The controversial Google API leak has taken the marketing and advertising industry by storm, rousing age-old SEO debates.
With almost 2,600 SEO modules leaked, it’s a massive peek into how the tech giant operates its search engine, where over 90% of all searches are made.
A couple of days after Moz creator and SparkToro Founder Rand Fishkin exposed the leaked documents and iPullRank Founder Mike King published his analysis, Google spokesperson Davis Thompson confirmed their authenticity and sent a statement to The Verge.
“We would caution against making inaccurate assumptions about Search based on out-of-context, outdated, or incomplete information,” Thompson wrote in an email.
“We’ve shared extensive information about how Search works and the types of factors that our systems weigh, while also working to protect the integrity of our results from manipulation.”
However, after this brief response that didn’t address most of the questions that marketers had after the leak was made public, Google has maintained its silence.
What Experts Say About Google’s Radio Silence
The Google Search algorithm leak has a profound impact on businesses that engage in anything digital.
With Google dominating search and anything related to it, online business growth highly depends on it.
Why? It's simply because:
↑ search ranking = ↑ visibility = ↑ traffic = ↑ conversion rates = ↑ profit
According to The Business Research Company, the SEO industry was valued at a whopping $217.85 in 2023, showing how lucrative the business is and how significant it is for big and small brands to rank on search results.
With that said, Google’s transparency, or lack thereof about its search operations has a big impact on brands doing business within the digital space.
“We were playing a game of poker with Google, essentially, as SEOs. You know, when there are three suited cards when you hit the turn and I stare down Google and say, do you have a flush? I do not expect them to tell me the truth, right?”
AJ John, owner of the blog "Blind Five Year Old," shared the statement above in a roundtable discussion with fellow SEO veterans King, Daniel Foley Carter, and Robin Fishley about “The Great Google SEO Leak.”
"Like they're not going to tell me what's in their hand because that's, they're trying to win. They're trying to maintain their pot," he added.
So, it’s not exactly surprising that Google has chosen to maintain radio silence about the leak.
But the tech giant’s silence is also sort of a comment in itself.
Brands, especially big ones like Google, are usually advised by their public relations (PR) agencies or departments when it comes to managing crises.
According to DesignRush Digital PR Manager Anonta Khan, big companies are usually advised to stay silent on big issues for strategic reasons.
“Silence can be a calculated move to control the narrative, avoid escalating the situation, and buy time to fully understand the scope of the problem before making any public statements,” Khan explained.
“By remaining silent, Google can also observe public and media reactions, allowing them to tailor their response more effectively and minimize potential damage to their reputation,” she added.
This approach not only allows Google to gather information but also to implement solutions to mitigate the impact because premature communication might lead to more speculation, misinformation, confusion, or legal repercussions.
The leak was not done on purpose to distract from AI Overviews.
— Mic King (@iPullRank) May 29, 2024
Cut it out.
In this case, King supposes that Google opted to choose to wait and see how the industry will act after the leak so that it can draft and enforce solutions.
“I think Google is going to monitor what we’re saying and then look to see what the behaviors are of people that are actively doing SEO and then counterbalance things like what they always do,” King said.
Notably, Google is waiting on a verdict to the anti-trust lawsuit filed against it by the U.S. Department of Justice last year, alleging that it has continued to engage in actions that will protect its monopoly of the search industry.
So, commenting more than it already had about the leak may also present legal ramifications.
What Marketers Should Do Now
Experts are saying two important things as to what marketers should do after the Google SEO leak has been talked about and analyzed for weeks.
The first one is for technical SEO experts to look more closely at SEO engineering for a better understanding.
“I think it might be healthy for the industry to at least get a more explicit look about how Google thinks about this,” Kohn said.
“I try to put myself in the position of a Google engineer and would a Google engineer would try and solve this problem, what pieces of data would they need, how would they balance that, how would they understand what was good,” he added.
On the other hand, for the less technical marketer, it would be better to focus on user experience (UX) and establish a real business that people can trust.
“Why would you try to interpret a piece of content and its quality over behavioral indicators? What this should inspire the SEO community to do now is genuinely focus on your UX, focus on creating something,” Carter advised.
"You need to build a business, and I think that's what a lot of what I see in the leaked documents and modules speak to that. 'Is this a real site that's doing real business and trying to really establish something?'" Kohn added.
Whether Google chooses to remain silent about the leak or increase its transparency about its search operations, at the end of the day, businesses need to be honest about what they do and create their own brand identity.