While Google Discover has existed for some time now (previously it was Google’s Feed feature), many users are just recently “discovering” what it is. As the Discover feature develops and becomes more appealing and user-friendly, more opportunities exist for businesses and organizations to leverage traffic they can get from Google Discover.
What is Google Discover?
At a basic level, Google Discover is a personalized feed served to a user that presents content deemed as interesting and relevant to that person. It is similar to social media in the sense that what a user sees on their feed is determined by their personal interests, search history, and other curated information. However, Discover is not the same as Google News. While News serves strictly recent content, Google Discover may choose to present older published content to a user as well; it all depends on the individual. In the screenshot below, you can see a video dating back three weeks from the time the screenshot was taken.
Types of Content on Discover
The majority of content you will find on your Discover feed is pulled from publisher sites and news outlets, and the topics will vary depending on your interests. You can actually view ‘Your Interests’ through your Discover settings to customize your experience. These interests affect the content appearing in your feed and much of it is curated based off of your search history.
When it comes to the content itself, the listings on your feed are not limited to articles; you may see YouTube videos as well, and content spanning from local to international audiences. What you won’t see, according to Google via SEJ, are things like job listings, petitions, or satire.
How many people use Discover, and is it worth my time?
Reportedly, Discover has about 800 million monthly users. While that is a drop in the ocean compared to Facebook’s 2.91 billion monthly users, it is still worth noting. After all, the Discover feature has enough usage to warrant its own Search Console widget.
Where can I find and access my personal Google Discover feed?
You can find the Discover feature within the Google app, on an Android mobile device or tablet, or—on some devices like a Google Pixel—by swiping right from your device’s home screen.
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Is my web content showing up in Google Discover?
From the perspective of website content writers and SEO professionals, getting content to show up on Discover feeds may be a new challenge. Fortunately, Google has integrated Discover data into Google Search Console.
As long as your website meets a minimum threshold of Discover impressions, the Discover data will be available within the Performance menu of the Google Search Console dashboard. This will allow you to see impressions and clicks specific to Discover with some of the same filters available in search traffic (pages, countries, dates, e.g.).
Optimizing Your Content for Google Discover Traffic
With the appeal of getting content served to users without vying for top spots in search results, many businesses are rightly curious on how (if possible) to leverage Google Discover traffic in their marketing. However, authoritative sites like SEJ and SEMrush seem to have some disagreement and speculation on exactly how you can get your content ranking.
What does Google say about ranking in Discover?
As long as your content does not violate any Google Discover content policies, then it is viable to appear in Discover feeds. What’s the basic principle behind getting surfaced in Discover? Something you may be familiar with, and that has arguably the biggest impact on search engine rankings: Expertise, Authoritativeness, & Trustworthiness (E-A-T). Put simply, the more that your website contains individual pages that show the above three traits in your industry, the more likely Google is to deem you as a reliable source of information.
Google’s own and more specific recommendations for getting your content to rank in Discover follow along the same lines of E-A-T.
- Title your pages in a way that captures essence without clickbait terms
- Include high-quality and compelling images in your content
- Don’t artificially attempt to inflate audience interest by being misleading, exaggerative or withholding crucial information needed to understand the context of the content
- Avoid being manipulative by catering to morbid curiosity or outrage
- Timely, tells a story well, or provides unique insights
What’s the Takeaway?
While Google Discover poses a great opportunity to improve brand visibility organically, it is just a piece of the larger puzzle that is organic rankings. Traffic in Google Discover can be largely unpredictable, and the factors playing into what ranks and what doesn’t seem to be closely in line with greater, overall best practices for SEO.
Get Help With Your Online Brand Presence, Search Engine Rankings & Google Discover Traffic
Whether you know where to look for and how to track your organic web traffic or not, it’s no secret that maintaining your online brand presence is complicated. Based in the heart of the Midwest, our Webspec Digital Marketing Team works with clients across varying industries and businesses of all sizes to monitor and improve their digital marketing efforts. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us, we’d love to work with you in achieving your goals!
