universo-virtual.com

buytrendz.net

thisforall.net

benchpressgains.com

qthzb.com

mindhunter9.com

dwjqp1.com

secure-signup.net

ahaayy.com

soxtry.com

tressesindia.com

puresybian.com

krpano-chs.com

cre8workshop.com

hdkino.org

peixun021.com

qz786.com

utahperformingartscenter.org

maw-pr.com

zaaksen.com

ypxsptbfd7.com

worldqrmconference.com

shangyuwh.com

eejssdfsdfdfjsd.com

playminecraftfreeonline.com

trekvietnamtour.com

your-business-articles.com

essaywritingservice10.com

hindusamaaj.com

joggingvideo.com

wandercoups.com

onlinenewsofindia.com

worldgraphic-team.com

bnsrz.com

wormblaster.net

tongchengchuyange0004.com

internetknowing.com

breachurch.com

peachesnginburlesque.com

dataarchitectoo.com

clientfunnelformula.com

30pps.com

cherylroll.com

ks2252.com

webmanicura.com

osostore.com

softsmob.com

sofietsshotel.com

facetorch.com

nylawyerreview.com

apapromotions.com

shareparelli.com

goeaglepointe.com

thegreenmanpubphuket.com

karotorossian.com

publicsensor.com

taiwandefence.com

epcsur.com

odskc.com

inzziln.info

leaiiln.info

cq-oa.com

dqtianshun.com

southstills.com

tvtv98.com

thewellington-hotel.com

bccaipiao.com

colectoresindustrialesgs.com

shenanddcg.com

capriartfilmfestival.com

replicabreitlingsale.com

thaiamarinnewtoncorner.com

gkmcww.com

mbnkbj.com

andrewbrennandesign.com

cod54.com

luobinzhang.com

bartoysdirect.com

taquerialoscompadresdc.com

aaoodln.info

amcckln.info

drvrnln.info

dwabmln.info

fcsjoln.info

hlonxln.info

kcmeiln.info

kplrrln.info

fatcatoons.com

91guoys.com

signupforfreehosting.com

faithfirst.net

zjyc28.com

tongchengjinyeyouyue0004.com

nhuan6.com

oldgardensflowers.com

lightupthefloor.com

bahamamamas-stjohns.com

ly2818.com

905onthebay.com

fonemenu.com

notanothermovie.com

ukrainehighclassescort.com

meincmagazine.com

av-5858.com

yallerdawg.com

donkeythemovie.com

corporatehospitalitygroup.com

boboyy88.com

miteinander-lernen.com

dannayconsulting.com

officialtomsshoesoutletstore.com

forsale-amoxil-amoxicillin.net

generictadalafil-canada.net

guitarlessonseastlondon.com

lesliesrestaurants.com

mattyno9.com

nri-homeloans.com

rtgvisas-qatar.com

salbutamolventolinonline.net

sportsinjuries.info

topsedu.xyz

xmxm7.com

x332.xyz

sportstrainingblog.com

autopartspares.com

readguy.net

soniasegreto.com

bobbygdavis.com

wedsna.com

rgkntk.com

bkkmarketplace.com

zxqcwx.com

breakupprogram.com

boxcardc.com

unblockyoutubeindonesia.com

fabulousbookmark.com

beat-the.com

guatemala-sailfishing-vacations-charters.com

magie-marketing.com

kingstonliteracy.com

guitaraffinity.com

eurelookinggoodapparel.com

howtolosecheekfat.net

marioncma.org

oliviadavismusic.com

shantelcampbellrealestate.com

shopleborn13.com

topindiafree.com

v-visitors.net

qazwsxedcokmijn.com

parabis.net

terriesandelin.com

luxuryhomme.com

studyexpanse.com

ronoom.com

djjky.com

053hh.com

originbluei.com

baucishotel.com

33kkn.com

intrinsiqresearch.com

mariaescort-kiev.com

mymaguk.com

sponsored4u.com

crimsonclass.com

bataillenavale.com

searchtile.com

ze-stribrnych-struh.com

zenithalhype.com

modalpkv.com

bouisset-lafforgue.com

useupload.com

37r.net

autoankauf-muenster.com

bantinbongda.net

bilgius.com

brabustermagazine.com

indigrow.org

miicrosofts.net

mysmiletravel.com

selinasims.com

spellcubesapp.com

usa-faction.com

snn01.com

hope-kelley.com

bancodeprofissionais.com

zjccp99.com

liturgycreator.com

weedsmj.com

majorelenco.com

colcollect.com

androidnews-jp.com

hypoallergenicdogsnames.com

dailyupdatez.com

foodphotographyreviews.com

cricutcom-setup.com

chprowebdesign.com

katyrealty-kanepa.com

tasramar.com

bilgipinari.org

four-am.com

indiarepublicday.com

inquick-enbooks.com

iracmpi.com

kakaschoenen.com

lsm99flash.com

nana1255.com

ngen-niagara.com

technwzs.com

virtualonlinecasino1345.com

wallpapertop.net

nova-click.com

abeautifulcrazylife.com

diggmobile.com

denochemexicana.com

eventhalfkg.com

medcon-taiwan.com

life-himawari.com

myriamshomes.com

nightmarevue.com

allstarsru.com

bestofthebuckeyestate.com

bestofthefirststate.com

bestwireless7.com

declarationintermittent.com

findhereall.com

jingyou888.com

lsm99deal.com

lsm99galaxy.com

moozatech.com

nuagh.com

patliyo.com

philomenamagikz.net

rckouba.net

saturnunipessoallda.com

tallahasseefrolics.com

thematurehardcore.net

totalenvironment-inthatquietearth.com

velislavakaymakanova.com

vermontenergetic.com

sizam-design.com

kakakpintar.com

begorgeouslady.com

1800birks4u.com

2wheelstogo.com

6strip4you.com

bigdata-world.net

emailandco.net

gacapal.com

jharpost.com

krishnaastro.com

lsm99credit.com

mascalzonicampani.com

sitemapxml.org

thecityslums.net

topagh.com

flairnetwebdesign.com

bangkaeair.com

beneventocoupon.com

noternet.org

oqtive.com

smilebrightrx.com

decollage-etiquette.com

1millionbestdownloads.com

7658.info

bidbass.com

devlopworldtech.com

digitalmarketingrajkot.com

fluginfo.net

naqlafshk.com

passion-decouverte.com

playsirius.com

spacceleratorintl.com

stikyballs.com

top10way.com

yokidsyogurt.com

zszyhl.com

16firthcrescent.com

abogadolaboralistamd.com

apk2wap.com

aromacremeria.com

banparacard.com

bosmanraws.com

businessproviderblog.com

caltonosa.com

calvaryrevivalchurch.org

chastenedsoulwithabrokenheart.com

cheminotsgardcevennes.com

cooksspot.com

cqxzpt.com

deesywig.com

deltacartoonmaps.com

despixelsetdeshommes.com

duocoracaobrasileiro.com

fareshopbd.com

goodpainspills.com

kobisitecdn.com

makaigoods.com

mgs1454.com

piccadillyresidences.com

radiolaondafresca.com

rubendorf.com

searchengineimprov.com

sellmyhrvahome.com

shugahouseessentials.com

sonihullquad.com

subtractkilos.com

valeriekelmansky.com

vipasdigitalmarketing.com

voolivrerj.com

zeelonggroup.com

1015southrockhill.com

10x10b.com

111-online-casinos.com

191cb.com

3665arpentunitd.com

aitesonics.com

bag-shokunin.com

brightotech.com

communication-digitale-services.com

covoakland.org

dariaprimapack.com

freefortniteaccountss.com

gatebizglobal.com

global1entertainmentnews.com

greatytene.com

hiroshiwakita.com

iktodaypk.com

jahatsakong.com

meadowbrookgolfgroup.com

newsbharati.net

platinumstudiosdesign.com

slotxogamesplay.com

strikestaruk.com

trucosdefortnite.com

ufabetrune.com

weddedtowhitmore.com

12940brycecanyonunitb.com

1311dietrichoaks.com

2monarchtraceunit303.com

601legendhill.com

850elaine.com

adieusolasomade.com

andora-ke.com

bestslotxogames.com

cannagomcallen.com

endlesslyhot.com

iestpjva.com

ouqprint.com

pwmaplefest.com

qtylmr.com

rb88betting.com

buscadogues.com

1007macfm.com

born-wild.com

growthinvests.com

promocode-casino.com

proyectogalgoargentina.com

wbthompson-art.com

whitemountainwheels.com

7thavehvl.com

developmethis.com

funkydogbowties.com

travelodgegrandjunction.com

gao-town.com

globalmarketsuite.com

blogshippo.com

hdbka.com

proboards67.com

outletonline-michaelkors.com

kalkis-research.com

thuthuatit.net

buckcash.com

hollistercanada.com

docterror.com

asadart.com

vmayke.org

erwincomputers.com

dirimart.org

okkii.com

loteriasdecehegin.com

mountanalog.com

healingtaobritain.com

ttxmonitor.com

bamthemes.com

nwordpress.com

11bolabonanza.com

avgo.top

Google's documentation leak: 12 big takeaways for link builders and digital PRs - SEO
Sunday, July 6, 2025
spot_img

Top 5 This Week

Related Posts

Google's documentation leak: 12 big takeaways for link builders and digital PRs

Lots of insights and opinions have already been shared about last week’s leak of Google’s Content API Warehouse documentation, including the fantastic write-ups from:

But what can link builders and digital PRs learn from the documents?

Since news of the leak broke, Liv Day, Digitaloft’s SEO Lead, and I have spent a lot of time investigating what the documentation tells us about links. 

We went into our analysis of the documents trying to gain insights around a few key questions:

  • Do links still matter?
  • Are some links more likely to contribute to SEO success than others?
  • How does Google define link spam?

To be clear, the leaked documentation doesn’t contain confirmed ranking factors. It contains information on more than 2,500 modules and over 14,000 attributes.

We don’t know how these are weighted, which are used in production and which could exist for experimental purposes.

But that doesn’t mean the insights we gain from these aren’t useful. So long as we consider any findings to be things that Google could be rewarding or demoting rather than things they are, we can use them to form the basis of our own tests and come to our own conclusions about what is or isn’t a ranking factor. 

Below are the things we found in the documents that link builders and digital PRs should pay close attention to. They’re based on my own interpretation of the documentation, alongside my 15 years of experience as an SEO. 

1. Google is probably ignoring links that don’t come from a relevant source

Relevancy has been the hottest topic in digital PR for a long time, and something that’s never been easy to measure. After all, what does relevancy really mean? 

Does Google ignore links that don’t come from within relevant content?

The leaked documents definitely suggest that this is the case.

We see a clear anchorMismatchDemotion referenced in the CompressedQualitySignals module:

AnchorMismatchDemotionAnchorMismatchDemotion

While we have little extra context, what we can infer from this is that there is the ability to demote (ignore) links when there is a mismatch. We can assume this to mean a mismatch between the source and target pages, or the source page and target domain.

What could the mismatch be, other than relevancy?

Especially when we consider that, in the same module, we also see an attribute of topicEmbeddingsVersionedData.

TopicEmbeddingsVersionedDataTopicEmbeddingsVersionedData

Topic embeddings are commonly used in natural language processing (NLP) as a way of understanding the semantic meaning of topics within a document. This, in the context of the documentation, means webpages. 

We also see a webrefEntities attribute referenced in the PerDocData module.

WebrefEntitiesWebrefEntities

What’s this? It’s the entities associated with a document. 

We can’t be sure exactly how Google is measuring relevancy, but we can be pretty certain that the anchorMismatchDemotion involves ignoring links that don’t come from relevant sources.

The takeaway?

Relevancy should be the biggest focus when earning links, prioritized over pretty much any other metric or measure.

2. Locally relevant links (from the same country) are probably more valuable than ones from other countries

The AnchorsAnchorSource module, which gives us an insight into what Google stores about the source page of links, suggests that local relevance could contribute to the link’s value.

Within this document is an attribute called localCountryCodes, which stores the countries to which the page is local and/or the most relevant.

LocalCountryCodesLocalCountryCodes

It’s long been debated in digital PR whether links coming from sites in other countries and languages are valuable. This gives us some indication as to the answer.

First and foremost, you should prioritize earning links from sites that are locally relevant. And if we think about why Google might weigh these links stronger, it makes total sense. 

Locally relevant links (don’t confuse this with local publications that often secure links and coverage from digital PR; here we’re talking about country-level) are more likely to increase brand awareness, result in sales and be more accurate endorsements. 

However, I don’t believe links from other locales are harmful. More than those where the country-level relevancy matches are weighted more strongly. 

3. Google has a sitewide authority score, despite claiming they don’t calculate an authority measure like DA or DR

Maybe the biggest surprise to most SEOs reading the documentation is that Google has a “site authority” score, despite stating time and time again that they have no measure that’s like Moz’s Domain Authority (DA) or Ahrefs’ Domain Rating (DR).

In 2020, Google’s John Mueller stated:

  • “Just to be clear, Google doesn’t use Domain Authority *at all* when it comes to Search crawling, indexing, or ranking.”

But later that year, did hint at a sitewide measure, saying about Domain Authority:

  • “I don’t know if I’d call it authority like that, but we do have some metrics that are more on a site level, some metrics that are more on a page level, and some of those site-wide level metrics might kind of map into similar things.” 

Clear as day, in the leaked documents, we see a SiteAuthority score. 

SiteAuthoritySiteAuthority

To caveat this, though, we don’t know that this is even remotely in line with DA or DR. It’s also likely why Google has typically answered questions in the way they have about this topic.

Moz’s DA and Ahrefs’ DR are link-based scores based on the quality and quantity of links. 

I’m doubtful that Google’s siteAuthority is solely link-based though, given that feels closer to PageRank. I’d be more inclined to suggest that this is some form of calculated score based on page-level quality scores, including click data and other NavBoost signals. 

The likelihood is that, despite having a similar naming convention, this doesn’t align with DA and DR, especially given that we see this referenced in the CompressedQualitySignals module, not a link-specific one.

4. Links from within newer pages are probably more valuable than those on older ones

One interesting finding is that links from newer pages look to be weighted more strongly than those coming from older content, in some cases. 

We see reference to sourceType in the context of anchors (links), where the quality of a link’s source page is recorded in correlation to the page’s index tier. 

SourceTypeSourceType

What stands out here, though, is the reference to newly published content (freshdocs) being a special case and considered to be the same as “high quality” links. 

We can clearly see that the source type of a link can be used as an importance indicator, which suggests that this relates to how links are weighted. 

What we must consider, though, is that a link can be defined as being “high quality” without being a fresh page, it’s just that these are considered the same quality. 

To me, this backs up the importance of consistently earning links and explains why SEOs continue to recommend that link building (in whatever form, that’s not what we’re discussing here) needs consistent resources allocated. It needs to be an “always-on” activity.

5. The more Google trusts a site’s homepage, the more valuable links from that site probably are

We see a reference within the documentation (again, in the AnchorsAnchorSource module) to an attribute called homePageInfo, which suggests that Google could be tagging link sources as not trusted, partially trusted or fully trusted.

HomePageInfoHomePageInfo

What this does define is that this attribute relates to instances when the source page is a website’s homepage, with a not_homepage value being assigned to other pages.

So, what could this mean?

It suggests that Google could be using some definition of “trust” of a website’s homepage within the algorithms. How? We’re not sure.

My interpretation: internal pages are likely to inherit the homepage’s trustworthiness.

To be clear: we don’t know how Google defines whether a page is fully trusted, not trusted or partially trusted. 

But it would make sense that internal pages inherit a homepage’s trustworthiness and that this is used, to some degree, in the weighting of links and that links from fully trusted sites are more valuable than those from not trusted ones.

6. Google specifically tags links that come from high-quality news sites

Interestingly, we’ve discovered that Google is storing additional information about a link when it is identified as coming from a “newsy, high quality” site. 

EncodedNewsAnchorDataEncodedNewsAnchorData

Does this mean that links from news sites (for example, The New York Times, The Guardian or the BBC) are more valuable than those from other types of site?

We don’t know for sure.

But when looking at this – alongside the fact that these types of sites are typically the most authoritative and trusted publications online, as well as those that would historically had a toolbar PageRank of 9 or 10 – it does make you think.

What’s for sure, though, is that leveraging digital PR as a tactic to earn links from news publications is undoubtedly incredibly valuable. This finding just confirms that.

7. Links coming from seed sites, or those links to from these, are probably the most valuable links you could earn

Seed sites and link distance ranking is a topic that doesn’t get talked about anywhere near as often as it should, in my opinion. 

It’s nothing new, though. In fact, it’s something that the late Bill Slawski wrote about in 2010, 2015 and 2018.

The leaked Google documentation suggests that PageRank in its original form has long been deprecated and replaced by PageRank-NearestSeeds, referenced by the fact it defines this as the production PageRank value to be used. This is perhaps one of the things that the documentation is the clearest on.

PagerankNSPagerankNS

If you’re unfamiliar with seed sites, the good news is that it isn’t a massively complex concept to understand.

Slawski’s articles on this topic are probably the best reference point for this:

8. Google is probably using ‘trusted sources’ to calculate whether a link is spammy

When looking at the IndexingDocjoinerAnchorSpamInfo module, one that we can assume relates to how spammy links are processed, we see references to “trusted sources.”

IndexingDocjoinerAnchorSpamInfoIndexingDocjoinerAnchorSpamInfo

It looks like Google can calculate the probability of link spam based on the number of trusted sources linking to a page.

We don’t know what constitutes a “trusted source,” but when looked at holistically alongside our other findings, we can assume that this could be based on the “homepage” trust.

Can links from trusted sources effectively dilute spammy links?

It’s definitely possible.

9. Google is probably identifying negative SEO attacks and ignoring these links by measuring link velocity

The SEO community has been divided over whether negative SEO attacks are a problem for some time. Google is adamant they’re able to identify such attacks, while plenty of SEOs have claimed their site was negatively impacted by this issue.

The documentation gives us some insight into how Google attempts to identify such attacks, including attributes that consider:

  • The timeframe over which spammy links have been picked up.
  • The average daily rate of spam discovered.
  • When a spike started.
PhraseAnchorSpamPhraseAnchorSpam

It’s possible that this also considers links intended to manipulate Google’s ranking systems, but the reference to “the anchor spam spike” suggests that this is the mechanism for identifying significant volumes, something we know is a common issue faced with negative SEO attacks.

There are likely other factors at play in determining how links picked up during a spike are ignored, but we can at least start to piece together the puzzle of how Google is trying to prevent such attacks from having a negative impact on sites. 

10. Link-based penalties or adjustments can likely apply either to some or all of the links pointing to a page 

It seems that Google has the ability to apply link spam penalties or ignore links on a link-by-link or all-links basis. 

Demoted AnchorsDemoted Anchors

This could mean that, given one or more unconfirmed signals, Google can define whether to ignore all links pointing to a page or just some of them.

Does this mean that, in cases of excessive link spam pointing to a page, Google can opt to ignore all links, including those that would generally be considered high quality?

We can’t be sure. But if this is the case, it could mean that spammy links are not the only ones ignored when they are detected.

Could this negate the impact of all links to a page? It’s definitely a possibility.

11. Toxic links are a thing, despite Google saying they aren’t

Just last month, Mueller stated (again) that toxic links are a made-up concept:

  • “The concept of toxic links is made up by SEO tools so that you pay them regularly.”

In the documentation, though, we see reference given to “BadBackLinks.”

BadBackLinksBadBackLinks

The information given here suggests that a page can be penalized for having “bad” backlinks. 

While we don’t know what form this takes or how close this is to the toxic link scores given by SEO tools, we’ve got plenty of evidence to suggest that there is at least a boolean (typically true or false values) measure of whether a page has bad links pointing to it. 

My guess is that this works in conjunction with the link spam demotions I talked about above, but we don’t know for sure.

12. The content surrounding a link gives context alongside the anchor text

SEOs have long leveraged the anchor text of links as a way to give contextual signals of the target page, and Google’s Search Central documentation on link best practices confirms that “this text tells people and Google something about the page you’re linking to.”

But last week’s leaked documents indicate that it’s not just anchor text that’s used to understand the context of a link. The content surrounding the link is likely also used.

Context2Context2
FullLeftContextFullLeftContext
FullRightContextFullRightContext

The documentation references context2, fullLeftContext, and fullRightContext, which are the terms near the link. 

This suggests that there’s more than the anchor text of a link being used to determine the relevancy of a link. On one hand, it could simply be used as a way to remove ambiguity, but on the other, it could be contributing to the weighting. 

This feeds into the general consensus that links from within relevant content are weighted far more strongly than those within content that’s not.

Key learnings & takeaways for link builders and digital PRs

Do links still matter?

I’d certainly say so.

There’s an awful lot of evidence here to suggest that links are still significant ranking signals (despite us not knowing what is and isn’t a ranking signal from this leak), but that it’s not just about links in general. 

Links that Google rewards or does not ignore are more likely to positively influence organic visibility and rankings.

Maybe the biggest takeaway from the documentation is that relevancy matters a lot. It is likely that Google ignores links that don’t come from relevant pages, making this a priority measure of success for link builders and digital PRs alike.

But beyond this, we’ve gained a deeper understanding of how Google potentially values links and the things that could be weighted more strongly than others.

Should these findings change the way you approach link building or digital PR?

That depends on the tactics you’re using.

If you’re still using outdated tactics to earn lower-quality links, then I’d say yes.

But if your link acquisition tactics are based on earning links with PR tactics from high-quality press publications, the main thing is to make sure you’re pitching relevant stories, rather than assuming that any link from a high authority publication will be rewarded.

For many of us, not much will change. But it’s a concrete confirmation that the tactics we’re relying on are the best fit, and the reason behind why we see PR-earned links having such a positive impact on organic search success.


Contributing authors are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. The opinions they express are their own.


Popular Articles