Have you ever opened an app on your phone and found yourself being offered content that seemed specially curated to you and your interests?
This isn’t anything new, as social media and even streaming services constantly push recommendations using a set of algorithms to keep you on the app.
In the same way, Google also offers you content you never searched for, but you would still likely be keen to read, through Google Discover.
From the moment you open the Chrome or Google app, it’s possible to have your content featured on Google Discover, further driving traffic to your website.
In this post, we break down all you need to know about the Google Discover feed, and how you can get your content on it.
What Is Google Discover?
Google Discover is a feed dedicated to recommending content that the system believes will be of interest to the user. Compared to the Google News feed, the content recommended could be of evergreen entertainment and informative value to their users.
There will still be Google Discover news as well from time to time, but it’s less limited in comparison.
Google Discover is found mainly on the Chrome or Google app, where all you need to do is open the app and a number of articles that suit your interest would line up below the search bar.
In fact, for Google Discover on Chrome, you can find the words ‘Discover’ right below the search bar, while in the Google app, there’s a Discover section on the bottom left of the app. Unfortunately, there’s no Google Discover on desktop.
This section is curated using Google’s AI, which offers suggested articles or content to users based on their activity in Chrome or Google Search history. This includes web searches, app activity, location history, my google history, and even current location.
There’s also more control on what appears on Google Discover, as users can manage their interests in the settings and can even follow certain topics, people, companies, and more – to build up their preferred Google Discover feed.
How Does Google Discover Work For Users
This Google feature has actually been around for about a decade, where it was once called (and now defunct) Google Now.
Google Now delivered predicted information to users based on earlier mentioned criterias (web searches, web activity, etc.) to curate information in the form of informational cards.
Google has been tweaking this concept for a while, to the point that Google Now was rebranded to Google Feed. After all that effort, we have now come to it being known as Google Discover.
But what has changed? What are the improvements that Google has made with Discover Google? Here are some notable differences between Google Feed and Google Discover.
Google Feed vs Google Discover
- Name — Google has changed the name of this feature quite a few times. They shared that the reason they changed from Google Feed to Google Discover was because the new name better reflects the goal of wanting to get their users to discover fresh and engaging content.
- Look — Google Discover is meant to be more visually appealing compared to Google Feed, with topic headers and a Discover icon. The visuals make it clear that users can optimize their experience with their Discover feed, with hearts and share buttons, even when you’re using Google Discover dark mode.
- Updated Content — Google is making it possible to get new content every time a user goes on the Discover page. Before this, Google Feed focused only on the latest news. With Discover, even evergreen content will be recommended if a user shows interest in the topic.
- More Control — Compared to Google Feed, users now have better control with Discover. Every content shared has a Control icon at the bottom, where users can tap and select options on whether they want to see more or less of it.
- Convenience — Google Discover is available on both the Google and Chrome app, making it available to all Android phone, iPhone, and tablet users. It’s a lot more user-friendly, and you have the option to disable it easily if you don’t want it either.
- Optimization — Because Google now offers a mix of evergreen and timely content on Google Discover compared to before, businesses and marketers can now truly consider Google Discover as part of their SEO strategy. There are certain criterias that must be met in advance, but all in all, it’s entirely possible.
Why SEO Is Key For Google Discover
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays a role in how your content gets discovered by your potential target audience.
SEO is mainly known for having your content appear on the search engine results page (SERP); however, it can also help to appear in other areas such as Google Knowledge Panel, and now even Google Discover.
The key is to develop an SEO strategy with a more precise goal to appear on these various platforms, as one strategy alone doesn’t guarantee your content will appear everywhere as you may hope.
It’s all about understanding these different platforms, knowing what they’re looking for, and developing an SEO strategy to get your content where it needs to be.
Google Discover is a great platform to get you content on, so if you want your content to appear there, SEO can help.
Is My Website’s Content Eligible To Appear On Google Discover?
Your website’s content, and any content for that matter, is eligible to appear as long as it follows two important criterias:
- The content is indexed by Google
- The content meets Google Discover’s content policies
Your website doesn’t require any additional special tags or structured data to appear on the Google Discover app. However, the content is still subject to Google’s algorithm, so it’s still best to have an SEO strategy increase the chances of your website appearing on Google Discover.
How To Optimize Your Content For Google Discover
As Google Discover is all about content, the core of getting your website on it is to optimize your content accordingly. Here are some steps for you to plan out your SEO strategy for it.
1. Create Great Blog Content
The core of any SEO strategy is providing content that is high-quality yet relevant, providing answers and information your target audience is looking for, or would be interested in.
For Google Discover, there’s a few added layers to consider as well. This includes:
Timing
Google Discover often goes for trending topics or popular subjects within the niche or industry you’re in. This is to say posting the right content at the right time can help boost your content’s chances of appearing on the platform.
Relevancy
Google Discover doesn’t always show the latest news and trends, as it all depends on the user’s interest.
For example, if Google notices a user is showing interest in Singapore tourist locations, the platform may start pulling up older content related to traveling to Singapore. This gives your evergreen content a chance to appear on the platform as well.
Based on this, as long as your content fits your user’s interest and is known to help users, there’s a chance for your website’s content to appear on Google Discover.
2. Gain Followers
If you’re already encouraging your target audience to follow you on various social media platforms, you can encourage them to follow you on Google Discover too!
Having more followers on Discover will increase domain authority for your website, which also increases the chances of your content appearing to non-followers as well.
Compared to other platforms that have easy buttons for instant follows, Google Discover can be a bit more challenging as it takes a few steps.
Feel free to link potential followers to Google’s own article to customize user’s Discover feed, recommending the topic and your website or brand name to follow to keep them in the loop.
3. Build Trust With Readers
Developing trust with your readers helps them choose your content over others. The more activity you gain from your followers, the more likely it is for Google to take notice and start pushing your content on Google Discover.
Encourage your target audience to share your content on their preferred top social media platforms, and talk about your website or what you do to help Google take notice of you further.
The best way to encourage your target audience to share your content is to ensure that the content provides value to the reader that they would want to either share to refer to later, or share to their connections.
You can also remind them to share at the end of the article if they had found it useful!
4. Boost Social Engagement
Engagement with your content should always be welcomed and encouraged, as this increases your chances of being noticed by Google, leading to a higher chance of appearing on Google Discover.
If your content sparks a discussion and users are asking questions, you can further this engagement by joining in the discussion and answering questions.
You can also encourage your audience by providing questions they can answer, or activities they can join in such as ‘fill in the blank’, or even offer them incentives such as getting them featured on your platform when they share your content.
This will help build trust and engagement with users that’s sure to help your content stand out further.
5. Optimize For AMPs
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a system that allows you to create user-first experiences, where mobile pages load faster as it’s within the system the link is open in.
Normal websites tend to have slower loading times, especially if it’s a new user, so ensuring your content is AMP-optimized speeds up the loading process and keeps the readers on for longer.
While it’s true that an AMP-optimized website is not a required criteria to appear on Google Discover, it’s still a good feature to have as this makes the viewing process on mobile a lot easier for the user.
Being mobile-optimized will lead to higher traffic and lower bounce rate on your website, making it easier for your content to appear on a Discover feed.
Related: Optimizing Website for Mobile SEO
6. Place Focus On Visuals
Google Discover’s layout places high importance on visuals, as they use a big visual thumbnail along with the headline as part of its design. If you want to have your content appear on Discover, be sure to include a header image that’s at least 1,200 px wide.
You also want to make sure that the image is relevant and compels the potential target audience to click on the content. Of course, try to opt for your own original images where possible rather than generic stock images.
You can also include high-quality videos to your content, as long as it’s relevant as well. This includes case studies, product demos, reviews, and more. The more relevant it is, the more likely it will be picked up by Google Discover.
7. Comply With SEO Best Practices
From targeting and utilizing the right keywords, right down to optimizing the headings and meta tags, following SEO practices can help make your content more discoverable to Google, eventually appearing on Discover.
This is why it’s good to have an SEO strategy that helps you audit your current content to see if it needs to be updated to relevant keywords, or you will need to create new content that utilizes the right keywords.
You can do more research on SEO content writing to help you find out other relevant best practices you can follow, or consider hiring an agency like One Search Pro to assist in customizing the best SEO strategy for your website.
8. Ensure Pages Are Crawlable
This goes without saying. In order for Google to index your content, which will lead to it possibly appearing on Google Discover, your website and especially the content pages need to be crawlable.
Google uses crawlers to find web pages using key signals, such as keywords and how new the website is, and indexes relevant pages.
These indexed pages are what Google pulls up if it’s relevant to what the user is searching for, or in Google Discover’s case, they get recommended on the Discover feed.
If you believe your website is having crawling issues, you may need to look into asking Google to recrawl your URLs and or look into the HTTP status of your website to fix this.
9. Review Google’s Publishing Policy
One of the other criterias required to have your content appear on Google Discover is to ensure that your content follows Google’s publishing policies. As long as your content follows its required content policies, it is safe and good to go.
Some of the policies you should look out for include:
- No illegal content
- No dangerous or derogatory content
- No animal cruelty
- No misrepresentative content
- No malicious or unwanted software
- No explicit content
- Etc.
Which is why when planning your content strategy, it’s good to review Google’s publishing policy from time to time to ensure your content appears safely on Google Discover.
This is even more relevant if your content could possibly touch on recent topics as Google may update the policy to ban updated topics such as specific wars or country tensions.
10. Get On GMB
Google really needs to get to know about you if they want to promote you and your content on their services. So on top of SEO, another area to look into is Google My Business (GMB).
GMB acts as a digital phonebook entry for Google to not just know more about you, but also uses this information as a form of verification. GMBs are also great as a part of an SEO strategy to reach local target audiences.
Having a good GMB strengthens your trustworthiness to Google, which makes it more likely for them to pick your content to push to relevant users.
As long as you have the right content and appear trustworthy to Google, the likeliness of your local SEO content appearing on Google Discover is a lot higher.
11. Publish Evergreen Content
While timeliness can play a major factor in getting your trending content pushed on Google Discover, it could easily disappear if it loses relevance.
You can work around this by ensuring your content stays evergreen, meaning the content is relevant regardless of the time of its publication.
This works especially for contents that focus on these angles:
- How-To Guides
- Checklists
- History-Of Content
- FAQs
- Case Studies
- Reviews Of Products and Services
- Resources
- Etc.
By creating evergreen content, it’s possible that users who are newly looking into your relevant topic or niche could find your content on Google Discover, even if it’s been posted months before, giving your website more traffic.
12. Cater To Reader Interests
Readers, as users of the web, are constantly looking for content. With such a wide array of content available, you need to make sure your website’s content caters to their interest in a way that keeps them entertained yet informed of what they’d like to know.
You can cater to their interests by doing research on systems that keep track of the latest trends such as Google Trends to discover if there’s something new your readers are interested in.
You can also look into your website’s analytics for high traffic content to see if you can create more content relating to said topic.
For a more direct approach, ask your followers! They may ask questions that they’d like to see answered, and you can create content related to said questions.
By knowing it’s a topic they’re interested in, you’re bound to keep readers coming back, leading to a higher chance of being on Google Discover.
13. Be Wary Of Clickbait Titles
Clickbait titles are known to work, but they aren’t always the best option. This is even more so if the clickbait title doesn’t match with the content!
If readers discover this mismatch and quickly leave your website, this increases your bounce rate and will make you lose credibility to Google as well.
Opt for titles that offer value to the readers instead. For example, “Create Catchy Headlines In 5 Steps” is a great title that shows readers your content can help them create their own content easily.
As long as the rest of your content delivers as per the title, there’s a high chance it will come up on Google Discover.
14. Pose Questions In Headlines
Other headlines you can opt for are those that pose questions instead. A lot of users are asking questions on Google, looking for answers on things such as “What is an ankle sprain”, to other topics such as “Why is the sky blue?”
If you know what your users are asking, and you can provide answers in the form of content, take this opportunity to have your headline as a question.
This also increases your chance of your content appearing on Google Discover, as people who have searched on said topic could be pushed on said platform as well.
15. Write On Niche Topics
Trending and popular topics can be a challenge to get your content on as you will have high competition, even more so on Google Discover. Which is why you’ll need to be more creative in your approach to creating content for your target audience.
Writing on niche topics may seem counterproductive if you aim to reach a wide audience, but it can help you define and target a specific audience that can guarantee you traffic and engagement.
For example, rather than writing about the topic of content marketing to the general audience, it would be better to write about content marketing for those in B2B instead.
Want to make it more niche-targeted? Specify the B2B industry, perhaps cloud computing, if you notice your target audience is interested in that.
The more niched your content is, the less competition you have, which makes your content more discoverable all around.
FAQs On Google Discover
1. How Can I Manage My Discover Interests In Chrome?
As Google automatically curates your Discover feed based on your activity across various platforms, it may show you content unrelated to your interests from time to time.
This is especially so if you merely searched on a topic out of curiosity, but aren’t keen to know more about it.
If you want to manage what you see on Discover, especially on the Chrome app on your Android phone or iPhone, you will need to manage your Google Discover settings accordingly:
- Tap on the gear icon (also known as Settings) on the same row as Discover
- Tap Manage interests
- Tap Your interests.
- Under “Topics you follow”, you can uncheck any topics you’re not interested in
2. How Does Google Discover Know What I Like?
As long as you’re using any Google product, including YouTube, Google will track your activities across these different platforms to formulate your interests. This includes activities such as your searches on Google and YouTube, web activity, and more.
Because of this, Google may mistake something you’re searching up on, whether casually or for work, as an interest. So it’s good to optimize your account accordingly so your Discover experience is more curated to your interests.
3. How to Optimize the Discover Feed Experience in Chrome?
On top of managing your settings, you can also provide feedback on every Google Discover content being recommended to you.
Every Discover content has three dots on the bottom right. Tapping on those dots will reveal more options where you can either choose to:
- Hide this so you don’t see only that content anymore
- Select Not Interested in [Topic] so you don’t get more content related to said topic
- Select Don’t Show Content from [Website] if you’re not a fan of the site.
If a topic of interest appears, a + Follow option will also be available, which you can select if you want to see more in the future. With these options, your Discover feed will be more optimized to your liking.
4. How Do I Avoid Google Discover Feed From Storing Any Information?
There are two ways to go about stopping Google Discover from storing any information when you’re browsing.
The temporary way is to use incognito mode or private browsing. No information is saved when you’re using incognito mode, which lets you safely browse or do research without the concern of it appearing on your Google Discover.
If you really want to maintain your privacy all the way or you find Google Discover not working for you, you can disable your Google Discover Feed.
5. How to Enable or Disable Discover in Chrome?
You will need the Google app to enable or disable your Discover feed, whether you’re on an Android phone or use an iPhone.
- Open the Google app
- Tap your profile picture or initial settings on the top right of the app
- Tap General
- In the Discover option, tap on the toggle to enable or disable the feed
6. How Do I Succeed on Google Discover?
The key to succeeding on Google Discover is to offer high quality content that your target audience would be interested in. This includes:
- Providing content that offers value to readers, addresses current interests, is well-written and provides great insight
- Having a preview content (title, snippet, high quality images) that is accurate to the content without depending on click bait or false information
- Improving your website so that Google picks up your site as one that demonstrates expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T)
With the right strategy and content, you can definitely succeed on Google Discover.
Get Your Website And Content Seen
There are many ways to get your content seen, with Google Discover being one of them. It’s a great option, as there’s a chance your content can be seen without having your target audience search for you.
If you’re hoping to widen your net and find more ways to get people to see your content and build up more organic traffic, we encourage site owners to hire SEO experts as they can give the advice and guidance needed to start.
At One Search Pro, our team of digital marketing experts can help you develop not just SEO but also marketing strategies, and implement them to help grow your business then raise your website and content to higher ranks.
Contact us today for a free consultation!
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