Google Leak Insights: Understanding Topical Authority

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You might have heard about the recent Google Leak. A massive Google API Documentation file with over 14,000 possible ranking factors was published to the public. Or found from someone, we are not quite sure what exactly happened. What we know is that it gives us a rare glimpse under the hood of the Google Algorithm and how it might work.

I did my job and was looking in the files for information about topical authority and what Google might really think about this topic. And that’s what I am going to talk about in this document.

Disclaimer

Before we start, a small disclaimer. We can not know for sure how the Google Algorithm uses the information from the Document and which Modules are really used. So most of the things you will read out there are assumptions and interpretations, and so is what I write here as well. 

What is Topical Authority?

There are a lot of different definitions out there, and you can read more about Topical Authority on my Blogpost about it.

To resume it quickly so you might understand what the findings signify: Topical Authority is when you showed to Google that you are the Expert in a certain topic, and not just showed, but Google believes you.

It means that you have covered enough about one topic on your website that Google thinks your website is a good source for this topic. Which makes your chances for ranking on relevant keywords higher.

What does the Google Leak tell us about Topical Authority?

In the Google API Documents that got leaked, we find one Module that is especially interesting for us here. It is called “QualityAuthorityTopicEmbeddingsVersionedItem”.

While the title gives us already some Idea in the direction this module might go to, the most interesting things are the Attributes it has.

Attributes

pageEmbedding (type: String.t, default: nil) -
siteEmbedding (type: String.t, default: nil) - Compressed site/page embeddings.
siteFocusScore (type: number(), default: nil) - Number denoting how much a site is focused on one topic.
siteRadius (type: number(), default: nil) - The measure of how far page_embeddings deviate from the site_embedding.
versionId (type: integer(), default: nil) -

Now let’s dive a little bit deeper into this Module.

Core Functionality of QualityAuthorityTopicEmbeddingsVersionedItem

It seems like the purpose of this model is to analyse and score websites based on how well their content aligns with particular topics and how consistently they maintain this focus across their pages. 

It does this on the page level (for one page) and on the site level (the whole website) and calculates a radius to determine how far away one page is from the main topic of the site.

To evaluate this, there are different attributes used:

pageEmbedding

Type: String

This attribute represents the main topic or the essence of an individual web page. It is a compressed representation that captures the key themes and topics of the page content.

Might be used for: It helps Google understand what each specific page is about, allowing for better matching of user queries with relevant pages.

siteEmbedding

Type: String

This attribute is a compressed representation of the overall theme and focus of an entire website. 

Might be used for:: It allows Google to understand the main themes and content of a website, helping in categorizing the site and improving topic relevance in search results.

siteFocusScore

Type: Number

This score indicates how focused a website is on a specific topic. A higher score suggests that the site is highly dedicated to a single topic, which can enhance its authority in that area.

Might be used for:: Sites with a higher siteFocusScore are considered more authoritative on their primary topic, potentially leading to better rankings in search results for related queries. Sites with a lower siteFocusSocre are considered more general focused and might be better ranking for broader search queries.

siteRadius

Type: Number

This attribute measures the deviation of individual page topics from the site’s main theme. It quantifies how far page embeddings deviate from the site embedding.

Might be used for: A smaller siteRadius indicates greater consistency with the main topic focus across of the site. These sites might be viewed as of higher quality as the author of the website is more of an expert on the main topic.

Site note: There are different interpretations out there on siteRadius. In the database on searchrankingfactors.com for example, they interpret it as: “Used by Google to identify sites that are relevant to a wider range of topics.”.

versionId

Type: Integer

This attribute tracks the versioning of the site’s content quality and topical focus over time. It helps in monitoring and evaluating changes in content strategy and quality.

Might be used for: Google might use this to track how the Quality and Focus of a page changes over time. This might give insights if you are getting more specific, or change topic over time and changes in content strategy.

AttributeDescriptionImportance
siteRadiusMeasures how much a page differs from the site’s main topic.Helps identify the scope of a site’s topical focus.
siteEmbeddingRepresents the overall topic of the site.Helps Google understand the site’s main themes and content.
pageEmbeddingRepresents the main topic of a specific page.Improves understanding of individual page content.
siteFocusScoreIndicates how focused a site is on one topic.Highlights sites that are strongly focused on specific topics.
versionIdTracks changes in content quality over time.Monitors the evolution of site quality and relevance.
This Table resumes the Attributes

Where can I read the Google Leak Documents?

Since the first release, there came a lot of sites making the Google leaks document available. So you really have a lot of sites to choose from if you want to read thought it. But just so you know, it is a huge thing and it is all code documentation. So if you are not familiar with that, it might seem overwhelming at the beginning. 

Here I have some sources for you, already linked to the relevant Module for Topical Authority (if possible)


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