Millions of people are served a personalised feed by Google Discover every day on their mobile devices; it’s how many find content that’s relevant to them. To those publishing content on their websites, this is an opportunity not to be passed up. In this article, we’ll be covering what Google Discover is, how it works, and, crucially, how to optimise your content to give it the best chance of being ‘discovered’.
What is Google Discover?
Google Discover is a feed that recommends content to users based on what the search engine thinks will be relevant to them. It’s a personalised collection of content that can include articles, videos, adverts, and websites put together based on a user’s browsing history.
Google Discover works exclusively on iOS and Android devices. It’s available via the Google app, and on mobile versions of Google Chrome. Its interface isn’t too dissimilar to today’s social media feeds.
How does Google Discover work?
Indexed content that adheres to the Google Discover content policies is eligible to appear on Google Discover, though it isn’t guaranteed to do so. Google Discover doesn’t work like traditional search; instead of specific queries, it uses algorithms to learn a user’s behaviour and interests, and suggests content based on that. Users can also customise what they want to see.
Whilst this makes the process of having your content found on Google Discover very organic, there are some ways to give your content the best chance of appearing to interested users. If you’re already optimising your site for Google in the traditional sense, you’ll hopefully find the principles of Google Discover optimisation straightforward to implement.
How is a Google Discover feed generated?
Google themselves have stated that Google Discover feeds are based on the following user information:
- Web and app activity
- Location history
- Topics they follow
- Location settings
The content in the Google Discover feed can therefore change depending on shifts in a user’s behaviour. From the perspective of you as a website owner and content creator, you can expect the kind of traffic to change in accordance with user behaviour too.
What content does Google display?
On the Discover feed, you’ll find the following content types:
Links to articles
These do what they say on the tin - a headline and thumbnail image direct users to the publisher’s website so that they can read the full article.
YouTube videos
Google owns YouTube, so a user’s YouTube history can be used alongside browsing data to present users with YouTube videos and shorts that they might like.
Web ‘stories’
This is visual full-screen content, similar to an Instagram story, where images, video, and audio are combined.
Discover ads
Occasionally you may find ads that have been created with Google Discover also appear within the feed.
Why should you optimise your website for Google Discover?
We’d recommend taking Google Discover optimisation into account when you’re creating your web content, for several good reasons:
It can drive traffic
The most obvious reason for optimising your site’s content for Google Discover is that it can drive traffic. If you’re publishing relevant and helpful content to your site, it could be pushed to interested users who are likely to click through to your website. Because Google has chosen these users to show your content based on their interests, there’s every chance they’ll stay and engage with other areas of your site. Who knows - they could even turn into paying customers.
Visibility increases
By appearing in front of target users, awareness of your brand increases amongst the right people. This could introduce your brand to users who may not have heard of you before, but may well remember you in the future.
Users can return to your site
Google Discover gives users the option to ‘follow’ publications that they like. Those that do so are then served your content in the future, increasing return visits to your website.
How can you optimise your site for Google Discover?
Now you know why you should be optimising your site for Google Discover, it’s time to find out how to do it. If you’re already on board with SEO in general, these points won’t come as too much of a surprise. They’re good practice anyway, but by paying a little extra attention, the rewards you reap through Google Discover could help increase your traffic further.
Create good content
It sounds obvious, but optimising for Google Discover is a bit of a mindset to get into when planning your content. This means thoroughly covering topics relevant to what you do based on analysis and research that you’ve carried out yourself; Google won’t really rate copied or retold content very highly. This also means you can’t rely on Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT.
Don’t forget to follow SEO best practice as you usually would to get the most from your content as well as optimising it for Google Discover. This means doing keyword research, answering users’ potential questions, and backing up your content with data, too.
Apply E-E-A-T principles
This point links into creating good content, but it’s so important that it deserves some real emphasis from us. Google prioritises E-E-A-T: content that demonstrates Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. There’s no indication that the way it prioritises content for Google Discover is any different.
To cover this off, you need to ensure that you have first-hand experience in the topic you’re covering in your content, and that you demonstrate your expertise when you cover it; that’s knowledge, skills, and credentials.
Google also looks for authority, which means that you or the website is a reliable source; it’ll look for quality backlinks that show others point to your content. You’ll need to be publishing the content on a trustworthy site, too: that’s one that’s secure, up-to-date, and there’s evidence of things like relevant certifications, such as those required to talk about finance.
Optimise your titles
To optimise your content for Google Discover, your titles should be the best they can be. This means that the title of your content itself is a real attention-grabber that:
Shows the value of consuming the content
What will the user be able to do or know by the end of it?
Captures their curiosity
Seeing that they can find out something by clicking on your content makes users more likely to do so.
Includes numbers
Numbers tend to grab attention by representing facts; they can easily be understood, so including them in your content titles makes a click more likely.
Avoids clickbait
No one likes to have their time wasted by an article they thought would tell them something interesting. Google hates it too - don’t try to mislead readers.
Use high-quality images
If social media has taught us anything, it’s that we’re very visual people when it comes to consuming content online. This makes the images you use alongside your content crucial; it’s best to use large, high-quality imagery. Google’s guidelines state that images need to be 1200px wide, or more and enabled using the “max-image-preview:large” setting.
These images should also:
- Be relevant to the topic you’re covering
- Not be your logo
- Not have a white background
Don’t forget to pick a relevant thumbnail image, too!
Keep mobile in mind
As we’ve mentioned, Google Discover is only available on mobile devices. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that well over half of all internet browsing is now done on mobile devices, so it’s crucial to optimise your site for mobile browsing anyway. If you need a reminder of the mobile optimisation golden rules, let us help:
- Fast page load speeds
- Responsive website design
- Clear, user-friendly navigation that’s easily viewed on smaller screens
- Enable Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which improves page loading speeds and performance by simplifying the page code itself
Make optimising for Google Discover part of your strategy
By considering all the above in your content creation, you’re well on your way to optimising for Google Discover. This feed is a valuable way to direct traffic to your website, and should be taken into account alongside the traditional SEO strategies you’re using to rise through the rankings on the SERPs.
Get help with your SEO
We know that optimising your website in general, let alone for Google Discover, is often a bit of an ask when you’re running a business, but it’s still crucial to your online success. An SEO agency like 427 can help lift the weight from your shoulders, whilst working on your search success, which can be the sustainable marketing channel that makes all the difference to the way your brand is found. Get in touch today for a no-obligation chat about how we can help.