Google Discover: 11 Characteristics of Effective Content
Google Discover is an automatically generated feed displaying personalized content selected based on a user’s interaction with the search engine. Currently, it is available only on mobile devices. It is native on Android devices, while on other mobile operating systems, it can be accessed through Chrome or Google apps. This is a very useful feature for mobile users, as it is geared towards maximum content adaptation for an individual reader rather than a broad audience.
The Google Discover feed shows personalized content that interests the user. It can be compared to a typical Facebook page view, where a lot of information is specially selected according to the account holder’s preferences. In Discover, you’ll also see articles, photos, events, news, videos, and everything that might interest you. Google claims that over 800 million people already use the app monthly.
How to Start Working with Google Discover?
- Open the Google app and tap “More”.
- Select Settings.
- Find the Discover section.
- Enable or disable the toggle based on your preferences.
Then you can choose the types of notifications you want to receive, start following new topics, unsubscribe from existing ones, or restore deleted sources.
It is worth noting that through the feed, you can directly share articles with friends or post them on social networks. A useful feature offered by Discover is the ability to listen to articles (the “Read Aloud” option).
How Does Google Know What to Show?
Using Discover, Google tracks user habits to provide the most relevant content. The algorithm analyzes data such as:
- work;
- search history;
- interaction with Google tools;
- location;
- studying contacts, apps, or calendar.
To select the most personalized content, Google News AI/ML technology is used (for finding the latest news) and a thematic layer, which allows understanding the user’s interests. This is a kind of “surveillance” from artificial intelligence. Additionally, Discover can pull information from any website the user logs into with a Google account. This allows the app to learn about trips, online purchases, or movie viewings. These solutions allow finding the most relevant materials.
What is AI/ML Technology
AI/ML technology is artificial intelligence used to analyze information flow in real time and its organization. Thanks to this, internet content is constantly grouped by topics depending on what it relates to, and all user actions in Google Discover are analyzed to display articles that correspond to their interests. The user can also adjust the displayed information by rejecting topics that are not of interest. This procedure allows Google Discover to understand people, places, current events, and accordingly connect them.
The thematic layer helps Google understand what to give the user
In its official blog, Google announced that their “thematic layer” feature will allow predicting the user’s knowledge level on a given topic and help them further develop their interests. For example, if they are learning to draw, they will see beginner materials, such as color choices and recommended techniques. However, if they are an experienced artist, they will be offered other, more complex topics.
Thematic layer is created by analyzing materials existing online on a given topic and creates hundreds or even thousands of subtopics. This allows Google to reasonably determine the type of content that the user wants to study next time.
Is Content from My Site Displayed in Google Discover?
To begin with, it is recommended to ensure that your site has the necessary characteristics. It must be verified and indexed in Search Console, and its content must comply with Google’s standards and policies (which you can read about on Google’s official website). No special requests need to be made to add a resource to Discover.
Note that Google cannot guarantee that your website will be displayed in Discover, even if it meets all requirements.
Why is Optimizing Google Discover So Difficult?
In Google Search Console, there is a special performance report for Discover, which is activated only if the resource receives visitors from Google Discover. However, even this sometimes does not allow for an effective assessment of visitors. Developers of tools for search engine optimization are trying to find solutions to this problem, but so far there are no significant shifts in this direction. Collecting information from Discover is limited and requires significant labor.
How Can I Appear in Google Discover? 11 Attributes of Good Ranking
There are several recommendations your website must meet to have a chance to appear in Discover.
Avoid Clickbait
Use headlines that match the content. Don’t try to lure users with false, flashy topics. Google easily identifies such tactics. Also, avoid writing articles or posting images to provoke an artificial reaction. Your website should be valuable and trustworthy, and the theme should match user interests.
Use Emotionally Charged Headlines
It was mentioned above that Google doesn’t recommend using clickbait. Nevertheless, emotionally charged headlines, bordering on clickbait, can increase the number of clicks. Here are some examples of phrases that received over 500,000 clicks from Discover in the last 16 months: “This Heart-wrenching Moment”, “Stunning the World”, “Cursed”, “Fans Scream” “It Happens, and Here’s Why”, “This 1 Decoration”…
Questions in Headlines with a Content Answer
Another tactic, which may not please Google but seems to bring high CTR in Google Discover, is creating headlines as queries. For example, articles with headlines like “Did ____ say _____? Did _____ do _____? Was ____ a sporting ___?” received over 100,000 clicks in a year. Although such headlines may not suit Google’s search optimization algorithms, their appealing nature nonetheless resonates with many Google Discover users, leading to high CTR.
Death, Marriage, Divorce, Celebrity Gossip
Topics that evoke emotions, debates, empathy are well suited for Google Discover. Emotionally charged content material attracts significantly more clicks.
Take Care of Content
It’s essential that your website contains relevant information and matches current trends. It is recommended to add publication dates and such information as: authors, publishers, companies, contact details. In Google Discovery, the most important thing is that materials are adapted for a specific target group and arouse interest in it. When writing articles, it is worth presenting an original point of view. For Google, this will be proof that a real person is behind your content.
Original Photos
It is very important to post attractive photos and professional-quality graphics. They will be displayed in Discover. Make sure they are at least 1200 pixels wide. The material cannot be uploaded from other sites, the thumbnail cannot be a website logo, and, as with content, clickbait should not be used. Since each article in Google Discover has both an image and a headline, don’t forget to take care of them. Google notes that users primarily get more information from images and visual content design, not just text. The point of this point is one: visually it should all look good,
Responsiveness is Another Important Point
Since Google Discover operates primarily on smartphones, your website, as well as its photos and content, must be adaptive for mobile devices. Therefore, make sure the website does not have technical issues when displayed on mobile devices – otherwise, it will automatically lose the chance to appear in Discover.
Ensure a High EAT Index
It is also necessary to ensure a high EAT (expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) index. Firstly: expertise implies that content authors are experts in a particular area. Therefore, when writing articles, it is worth emphasizing your qualifications, diplomas, or certificates. Writers on niche sites, mere enthusiasts with life experience, can also expect such a status. In the case of authority, this is somewhat related to the first question. A site gaining authority is a result of expert-level articles. On the other hand, reliability is based on trust built in relationships with users. Your site must be reliable. In the case of domains used for e-commerce and all other sites supporting online payments, you must ensure an SSL certificate to ensure user security.
Attract Traffic to the Site
It is obvious that website traffic is no less important. Using content, interaction, and user comments are important signals for Google. Currently, popular content has significant visibility in search, and it is the main source of information in Google Discover.
Content that works well in Discover may not work well in search (and vice versa).
It is necessary to understand that Google Discover and Google Search use entirely different algorithms, ratings, and methods for analyzing articles ranking.
Use “Green Content”
What is Green Content (Evergreen Content)? These are timeless popular articles that generate traffic to your website for many months or even years. Evergreen plants are like trees, whose leaves never fall – they are always beautiful and attract attention. This means that to achieve the best result, you need a strategy covering topics that are always of interest. Keep in mind that it will never be content like news, sales offers, articles on current trends, reports, and statistics. When writing text, it is worth finding out if the topic is popular and how often it is searched. A tool like Google Trends can be used for this. Also, don’t forget to regularly update old articles with the latest data.
Why Does Your Site Need to Get into Google Discover?
Unfortunately, aside from the aforementioned factors that increase the probability of appearing in Google Discover, you cannot influence whether your article will appear in the feed. However, if your content is displayed to users, you have a chance to get a sharp increase in page views. The reason is obvious – more content adapted to the user’s preferences means more chances to interest them, more opportunities to get a click on your article. Consequently, this will increase site traffic, which will only be beneficial.
For an online store, Discover is the ideal tool for attracting potential customers and also increasing brand awareness. But here it’s also important to remember that it’s only up to you what happens after redirecting the user to your site.
Google Discover Monitoring Statistics
Above, we wrote that there are certain difficulties with Discover statistics, but still, it is worth not neglecting what Google offers us – this is monitoring the performance and effectiveness of your website using the free Google Search Console tool. Using a chart you receive in the Discover performance report, you can check site traffic and find out how often users click on your articles and images, which requests are most popular, and so on. Thanks to this tool, you can check whether Google has found your page, indexed it, or not. This will also allow fixing possible problems with AMP pages (accelerated mobile pages).
Search Console is primarily oriented towards users such as business owners, SEO specialists, marketers, as well as administrators, developers, and website designers. To use it, you need a Google account.
Conclusion on Google Discover
We all know that Google is the most popular search engine in the world. When searching for information on the Internet on their smartphones, most users first use the Google browser – Chrome. Therefore, it is necessary to improve your articles, follow the rules, and increase chances of appearing in Google Discover. This way, you can effectively promote published content, increasing your website’s visibility.
As we mentioned earlier, to get into the Discover feed, you need to follow Google’s policy rules and create valuable materials. Content should be timeless, responsive, and rich in important information. You should keep up with current trends and be visually unique. Google’s policy is constantly changing, and it’s no longer a race of “who will insert more keywords in the text.” At this moment, those who spend the most time preparing on their sites win. Thus, Google rewards those who care about users.
