Google Algorithm Leaks Checklist for SEO
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Rand Fishkin of Sparktoro broke the news about the Google API Leaks in May 2023. Mike King from iPullRank did what he does best—dissected everything from the leaks. How big was the leak? Around 2,600 pages of leaked internal documentation describing different components of Google's ranking systems and 14,000 attributes or features represented in the documentation. Here’s why this is important SEO has evolved dramatically over the last 27 years. Companies like Google have built entire businesses around search, and Google has become the unquestioned leader in search. All this is starting to change—thanks to GenAI. Ever since Google started building a search engine, it has shared best practices. But it has never revealed anything more—no algorithms or APIs. That changed recently with this leak. This matters to you This checklist matters to entrepreneurs, content creators, website owners, brand managers, PR professionals, marketing analysts, and SEO professionals. Understanding how the algorithm works today can help you maintain your competitive edge, optimize opportunities, mitigate risks due to these changes, and make informed decisions on your digital strategy. This checklist is based on everything I learned from listening to two hour-long webinars Rand and Mike hosted recently.
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Google Algorithm Leaks Checklist for SEO
- 1. Rand Fishkin of Sparktoro broke the news about the Google API Leaks in May 2023. Mike King from iPullRank did what he does best—dissected everything from the leaks. How big was the leak? Around 2,600 pages of leaked internal documentation describing different components of Google's ranking systems and 14,000 attributes or features represented in the documentation. Here’s why this is important SEO has evolved dramatically over the last 27 years. Companies like Google have built entire businesses around search, and Google has become the unquestioned leader in search. All this is starting to change—thanks to GenAI. Ever since Google started building a search engine, it has shared best practices. But it has never revealed anything more—no algorithms or APIs. That changed recently with this leak. This matters to you This checklist matters to entrepreneurs, content creators, website owners, brand managers, PR professionals, marketing analysts, and SEO professionals. Understanding how the algorithm works today can help you maintain your competitive edge, optimize opportunities, mitigate risks due to these changes, and make informed decisions on your digital strategy. The following checklist is based on everything I learned from listening to two hour-long webinars Rand and Mike hosted recently. Cheers Kartvee ACTION CHECKLIST Google Leaks Everything you need to know in ONE CHECKLIST
- 2. Content Strategy and Creation On-Page Optimization Focus on creating high-quality, relevant content that satisfies users. Establish expertise on specific topics by consistently publishing content from recognized authors. Name products/brands uniquely to avoid competition for generic keywords. Test niche topic opportunities with low search volume but unmet user intent. Test zero-click content formats like videos, infographics, and case studies. A/B test shorter (250-500 words) vs longer form content. Refocus content into clear topic clusters rather than individual pages. Cluster content by topics and publish under logical URLs/headings. Classify content by type (e.g., informational) to identify SERP limitations. Experiment with longer page titles to provide more context for Google to rewrite snippets. A/B test page titles of different lengths (under 60, 60-100, over 100 chars) and keyword positions (start, middle, end). A/B test meta descriptions of varying lengths (under 155, 155-300, over 300 chars). Improve on-page UX, such as page speed and engaging content, then track time on page and views. Emphasize elements like links or CTA buttons through font size tests. Optimize YouTube transcripts and provide structured data to reinforce entity understanding. Remove user-generated content sections and check the impact on ranking.
- 3. Link Building and Brand Promotion Technical SEO Drive traffic to highlighted content through shared links and social promotion to generate additional ranking signals. Build fewer (3-5) links from very high-quality, high-traffic pages. Conduct localized link building focusing on high domain/traffic pages. Promote content to sources of influence that discuss related brands/categories. Prioritize branded searches and reference queries in link building. Leverage expert guest authors on YouTube and transcripts for additional mentions. Associate authors with topics through consistent bylines and embedded text mentions. Use site: searches to measure the impact of shared links and social promotion. Analyze log files to determine crawling frequency and cadence for content updates. Test impact of consistent vs. randomized dates on crawl frequency. Send all A/B test pages to Google in a separate sitemap. Test different content update frequencies to determine Google's "significant update" threshold. Analyze exit pages and identify areas of high bounce rates or returns to Google. Analyze page vs site embeddings to ensure topic relevance. Consider separating topics into subdomains/subfolders to improve associations in search results.
- 4. Monitoring and Analysis A/B Testing Incorporate clickstream data into SEO strategies and tools to understand user journeys better. Measure domain/page performance metrics like traffic and rankings to identify high-quality links. Benchmark domain/page performance against competitors using tools like SEMrush. Analyze traffic sources with clickstream tools to identify referral opportunities. Evaluate links using metrics by considering both traffic and rankings. Analyze search trends to identify emerging topics with low competition. Analyze search trends and Google Trends data for new keyword opportunities. Benchmark CTR, time on site, and bounce rates against industry leaders. Closely monitor search intent for target keywords. Evaluate content against Google quality guidelines using a tool. Evaluate pages against Google quality guidelines using a tool. Analyze competitors' UX elements to improve user satisfaction. Analyze backlink profiles to identify and disavow toxic links. Monitor changes to Google's topic classifier with new content additions. Monitor rankings and traffic across different geo-locations/languages. Slowly make 20 significant updates before and after the domain purchase. Evaluate domain history data like creation/expiration dates. Test removing UGC from pages to measure impact on rankings. A/B test structured data implementations like FAQ markup. A/B test generic vs expert author implementations. Test the impact of standard vs expert author profiles providing context.
- 5. Engagement and Networking Miscellaneous Attend related events and network with experts for new strategies. Prioritize branded activation like Wayfair's "My Sofa" campaign for reference queries. Leverage brand consistency and signals through history to improve rankings. Associate brand with specific categories/niches through consistent mentions and page text. Use human-in-the-loop evaluations to supplement AI content analysis. Test keyword difficulty by incorporating related long-tail keywords. Evaluate the impact of internal linking structures on domain authority. Test differences between video-heavy vs text-heavy site structures.