What is Google Discover and how does it affect SEO?
Updated: 22nd September 2022
Reading time: 6 min
If you're using Google's mobile app, you might already know what I'm going to talk about.In this article, I would like to familiarize you with Google Discover. It is a place where personalised content is placed, based on users' interaction with their search engine.
We all know that the global giant continually seeks to diversify and add new solutions. At Google, every tool is carefully designed and serves its purpose. If you look at Discover, it's no different. This is a very useful feature, built for mobile device users. It was formerly known as Google Feed and originally as Google Now. Why the idea of amending it and introducing new interesting additions? Do you need to start optimizing articles on your pages?
What is Google Discover?
In 2017, the renowned Mountain View CA company refreshed the way they present new information to their users. And as with every recent trend, Google geared its products towards the best possible fit for the individual user rather than the public. The Google mobile app lets you see the customized content you're interested in. It can be compared to a typical view of the main Facebook page - there is plenty of information and graphics which are specifically selected to suit your tastes. You will also see articles, pictures, events, news, videos, and everything that might interest you. Google says the application is already being used by over 800 million people per month.
How do I use Google Discover?
We can access Google Discover from the address google.com or Google app on our mobile device. The feed should appear automatically, but if it's not here yet, you can easily change it. To use it go to settings and enable the'' Activity in the Internet and applications' option.
Next, we can choose which types of notifications we would like to receive, follow new topics, cancel existing ones, or restore deleted sources. Interestingly, we can share the articles found there directly with friends or post them on social networks. Another useful feature offered by Google Discover is the ability to listen to articles through the ‘’read aloud’’ option.
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How does Google know what to show me?
With Discover, Google follows your habits so it can provide you with the most relevant content possible. It works through analytics based on user data such as their profession, search history, interactions with Google tools and location, as well as data from their mobile device such as contacts, apps and calendar. It uses Google News AI/ML technology - to find the latest news and Topic Layer to understand the user's interests - to select the most personalised content possible. It's a smart analysis by AI.
In addition, Google Discover can retrieve information from any site you log in to with your Google account. This way, the app knows about your travels, online purchases or movies watched. These solutions allow us to find materials linked to our interests without having to seek them out.
AI/ML
The aforementioned AI/ML technology is the artificial intelligence used to analyse the flow of information in real-time and organize it. It continuously aggregates web content into groups of topics based on what they are about, and all of a user's actions on Google Discover are analysed to display articles tailored to their interests. The user may also adjust the displayed information by rejecting subjects that are not of interest to him. This makes it possible for Google Discover to understand people, places, and current events and connect them in an appropriate way. And since AI is raising its popularity, chatGPT software development is also gaining power.
Topic Layer
On their official blog, Google has announced that their new feature, ''Topic Layer'', will enable it to predict a user's level of knowledge on a topic and help them further develop their interests. For example, if someone is learning to paint, he or she will see content for beginners, such as color selection or recommended techniques. However, if one is an experienced artist, it will show him or her other, more advanced topics. The Topic Layer is created by analyzing the material on a subject that exists on the web and creates hundreds if not thousands of sub-subjects. This allows Google to intelligently determine the type of content the user wants to explore next.
Is my website content being shown on Google Discover?
It's a good idea to start by ensuring that your website has the necessary features to qualify for Google detection. The site needs to be verified and indexed in Search Console, and the content needs to meet standards and comply with current policies - you can read about these on the official Google website. No special tags or treatments are necessary. Please note that Google cannot guarantee that your page will be displayed on Discover even if it meets all requirements.
It is important that our website contains up-to-date information and follows the current trends. It is worth adding publication dates and details such as authors, editors, companies, and contact information.
How do I appear on Google Discover?
There are several recommendations your site should follow to increase its likelihood of appearing on Discover.
Do not use clickbait
Find appropriate titles for the content. Do not attract users by giving an eye-catching, but misleading heading. Google picks up on this. Also, avoid writing articles and placing graphics to create an artificial response. Your website must be valuable and credible, and it must apply to the interests of the user.
Take care of the content
It is important that our website contains up-to-date information and follows the current trends. It is worth adding publication dates and details such as authors, editors, companies, and contact information. After Google Discover, the most important thing is that the material is suitable for a specific target audience and creates interest. In writing articles, it is important to present a unique point of view. This will prove to Google that there is an actual person behind your content.
Original photos
It is very important to include attractive photos, as well as pictures of professional quality. These are the ones that will make it through to Google Discover. Make sure they are at least 1200 pixels wide (must be activated using max-image-preview: great setting or AMP technology). The material cannot be downloaded from other sites, the thumbnail cannot be the website logo and, as for the content, we can't be using click baits. Since each item published on Google Discover comes with an image and a title, let's use this knowledge to our advantage. Google indicates that users receive more posts with images and fresh visual content than text alone. To sum up: your content must look good, so focus on the visual aspect as much as on the rest of your material.
Responsiveness (Mobile-Friendliness) is a must
Since Google Discover runs primarily on smartphones, your site, as well as its graphics and content, must be responsive, adjusted for mobile devices. Then make sure your website is RWD and has no technical problems when it is displayed on mobile devices - otherwise, it will automatically lose its chance to appear on Discover.
Ensure a high EAT
It is also necessary to ensure a high EAT (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) index. First: Expertise - assumes that content editors are experts in a given field, so when writing articles, it is worth underlining their qualifications, diplomas, or certificates (for example, perhaps they hold a project management Master's degree). Writers of niche, purely hobbyist sites can also count on the same status. With Authoritativeness, this is somewhat related to the first issue. You can increase the page authority level by creating articles at an expert level. Trustworthiness is based on the trust built up in the relationship with the user. Our website must be trustworthy. For e-commerce domains and all others that handle online payments, we must take care of an SSL certificate to ensure the security of our users.
Drive traffic to your website
Website traffic is equally important. Post shares, interactions, or comments are important factors considered by Google. "Evergreen content" has gained significant visibility, making it a dominant source of information in Google Discover.
What is Evergreen Content?
In short, it's timeless, popular content that generates traffic to our site over many months or even years. Evergreen content is like trees whose leaves never fall off - always attractive and generating interest. This means that to get the best result, you need a strategy that includes evergreen topics.
We must not forget that content like news, sales offers, articles on current trends or reports and statistics will never be green. When writing a text, it is worth finding out whether a topic is popular and how often it is searched for. Use Google Trends as the tool to do so. Don't forget to update old articles with the latest data regularly.
Why is it worth appearing on Google Discover?
Unfortunately, apart from the aforementioned factors increasing the likelihood of a page appearing on Google Discover, we have little influence on whether our article will appear there. However, if we are selected by the algorithm and our content is displayed to users, we stand a chance of a rapid increase in page views. The reason is clear - more content tailored to user preferences is more likely to draw their interest and make them click on our article. Subsequently, this will increase traffic to our site, which will bring huge benefits. When it comes to running a shop, Google Discover is an ideal channel to reach potential customers, as well as increasing our brand recognition - an essential part of successful sales. However, what happens after they redirect a user to our website is up to us.
Monitoring statistics in Google Discover
One of the new features that Google offers us is to monitor the performance and efficiency of our website is a free tool, Google Search Console. With the help of an accurate graph that we will get in the effectiveness report in Discover, we will be able to verify the traffic on our site and find out how it is happening (i.e. how often users click on our articles and graphics, which queries cause it to be displayed, etc.). Using this tool, we will be able to verify whether Google can find and index our site. It will also eliminate potential problems with AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) pages. Search Console is mainly intended for users such as business owners, SEO specialists and marketers or administrators, programmers, and web designers. To use it, we need our Google account. Please note that this report will only be available for sites that have already received traffic from other sources or it will not be visible to us.
Summary on Google Discover
We all know that Google is the number one search engine in the world. When searching for information on the Internet, most users first use this browser. Therefore, it is worth improving our articles, taking care of guidelines, and increasing the chances of appearing in Google Discover. Thanks to Google Discover we will be able to effectively promote our content and increase traffic to our website. As we mentioned, in order to be featured, it's worth following Google's rules about their policies and creating valuable content. The content must be timeless, responsive, rich in factual information, but also important. It is worthwhile for them to hook into current trends and be visually unique. Google's policy is changing all the time and now it is no longer a contest for who can put more keywords in the text. At the moment, the people who devote the most time and preparation to their sites win. Because of this, Google rewards those who take care of their content and users. Also check out how seo for small business can help you succeed!
It is really simple to set up a great website that will make it through to Google Discover using WebWave. We offer advanced and convenient creation of your site. You can also format articles in a unique way and verify or analyze SEO in real-time. So don't wait and try our website builder now!
Authors: Paula Niziołek & Przemysław Pajdak
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