How to Optimize Your Content for Google Discover

Google’s SERPs traditionally offer the most relevant results based on the user’s search query. However, Google Discover was designed to offer content even before a user looks for it or isn’t searching. Discover is essentially a scrollable list of relevant and interesting topics that users can browse on their smartphones. From current events and entertainment updates to hobbies and sports scores, Discover offers you evergreen content that helps you learn more about subjects you enjoy. In summary, Google Discover is a content hub where users can find your content.

Discover is the new avatar of Google feed which was introduced in 2017. But it’s not just the name that has changed! It has been redesigned to offer evergreen and relevant content in multiple languages and give users more control and context, allowing them to customize what they see. 

Do people love it? Well, a recent poll does show that a majority of users access Google Discover to keep abreast with the developments in their field of interest. 

Source: https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/12/16/weekend-poll-how-often-do-you-use-googles-discover-feed/

The content that surfaces on Google Discover is algorithmically ranked based on what Google thinks might be relevant to a user. Obviously, that makes it an interesting channel for driving quality traffic to your website or blog. Read on to know a few interesting tips for standing out on Google Discover and winning more traffic. 

1. Write Awesome Content

It goes without saying that high-quality and engaging content is important to rank higher not just in Google’s SERP but also on Discover. Users should find your content relevant, value-adding, engaging, and shareable. Remember, Discover aims at serving content on a per the user. Thus, creating relevant and impactful content should be your priority. 

Here are a few quick tips to stay on top of Google Discover.

a) Create E-A-T Worthy Content 

Pay attention to the E-A-T criteria of Google’s search quality rater guidelines. It clearly states that a website that scores high in Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness gets a priority when it comes to ranking. 

Boost the credibility of your website by adding author bylines to your posts. This allows users to know about the author and contact them if needed. Further, an impressive ‘About Us’ and ‘Contact Us’ page can give the visitor (and Google!) a clear understanding of your website, boosting its authenticity and trustworthiness. Finally, switch to HTTPS, if you haven’t as yet! HTTPS is one of the most important Google ranking signals. Plus, you definitely don’t want to scare away your visitors with this warning sign from Google. 

Source: http://scratchpads.eu/explore/sites-list

Work towards improving your E-A-T rating to boost your website’s reputation and rank higher on Google Discover. 

b) Balance Fresh and Evergreen Content 

Google Discover doesn’t just offer new or current content; it prioritizes evergreen content too. Discover’s algorithm matches content with a distinct user’s interests. Plus, it attracts a large group of people who are attuned to your niche. Therefore, you can benefit by sharing old (evergreen) and new content on your site. 

Google Discover heavily depends on a user’s past search behavior. Therefore, your content marketing strategy should offer a healthy mix of recent and evergreen content that’s similar to the content the user has already consumed. 

Evergreen content like interviews, case studies, or beginner’s guide relevant to a trending topic can help you recycle the same ideas while changing the perspective. For instance, if Google’s January 2020 Core Update is trending and of interest to the user, posts like these can really perform well on Discover. 

Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-january-2020-core-update-is-rolling-out-imminently/343271/#close

Source: https://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/january-2020-core-algorithm-update/

The Google Discover algorithm rewards content that covers the latest trends and long-lasting content, allowing you to reel high volumes of traffic. 

c) Post Engaging Videos 

Google Discover prefers content sprinkled with relevant, high-quality, and engaging videos. Make sure you embed videos related to the content to boost your content visibility and readership. But don’t forget to add a relevant caption and transcript to help Google and your visitors get the context of the video. 

2. Use High-Quality Images 

Webpages with large and high-quality images (not thumbnails!) perform better on Google Discover. Check out what the search engine giant has to say in this regard. 

Source: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9046777?hl=en

Also, take care to compress the image and have a descriptive file name, caption, and alt text attribution for all images and videos. This adds context to the image or video, makes your webpages accessible, and helps visitors understand the content better. Google also prioritizes images and embedded videos directly tied to content, enabling you to rank higher on Discover. 

Finally, make sure your feature image is as catchy as your headline, winning your post a high CTR and helping you rank on Discover.

3. Focus on Indexing

A mobile-friendly and indexed website meets Google’s criteria for not only appearing on Discover but also getting awarded with a prime spot with higher visibility. Make sure your pages with fresh and evergreen content are indexed (in your XML sitemap), allowing Google’s crawlers to find them easily. 

Use Google Search Console’s Index Coverage report to know which webpages have been indexed and issues like server errors, 404 errors, missing pages, and others. Further, if your website uses JavaScript, you may run into crawling and rendering issues. Read our post on ‘JavaScript Rendering’ to get effective tips on this subject. 

4. Track Your Performance

Google Search Console is a great tool for tracking how your content is performing on Discover. It can show you how much traffic your site is enjoying. Besides, it can also track – 

  • How often your website is shown in the users’ Discover
  • The pieces of content that’s performing best
  • How your content performs in comparison to the traditional searches

Source: https://ppc.land/google-launches-discover-report-on-search-console/

In fact, in December 2019, Google rolled out fresher Discover data on the Performance reports. This allows you to get data as recent as less than a day and identify trends and patterns over time.

Source: https://twitter.com/googlewmc/status/1206979524052897792

Summing Up

Google has always tried to introduce interesting search features that offer relevant content to its users and boost user experience. Take the example of features like Knowledge Graph,  voice search, structured data, and featured snippets. Each of these allows users to conveniently find relevant content around topics they care about. 

Google Discover is yet another endeavor that refers to the user’s personal search history and artificial intelligence, to surface fresh and evergreen information relating to their interests. Discover uses algorithms to match an article’s content and a user’s interests. So, posting good-quality content is probably the only thing you can do to rank on Discover. Use the aforementioned tip to rank high on Google Discover and improve your visibility.

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