The SEO Papers
October 2026
How Google Actually Ranks Pages in 2026
We dive into Google's latest patent filings to uncover the real ranking factors that matter.
The SEO PapersThe SEO & GEO agency that applies Google's patents
We grow organic traffic from Google and make your brand citable by AI search engines. Every recommendation rests on Google's patents and official documentation.
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Method, results and pricing: our SEO & GEO agency
What the agency does
One method: what Google's patents describe, applied to your site.
Audit
Technical and semantic audit
Technical, content, authority and GEO checks of your site, cross-referenced with the signals Google's patents describe, then a prioritized roadmap.
GEO
GEO agency
Make your pages citable by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, using the mechanisms Google's patents describe.
Understand SEO
Our guides explain how Google ranks pages from its patents and official documentation.
SEO
Complete SEO guide
What SEO means, how Google crawls and ranks pages, the three pillars, local SEO, AI search, and when to hire an agency.
Google's algorithm
Core update calendar
Google's core updates since 2021, how long they lasted, and a tool to check whether one was rolling out the day your traffic moved.
Patents
Google patents explained
37 Google ranking patents, each explained with what it changes for SEO.
AI search
SEO vs GEO compared
What separates being ranked by Google from being cited by an AI, with a live test on your own search.
Episodes
Patent-backed breakdowns. More episodes coming soon.
The SEO Papers
November 2026
Ranking Signals Hiding in Plain Sight
In production, dropping soon on YouTube
The SEO Papers
Patent Deep Dive
Line-by-line breakdown of a new Google filing
The SEO Papers
Myth Busters
Popular SEO advice vs. what the patents actually say
The SEO Papers
Weekly Patterns
One testable ranking pattern, backed by data
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How Google ranks pages: the patents to read first
Five patents explain most of what Google does with clicks, links and site quality. Each article reads one line by line.
Navboost: how Google's click patent re-ranks search results, and what it means for SEO
Navboost re-ranks Google results with click data. We read patent US 8,661,029 line by line: long clicks, short clicks, the last click, and what they mean for your pages.
Analysis: click patent
How SEO authority actually flows: internal linking and Google's PageRank patent
PageRank (US 6,285,999) ranks a page from the ranks of the pages that link to it. The exact formula, the worked example, the variants the patent describes for local links, and how to structure your internal links around it.
Analysis: link authority patent
The Google Panda patent: why your SEO links must keep pace with your brand searches
Patent US 8,682,892, signed by Navneet Panda, scores a whole site by the ratio of independent links to searches for that site. Here's how the ratio works and what it changes for you.
Analysis: links and brand searches
The reasonable surfer: why Google does not weigh all your SEO links equally
Patent US 7,716,225 replaces PageRank's random surfer with a reasonable surfer who clicks some links more than others. The link features Google weighs, how the model learns from clicks, and what it changes for your linking.
Analysis: link weighting patent
Google's seed-based PageRank: why your distance from trusted sites shapes your SEO authority
Patent US 9,165,040 ranks pages by their link distance from a set of trusted seed sites. How seeds are chosen, how link length is computed, why the k-th nearest seed matters, and what it changes for your links.
Analysis: Seed-based PageRank
Our SEO & GEO Agency · done for you
Don't just read the patents. Have us put them to work for you.
We're a boutique SEO & GEO agency founded on Google's patents. Patent-backed semantic SEO and generative engine optimization: evidence over opinions, audits you can verify on your own domain.
Semantic SEOGEOPatent-based strategyTopical authority mapsTechnical SEO
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