Google Discover: How the Recommendation Feed Works and How to Go Viral on It
Thanks to Google Discover, website owners can secure the traffic they need. However, since the Discover feed is personalized and contains recommendations for visitors, it definitely has its downsides. The main one is that Google’s algorithms autonomously decide who and what should be shown. Today we will discuss how exactly the Discover feed functions and what content is likely to get featured there quickly.
Google Discover – What it is and how it works
In 2018, internet users learned that a completely new and improved version of the news feed, Google Feed, emerged called Google Discover. Its advantage lies in the way the content is curated entirely based on user preferences.
To select the content, Google News is utilized, and in this process, the Knowledge Graph plays a role as well. Ultimately, the news feed is maximally tailored for the person, only displaying what is genuinely interesting to them.
The main features of Google Discover include:
- It only works in smartphone browsers with the Android operating system. This means it is not visible on a computer’s screen.
- Only available to those users who use Google and for data search via the Google Chrome browser.
- The news feed is presented before users’ eyes as soon as they open the browser.
- For a person to see the given feed, they must be logged into their Google account.
In Google Discover, users can see a multitude of links to videos, text materials from blogs, magazine pages, news, current data, and statistics.
How recommendations from Google Discover are formed
The main feature of Google Discover is that its news feed is visible to a person as soon as they access the browser. This means they don’t need to type their request in the search bar. Most often, the feed will feature statistics from political sites in their country, articles about fashion, medicine, sports achievements, innovations in the world of technology and brands, as well as sites with entertaining content.
The main properties of Google Discover include:
- The feed is personalized for each user based on their interests and preferences.
- The content is mostly recent news, tailored to the user’s profile and interests.
- The more engaging and informative the content is, the more it will help keep users engaged.
The difference from Yandex.Zen
Yandex.Zen, while having some similarities in functionality, has its own unique features as well. For example, while Google Discover can be used only on smartphones, Yandex.Zen can also be accessed on computers.
What content should be in Google Discover
The publication themes in the news feed can be completely diverse, but there are certain requirements to be met. First of all, published content must adhere to Google’s rules. Secondly, it should meet Google’s definitions of quality content. We will explain what is meant by these criteria.
Google’s rules
Google has clearly formulated and generally accessible rules for publications. They must not contain text that:
- Includes offensive and coarse expressions.
- Insults people and their feelings.
- Creates tensions among visitors.
- Contains sexual content.
- Distributes information about harmful habits.
- Popularizes violence and aggression.
- Includes medical-related statistics.
Moreover, it is prohibited to publish content that is considered manipulative. This includes any photographs, videos, and texts containing misleading information.
If similar material is placed on the web resource, it will likely be removed entirely from the search results or significantly downgraded in ranking positions. In this instance, a website owner can easily find out why this happened. For this, they will need to go to the security issues section and review the measures taken there.
Criteria for quality content
In Google Discover, only sites that truly contain quality and truthful information will be featured. For this, algorithms evaluate all parameters. Among them, the most important indicators are:
- How much the information is truthful, unique, and relevant to users, as well as whether it contains appealing and fresh data.
- Does the title of the page correspond to the content posted on it?
The more favorable your site is perceived to be, the more traffic is likely to flow in, increasing the chances of appearing in Google Discover’s news feed.
Social media outreach
Social media is a great way to disseminate information. If you publish any data (news, tips, statistics, reviews) on your site, don’t hesitate to share this with your followers on social media. The level of popularity of the web resource in social media is closely linked to the chances of appearing in Google Discover.
Follow the development of web stories
Web stories are a well-known format available in some social networks (Facebook and Instagram). Recently, this feature has also become available in Google Discover, though only in English in the US.
In this format, you can use videos, images, text data, and various animation elements. Thanks to this, you can create highly interesting and engaging content. We just need to wait until this format becomes available for Russian-speaking brands.
Briefly on how to make your page ideal for appearing in Google Discover
Thus, summarizing the tips mentioned above, here are the key points to improve your page for placement in the Discover feed:
- Ensure that you do not violate Google’s instructions.
- Confirm that the titles fully reflect the content.
- Choose larger, vivid, and contextual images.
- Include information about your publications in social media.
- If possible, add video clips from YouTube.
- Ensure fast loading of the page on mobile devices.
Finally, curate current, truthful, and engaging content to achieve visibility for your page in Google Discover.
