Known as Google Feed until 2018, Discover uses data the search engine has gathered about you to create a personalized content feed that proactively delivers relevant content.<\/p>\n
Available exclusively on mobile devices, it goes beyond responding to queries by anticipating user behavior and delivering content it thinks you will find interesting and valuable.<\/p>\n
Taking user activity into account to deliver results, it presents a new and powerful way to drive web traffic.<\/p>\n
Google Discover can include a variety of different types of content, including news, articles, videos, advertisements, and special rich results like live sports scores. It appears on Google\u2019s homepage and is highly personalized to each user.<\/p>\n
As machine learning and artificial intelligence continue advancing, this new form of discovery looks likely to become more common \u2013 and accurate.<\/p>\n
In this piece, we\u2019ll take a deeper look at this technology and show you ways you can put it to work for you.<\/p>\n
How Does Google Discover Work?<\/h2>\n
Google makes content eligible to appear in Discover once it has been indexed, and Google has determined it doesn\u2019t violate its content policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n Similar to the AI-driven video recommendations made by platforms like TikTok and Facebook, Google Discover uses an algorithm to create a custom feed.<\/p>\n Using information collected from user data, Discover has moved the search engine toward \u201cquery-less search,\u201d in which the understanding of the individual user replaces the understanding of a singular query.<\/p>\n The user is the central focus with Discover.<\/p>\n Google Discover automatically shows personalized content based on a user\u2019s:<\/span><\/p>\n Google Discover uses your information to identify and display topics Google believes will be relevant for you, known as \u201cinterests.\u201d<\/p>\n To gain a deeper understanding of Google Discover interests, I looked at over 700 Google Discover interests (provided by members of the SEO community).<\/p>\n While this is an extraordinarily small sample size compared to all potential interests, there were a few notable observations.<\/p>\n Interests Related To Sports & Entertainment Were The Most Prevalent<\/strong><\/p>\n While my Discover feed primarily focuses on who former Bachelor Peter Weber is dating, I imagine others\u2019 feeds are full of the latest sports updates.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Largely Focused On Hobbies & Activities<\/strong><\/p>\n Whatever you do in your pastime \u2013 whether it be baking or beekeeping \u2013 you\u2019re likely to see content on your favorite after-work activities.<\/p>\n Brands Also Had A Strong Presence<\/strong><\/p>\n Almost every submission included specific brands or local businesses.<\/p>\n While Discover aims to suggest new content to users, it still remembers your go-to stores and restaurants.<\/p>\n SEO Has Its Own Category<\/strong><\/p>\n We love SEO so much that it got its own category.<\/p>\n Thanks to all the SEO folks who filled out my Google Form.<\/p>\n Below is a visual of all submitted user interests, organized by category (i.e., finance, education, etc.) and type of entity (i.e., brand, product, person, etc.).<\/p>\n Users can also provide direct feedback to further customize their feed by following or unfollowing topics, selecting \u201cshow more\u201d or \u201cshow less,\u201d and choosing not to see content from certain publishers.<\/p>\n Occasionally, Google will directly prompt the user for feedback.<\/p>\n Yes, it is possible to optimize for Google Discover. Google Discover is a personalized recommendation engine that aims to deliver relevant and engaging content to users based on their interests and browsing history.<\/p>\n To optimize for Google Discover, it\u2019s important to focus on creating high-quality and engaging content that resonates with your target audience.<\/p>\n The key difference between traditional search engine optimization and optimizing for Google Discover is a shift in focus from the query to the user.<\/p>\n While traditional SEO aims to target specific queries and provide the most relevant results, Google Discover focuses on delivering content that match users\u2019 interests without explicit search queries.<\/p>\n There are a number of steps publishers can take to increase their visibility in Discover.<\/p>\n Those include:<\/p>\n Google Discover strives to recommend content that is not only interesting but also trustworthy, reliable, and credible.<\/p>\n The elements of E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trustworthiness) play a pivotal role in determining the suitability of content for recommendations. You didn\u2019t expect Google to recommend just any content, did you?<\/p>\n When creating content for Google Discover, it\u2019s important to be selective and prioritize topics that align with your expertise or the expertise and experience of your content creators.<\/p>\n Focus on providing valuable and relevant information on those subjects to build authority in your niche over time, which yields better long-term results compared to broad topics that don\u2019t closely align with your brand and expertise.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve identified suitable topics, take the following steps to improve your E-E-A-T signals:<\/p>\n By following these steps, you can enhance your E-E-A-T factors, provide valuable content, and create a trustworthy and credible presence that improves your chances of being recommended in Google Discover.<\/p>\n Well, kind of.<\/p>\n One of the goals of Google Discover is to serve fresh content \u2013 and scrolling through the Discover feed, it is mostly news.<\/p>\n But when clients from other industries started seeing Discover traffic in Google Search Console<\/a> (GSC), it was time to investigate.<\/p>\n I analyzed 12 months of Google Discover traffic to over 11,000 URLs from 62 domains. Of those 11,000 URLs:<\/p>\n The remaining 1% were from other industries including:<\/p>\n While news accounted for less than half (46%) of URLs analyzed, it received 99% of Discover clicks and got significantly more clicks per page.<\/p>\n One news domain in the analysis saw over 30% of its total web traffic coming from Discover, while other publishers have reported that Google Discover drove more traffic than organic search<\/a> in some months.<\/p>\n It\u2019s likely that news content is shown to a large, broad audience, while content from other industries is targeted to smaller audiences based on specific interests.<\/p>\n Google emphasizes this idea in the announcement of Google Discover, stating:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to news, we believe it\u2019s important that everyone has access to the same information.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Takeaway<\/strong>: Google Discover is a major traffic driver for news publishers and can be used to reach a large, broad audience.<\/p>\n For non-news sites, the remaining 1% of clicks (still totaling over 1 million in the past 12 months) were dispersed across different types of content.<\/p>\n The most prevalent type of content across industries was blog posts.<\/p>\n Blog topics that were displayed in Google Discover were highly relevant to specific interests\/hobbies, such as hiking, makeup, and nutrition.<\/p>\n Additionally:<\/p>\n Takeaway<\/strong>: Non-news content is heavily interest-focused and will likely be displayed to a smaller, more targeted audience.<\/p>\n Aligned with Google Discover\u2019s focus on delivering fresh content, most of the URLs in this study only received traffic for three to four days, with most of that traffic occurring one to two days after publishing.<\/p>\n However, some more mature, evergreen content was able to drive longer-term traffic.<\/p>\n This is the result of Google Discover serving evergreen content to meet new or evolving user interests.<\/p>\n In the instances where I\u2019ve seen more mature, evergreen content appearing in my personal Discover feed, I was searching for similar topics two to three days prior.<\/p>\n Takeaway<\/strong>: Most pages in Discover have a short shelf-life, around three to four days, but evergreen content can drive longer-term traffic.<\/p>\n One of the first things that stuck out about Google Discover was a high click-through rate (CTR): 11% across all pages analyzed.<\/p>\n Excluding news sites (which accounted for most of the data), the average CTR was 6%.<\/p>\n Looking at the same 62 domains, the CTR from traditional search was 4%.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, these numbers can\u2019t be directly compared, as CTR is calculated as clicks \u00f7 impressions = CTR, and impressions are measured differently in Discover than in traditional search.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n Takeaway<\/strong>: Pages in Google Discover see higher CTRs than traditional search; however, this may be a result of the difference in how impressions are measured, rather than a difference in user behavior.<\/p>\n In traditional search, queries serve as a connection point between a user\u2019s need and relevant content (i.e., the user is hungry, searches [food near me], Google displays local restaurants).<\/p>\n Google Discover shows content before a user\u2019s need is realized, \u201cpowered by the strength of the match between an article\u2019s content and a user\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p>\n Without keyword research and query reports, the traditional content creation process is limited \u2013 but there are still ways to increase the chances of appearing in Discover.<\/p>\n Google Discover is only accessible on mobile devices, so this one is obvious.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s always good to cover your bases by checking Google Search Console\u2019s Mobile Usability Report<\/a> and making sure there are no errors. If you discover any, remedy them right away.<\/p>\n Interests are entities, objects, or concepts that can be uniquely identified.<\/p>\n They can be anything from general hobbies, to niche interests, to specific brands and businesses.<\/p>\n Using the Entity Explorer by Marketer\u2019s Center<\/a>, you can view the relationships between entities and see what entities are associated with your brand, your industry, products, etc.<\/p>\n Identify what entities serve as a connection point between your brand and your users.<\/p>\n Google Discover works in much the same way as a feed on a social networking platform.<\/p>\n To increase your chances of being featured, keep an eye on what\u2019s happening on social media. Focus on trending events and topics.<\/p>\n Make sure you have optimized your social sharing buttons on your website.<\/p>\n You are no longer bound by search volume.<\/p>\n Embrace this newfound freedom.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve identified connection points \u2013 get specific and go in-depth.<\/p>\n Interest-based content is personalized, so write content that will resonate with your most passionate users.<\/p>\n One way to do this is to identify intersections and relationships between topics (i.e., \u201cbest ski resorts near Pennsylvania\u201d, \u201crunning tips for winter\u201d).<\/p>\n Bonus points if you can tie content into current events.<\/p>\n As mentioned above, make sure your topics also align with your expertise and your content and site demonstrate strong E-E-A-T<\/a>.<\/p>\n To increase your chances of showing up in Discover, you should ensure all your page titles capture the essence of the content on that page \u2013 without being clickbaity.<\/p>\n This helps the algorithm quickly determine what your content is about and whether it is relevant to a particular user.<\/p>\n Aside from creating content your users will find interesting, the best way to boost content on Discover is to use large, high-quality images<\/a> that are at least 1,200 pixels wide and enabled by the max-image-preview:large setting<\/a> or by using AMP<\/a>.<\/p>\n Avoid using your site logo as your image.<\/p>\n For more ways to optimize images in Discover, check out Brodie Clark\u2019s case study, Google Discover: An Image Could Be Worth 1,000 Clicks<\/a>.<\/p>\n Videos have a huge presence in Google Discover, which aligns with Google\u2019s shift in focus<\/a> from text to more visual ways of finding information.<\/p>\n While videos made up only 17% of the content in this analysis, this doesn\u2019t include data for YouTube, which hosts a majority of videos appearing in Google Discover.<\/p>\n It may be hard to measure, but creating engaging videos and optimizing your YouTube channel<\/a> could help increase your brand\u2019s presence in Google Discover \u2013 and in traditional search too, as 19% of desktop search results include video carousels and 92% of those videos come from YouTube.<\/p>\n Google Discover seeks to provide relevant and trustworthy information to mobile users. One way it does this is by penalizing sites that use misleading information or exaggerated details in preview content.<\/p>\n Similarly, any tactics designed for \u201ccheap clicks\u201d like content intended to outrage, titillate, or offend should be avoided.<\/p>\n One of the great parts of Discover is the Follow feature<\/a>, which allows users to get the latest update from websites they\u2019re following.<\/p>\n Available in English to people using Chrome Android, this feature uses RSS or Atom feeds by default.<\/p>\n If you have more than one feed on your site, you can optimize your Follow feature by telling Google which feed to follow in the <head> section.<\/p>\n To ensure Google can find your feed, make sure it\u2019s not blocked with your robots.txt file, that your feed is up-to-date, and that you\u2019ve included title and link elements.<\/p>\n Once you have content on Google Discover, you can monitor how it\u2019s working via the Performance Report for Discover<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here you\u2019ll provide information on impressions, clicks, and click-through rates for any of your content that has appeared on Discover in the last 16 months. Note that you need a minimum number of impressions for this data to show.<\/p>\n\n
What\u2019s Interesting?<\/h3>\n
![\"Category](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton.png\")
Screenshot from author, February 2023<\/span><\/div>\nUser Input<\/h3>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton.jpg\")
Screenshot from author, February 2023<\/span><\/div>\nIs it Possible To Optimize For Google Discover?<\/h2>\n
Importance Of Expertise, Experience, Authority, And Trust (E-E-A-T)<\/b><\/h3>\n
\n
Isn\u2019t Google Discover Just News?<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton-1.jpg\")
Screenshot from Google Search Console, April 2020<\/span><\/div>\nResearch Findings<\/h2>\n
1. News Sites Received 99% Of Clicks<\/h3>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton-2.jpg\")
Screenshot from Google Search Console, April 2020<\/span><\/div>\n\n
2. Blog Posts Are Prevalent Across All Other Industries<\/h3>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton-3.jpg\")
Screenshot from Google Search Console, April 2020<\/span><\/div>\n![\"Google](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton-4.jpg\")
Screenshot from Google Search Console, April 2020<\/span><\/div>\n\n
3. Discover Content Typically Has A Short Shelf-life<\/h3>\n
![\"Fresh](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton-5.jpg\")
Screenshot from Google Search Console, April 2020<\/span><\/div>\n![\"Google](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton-6.jpg\")
Screenshot from Google Search Console, April 2020<\/span><\/div>\n![\"Example](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton-7.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n4. Users Respond Well To Discover Content<\/h3>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton-8.jpg\")
Screenshot from Google Search Console, April 2020<\/span><\/div>\n\n
How To Connect With Users On Google Discover<\/h2>\n
Be Mobile-Friendly<\/h3>\n
Focus Content Around Entities<\/h3>\n
![\"Entity](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton-9.jpg\")
Screenshot from Entity Explorer, April 2020<\/span><\/div>\n![\"Related](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton-10.jpg\")
Screenshot from Entity Explorer, April 2020<\/span><\/div>\nHop On What\u2019s Trending<\/h3>\n
Create Content That Is Relevant, Useful & Interesting To Your Audience<\/h3>\n
Write Good Page Titles<\/h3>\n
Include High-Quality Images<\/h3>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-google-discover-via-sejournal-abbynhamilton-11.jpg\")
Screenshot from author, February 2023<\/span><\/div>\nRevisit Your Video Strategy<\/h3>\n
Avoid Exaggeration And Shock Tactics<\/h3>\n
Take Advantage Of The Follow Feature<\/h3>\n
Track Your Performance<\/h3>\n