.  

As a matter of fact, the leaked documentation indicates the value of authorship in its element, “author”. 

What we have been doing:

• Invest in hiring high-caliber niche authors rather than typical writers who can provide general advice. This not only increases the content quality, as these authoritative authors can provide more unique insights and experience on the given topic, but this also helps improve trust and authority in the eyes of its target readers and search engines. 
• Enhance our expertise and experience as personal authors of our own websites. Adding more credibility, such as accreditations, certifications, and formal education, to our author bio brings more value in bringing new helpful content that other authors haven’t covered yet on their blogs.
• Deep dive into the industry insights and trends, as this approach addresses the following levels or categories of the audience (i.e. intermediate, advanced level). Covering a wide range of topics but sitting within a similar niche builds the topical authority of the website.

4. Assess Based on Site Authority  

The leak confirms the existence of a “siteAuthority” score, a metric for Google to assess the site’s overall credibility, which profoundly affects how the webpages rank in Google’s SERPs.

This metric could be Google’s version of Domain Authority, a proprietary metric from Moz’s Site Explorer. 

What does it mean? Authority matters. 

Obviously, this isn’t the only metric to consider when qualifying potential link opportunities, but it’s a critical factor to see if a domain is worth getting a link from. Given that you’ll be investing resources for link acquisition, getting the most value out of every backlink is critical. 

What we have been doing:

• We use link intelligence tools such as Ahrefs to examine a website’s ability to drive potential link value to our destination pages, basing it on the site’s Domain Rating (Ahrefs’ DR). 
• Analyze competitors’ link profiles and see what authority sites are linked to them. This approach could give you more insights into how they attack their natural link acquisition campaign. Replicating their success, which means getting similar links from the domains that are linked to them, could also help boost your site’s authority.
• Prioritize the most essential pages to which you want to build more links. Invest in the ones with the highest yield in terms of conversions and potential business opportunities.  You want to build more authority links to pages that drive business revenue. 

5. Earn Hard-to-Replicate Links (“Concept of Seed Sites”)

Seed sites are websites manually reviewed and deemed legitimately reputable (i.e. New York Times, CNN, WHO). These sites only link to truly valuable pages, making it difficult for anyone to manipulate the rankings.

The leak confirms it with its term “NearestSeeds”, which underscores the value of acquiring links from these seed sites. 

Acquiring links from pages closer to these seed sites has extra weight in terms of trust and reputation. 

What we have been doing:

• You can use Majestic’s Trust Flow, a metric to measure a website’s quality based on how it is closely connected to the Majestic’s handpicked seed sites.
• Avoid getting links from private blog networks (PBNs) with the sole purpose of manipulating external link giving. Most of them are pure spam and are not deemed to be trusted by both users and search engines. 
• Invest in link building strategies that penetrate link opportunities from highly authoritative and trusted publications. While it would consume resources in terms of content asset creation, it would be a worthwhile investment as you would be getting links that other sites (your competitors) couldn’t easily replicate. 

6. Get Links From Pages With Relevant Traffic

Backlinks from pages that drive are more likely to impact rankings and search performance than those without. 

In the leak, there is a sourceType attribute, which records the quality of the source of a link, in correlation with the tier in which this content exists. The higher the indexing tier of a page, the higher the value of the links could bring to its destination pages. 

Google uses this information to determine the relative importance of a link from a sourced page to the page it links to. 

What we have been doing:

• Assess link opportunities if the site can bring relevant traffic to your site. Ensure that the domain has existing organic traffic that you can absorb through clicks on links.
• Strategically think of your link placements. In SharpRocket, we put links above the fold of the content, as it is more likely to get more clicks – as we know, most readers these days just skim for the content. Having links placed at the top has more chances to get clicks. While it’s not the only factor, you’ll have more advantages to drive referral traffic to your site. 
• Without constraints for a timeline of links, let’s say you’re not required to deliver a solid # of links per month and have the liberty to pursue the highest quality ones. It is best to prioritize websites with relevant traffic – your target audience. And for brands targeting a specific country, go for sites with similar audiences. 

7. Leverage Digital PR 

Today, most SEO agencies offer digital PR as a fundamental service. Utilizing digital PR to obtain high-quality, fresh links from news publications is essential for achieving optimal results.

While only some brands have the luxury of investing in digital PR, starting with low-hanging fruits is an excellent strategy. 

The leak has its encodeNewsAnchorData, which we can assume Google can tag links that come from news sources. The measurement and assessment aren’t indicated. It could be about the quality of the link from a news source or the quality (newsiness) of a backlink. 

However, we could assume that Google could be giving weight to links from news sources. 

What we have been doing:

• Invest in digital PR with a solid strategy from ideation to pitching. Seek news sources that could feature your unique stories and increase your brand’s awareness. 
• Utilize content assets and promote them on social media platforms to enhance brand authority and increase branded searches. We’ve done these multiple times for our coffee shop and seen growth in branded searches on Google, which amplifies our pages’ rankings on organic search results. 

Ethical, Audience-Focused Link Building 

No matter how many changes we’ve seen in the SEO industry and what other takeaways we could get more from other industry SEO experts, it’s clear that ethical, audience-first link building is the key ingredient for SEO success. 

Don’t settle for any mediocre techniques that could lead to unsustainable results. 

If you need sustainable, ethical link buliding services, SharpRocket stands out from the competition by offering comprehensive and adaptable solutions to help SEO agencies and enterprise brands meet their SEO goals. Our team of skilled link builders and content writers can elevate your content strategy, freeing you to focus on business growth strategies.