4 eCom SEO Secrets From Google’s API Leak

Hi there! 👋

Google loves you, and your data even more — but this is a one-sided toxic relationship, where Google tracks you (and your customers) every step and lies straight to your face.

Yup, Google’s been exposed yet again.

Last week’s massive data leak of 2569 documents with 14,014 attributes from Google’s internal API revealed that they’ve been lying to us about using clicks, click-through rate, and storing user data to influence search rankings.

This leak didn’t just expose their lies, though — we also found out a LOT about how Google Search really works, and the 4 SEO secrets (that you really shouldn’t know about) you can use to grow your eCom brand & rank higher on searches 👀

Get your coffee ready, let’s get into this.

Google’s API Data Leak Explained🫗

Last week, thousands of internal documents leaked, showing Google's true colors. As it turns out, they’ve been collecting and using user data in ways they’ve consistently denied over the years.

And it goes way deeper than we thought — they extensively track user behavior, from click-through rates (CTR) to time-on-site, even down to individual clicks and interactions on a page, and all of this is used actively to rank your site lower or higher.

A few other notable things the document exposed are:

1️⃣ Google “sandboxes” new sites to limit their visibility

2️⃣ Ranking heavily depends on user behavior metrics like time spent on site & CTR

3️⃣ Human quality evaluators decide whether your content gets seen

Of course, this is far from good news — but the leaked docs also had plenty of SEO-related mechanisms that you really shouldn’t have known about..

Let’s analyze each one in-depth & how you can use them to rank a lot higher in search:

1. Google Really, Really Cares About Visitor Behavior 👁️

Despite saying many times they don’t, the leaked documents show that Google heavily factors in user engagement metrics like CTR and time-on-site. Sites that not only attract clicks but also keep visitors engaged are ranked a LOT higher than others.

And if your site has high impressions but low clicks, it can lead to penalties and lower rankings — this means that eCom brands need to focus on creating engaging, user-friendly content that encourages longer time spent on site & more clicks and interactions.

More notably, you can do the following:

🟥 Implement interactive features to increase visitor time spent on site, like quizzes & surveys

🟥 Start using heatmaps to understand your site’s weaker elements and optimize them for more clicks

🟥 Simplify navigation on your site & make the content on it enjoyable to browse

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2. Brand Authority Matters More Than Links? 🤴🏻

Backlinks have always been seen as the holy grail in SEO, but guess what? The leaked documents reveal that Google places more weight on your brand’s overall presence and mentions across the entire internet — the more word of mouth, the better you rank.

This news means there are at least a hundred new ways to rank better, but here are the three main steps you can take to rank a lot higher:

🟥 Publish content authored by experts that are already recognized and spoken about in your industry (a.k.a authority hijacking) to build more credibility.

And if all you have for your eCom brand is a store, you should really think about posting content, even a weekly newsletter can be a great way to increase traffic, sales & site ranking.

🟥 Get featured on sites that are already established and have credibility within your niche — this can be done through paid collaborations & guest posts.

🟥 Partner with micro-influencers with whom you share a target audience to leverage UGC to drive more traffic to your store.

P.S. — If you want to collab with influencers and take advantage of the popularity of TikTok to grow your brand fast, check out our TikTok Guide.

3. Can People Even See Your Site? 🙈

Even though Google had many times denied the existence of a “sandbox”, the docs proved that there is a literal probation period for new sites, limiting their visibility.

This means that no matter how great your content is, it might take a while before Google starts showing it to users — and do you want a real punch in the gut?

It can take around 3 months to have your site fully indexed & out of the sandbox. Luckily, there are a few ways to accelerate this:

🟥 Start off strong with a great PR campaign to get instant traffic to your new site — this can get you out of the sandbox very quickly.

🟥 Promotions from micro-influencers and larger influencers can also flood your site with new traffic, and don’t sleep on TikTok UGC either.

🟥 Make sure your website is filled with valuable, SEO-optimized content. You should have detailed product descriptions, customer reviews, and FAQs.

❗ The Google API Data Leak also revealed that regularly updated content on sites can help your eCom store’s ranking massively, so be sure to update on at least a trimonthly basis.

4. Humans Decide If Your Content Gets Seen👩‍⚖️

As it turns out, Google uses human evaluators to assess the quality of content on your site. High-quality, unique content is favored, while thin or duplicated content is set to be ranked lower, which also includes AI-generated content, by the way.

These human “judges” are looking for content that provides real value to users. So, what can you do to appease these quality assessors and make sure your site gets a ton of eyes on it?

🟥 Focus on detailed product descriptions, comprehensive guides, and unique articles that provide real value to your customers — don’t just have a barebones Shopify store.

🟥 Put extra effort into making your site as aesthetically & visually pleasing as possible. Use clear, high-quality images and a clean layout to make a great first impression on not only the Google evaluators but any potential customers that visit your site.

🟥 If you haven’t already, add more mediums for your customers to engage with, like newsletters, Q&A’s, quizzes, and a live customer support chat — even just one of these can show the evaluator that you really care about giving value to your customers.

Here’s an awesome example of a store that passes nearly every check — very simple, easy to navigate & aesthetically pleasing, with a newsletter & live chat:

So, what does this mean for Google?

This leak is a major blow to Google's credibility, it really shows their lack of transparency and the deceptive nature of their public statements. And what are we to do? Not use Google and forget about ranking on the #1 search engine the entire world uses? 😂

On the bright side, now we have a clearer picture of how their search algorithms really work, plus a better understanding of how to use this new information to grow an eCom brand.

And if you want to read more on this leak, click here to check out a full study on this big Google oopsie.

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Daniil from ECORN