Abstract
- Verification confirmed. The leak confirmed a long-suspected SEO strategy.
- Enhanced testing methodology. New data can prompt refinements to SEO testing methodologies.
- Actionable insights emerged. Learn more about key SEO tactics for sustainable growth.
As a professional search engine optimizer (SEO) for the past decade, I’ve spent a lot of time and effort reverse engineering the vague Google algorithm.
So when news broke that this algorithm had been accidentally exposed via an internal API document on GitHub, I certainly took notice. The document, which contains over 2,500 pages and 14,000 lines of code detailing how Google's search ranking works, was publicly available from March 27th to May 7th, 2024.
During this period, the data was indexed by third-party services and was available even after Google removed it from GitHub. This means that one of the most closely controlled and highly respected algorithms in history has been leaked to the public. Will this change everything about how SEO operates? Surprisingly, not. Let's take a closer look at the Google algorithm leak and 10 search engine optimization insights.
Google algorithm leaked: Testers examine the practice
Ted Kubaitis, founder and CEO of SEO Tool Lab, claims: “The leak confirmed a lot of things SEO testers have known for years. Kudos to the SEO testing groups who used the scientific method to get at this information years before the leak. Primarily, the leak will give testing groups more ideas about what to test and how to test. For example, the leak suggests that triggering a peak of spam anchors over a period of time could result in penalties. Testers could test ways to avoid peaks of different sizes over different periods of time to find best practices.”
Google algorithm leak reveals controversial SEO theory
The problem with this Google algorithm leak is that we still don't know which factors are more important than others, although many of the theories derived from the 14,000+ lines of code have been tested in masterminds and testing groups. These lines of code contain many of the theories that SEOs have confirmed through testing and that Google has publicly condemned.
As the dust begins to settle, many website owners will be left with more questions than answers. Where do we go from here? What's actionable? Below, we'll dive into 10 actionable insights from the Google algorithm leak and steps you can take to keep your brand growing online in 2024 and beyond.
Increase your brand awareness with 10 strategic SEO steps
1. Become a bigger brand
Let's start with the basics: Google states that overall website impressions are part of the quality NSR data. Obvious ways to increase overall site impressions would be to start running alternative traffic sources to your site, such as Facebook, Reddit, Bing, Google Ads, or by building a more robust content strategy.
Pro Tip: Instead of building pay-per-click landing pages on unindexed subdomains, the best way to get the most out of this element is to incorporate it into your website if possible.
Related article: Master your B2B content strategy like a pro
2. Audit your navigation
Make your design user-centric so users can easily find what they're looking for. Include links to your most important pages in your top navigation, so that these pages have enough internal link equity and are easily discovered by search engines.
Pro Tip: Put your most important categories in your primary navigation and other target pages in your secondary navigation. This distributes link equity throughout your site and increases the authority of your deeper pages. Double-check how this looks on mobile and desktop.
Related article: Mobile UX design strategies that are different from your parents’
3. Add a Table of Contents to Your Blog Post
On-page click-through rates, time spent, and engagement signals have a big impact. Adding a table of contents improves UX elements such as ease of navigation, improved readability, engagement (time spent), and showing your page as a rich snippet result.
Pro Tip: If your TOC length is getting out of hand, make it an expandable dropdown, which also helps with engagement signals.
Related Article: UI vs UX Design: What's the Difference?
4. Add an author to every blog post
Google tries to rank real websites run by real humans. An easy way to help your website here is to associate each blog post with an actual author or person at your company. At the bottom of each post, there should be a brief author profile with links to credentials, social profiles, and the author profile section.
Your author profile should include more detailed information such as awards, signs of leadership, and the content of your posts. For more significant content, you should add a “reviewed by” section with subject matter authorities. It is important to have this visible at the bottom of your post in the author box format, as well as in the schema code of your article schema with the corresponding author and “reviewed by” information.
Pro Tip: Create an active author Google Local Guides profile. Some authors also publish e-books on Amazon.
Related article: Google SEO leak that could change your marketing strategy
5. Update your content publication dates
Google has a freshness algorithm that prioritizes newer content for certain search queries, especially those that are time-sensitive or related to current events. This means that newer content is likely to rank higher for queries where more recent information is deemed more relevant. Users prefer fresh content and tend to engage with it more actively, resulting in higher click-through rates (CTRs) and improved user engagement metrics, which are positive signals for search engines.
Pro Tip: When updating content, make your edits as high up on the page as possible, even if it's just rewriting the first paragraph.
Related Article: Customer Experience Metrics: 3 Steps to Driving Growth
6. Use digital PR
Leveraging digital press releases isn't just about brand building: both brand mentions and high-quality links to your website from trusted sources can lead to increased impressions, along with direct visibility on Google News sites.
Pro Tip: Put the most important links at the top of your press release – Google (and users) will give more importance to these.
7. Touch every link with a link
Hierarchical link building is an advanced SEO strategy designed to improve a website's authority and rankings by creating multiple layers (hierarchies) of backlinks. Hierarchical link building often results in internal pages being linked to more frequently, which allows Google's crawlers to discover and index more pages on your site, improving your site's overall visibility and also increasing the number of votes for specific pages.
Pro Tip: Use high-quality guest post links as your first layer of links to your earnings pages. From there, creatively create cost-free, time-saving links to your earnings pages. Make sure all your anchor text (hyperlinks) are relevant to the topic you want to rank for.
8. Add interactive content
There are several ways to increase engagement rates with interactive content.
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Interactive Content Quizzes, calculators, polls, surveys etc. are fun and engaging.
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Multimedia Content Videos, infographics, podcasts, etc. keep users on your page longer, are more engaging than plain text, and are easily shareable.
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User Generated Content Comments on posts, reviews of e-commerce products, etc. keep your page fresh and demonstrate both engagement and trust (but require consistent monitoring).
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Social Share Buttons Add it to your content so users can easily share it with their networks.
Pro Tip: Add a video to the top of your most important content pages to summarise the content – this will not only increase your conversion rates but also keep users on your page for much longer.
Related article: The future direction of marketing leaders in the digital age
9. Increase branded searches
Google also seems to correlate the number of branded searches with the number of links giving credit to a particular site. Therefore, increasing the number of searches for your brand name will increase your impressions and maximize your link profile. Beyond the suggestions for increasing impressions, staying consistently active on major social media platforms is a great way to increase your impressions. Share compelling content, engage with your followers, and use your branded hashtag. Also, offline events such as event hosting, sponsorships, and partnerships can help you achieve this goal.
Pro Tip: In your social profile bio, link to a Google search result for your brand name that is ranked #1 prominently across the page.
10. Create topic maps consistently
Websites that cover a particular topic thoroughly are considered authoritative – that is, they offer in-depth articles, guides, FAQs and various types of content that cover every aspect of the topic. These should have relevant author credentials, citations and references, and a proper internal linking structure that points to your revenue pages.
For years, I've seen clients who publish content regularly see improved results, regardless of frequency (even 1-2 blogs per month). SEO seems to have a frequency cap, as the AI revolution and clever coding have pushed the envelope, pushing the envelope with things like publishing as many as 1,000 new posts per day, until the May 6 tirade. The safe bet is to look at what your competitors are doing and get a little ahead of them.
Pro Tip: Bundle content on a topic and submit the URLs to Search Console in bulk, which seems to give an immediate boost to relevance.
Final thoughts
The recent leaked Google algorithm documents confirm many known SEO strategies while also highlighting new areas for improvement: business owners should focus on building brand presence, optimizing site navigation, regularly updating content, leveraging digital PR, and increasing engagement through interactive content and hierarchical link building.
Implementing these actionable insights can boost your website’s SEO, improve search rankings, and drive sustainable growth in 2024 and beyond.
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