As an SEO executive, the only goal of your job is to rank a website high on Google. You are grueling all day performing Google’s best SEO practices so that your web pages rank on the first page. You must analyze a horde of keywords and carefully handpick the ones your audience searches for. All these activities sound extremely exhausting! Is there no other way to reach your target audience organically? There is a way. Let us remind you.
SEO executives forget about one Google feature that automatically shows your content to the audience without any search query. It is Google Discover! The Google Discover feed shows blog posts and articles based on the user’s search history. There is no query involved here. Only high-quality content shows up for the user so that he quickly clicks on it.
Demystifying Google Discover!
If you are wondering what Google Discover is, let us explain it to you. Google Discover is a feature that appears on your Chrome or Google App. Once you open the app, you can see news updates and articles that Google thinks you might be interested in. Google gathers all this data from your search history, click-through rate (CTR), dwell time, bounce rate, and other parameters.
Users can also follow your content by clicking the ‘Follow’ option. However, this feature is only available for users based in the US, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, Canada, and Australia.
Google’s artificial intelligence then uses machine learning to recommend relevant blog posts. The goal of this feature is to enhance a user’s experience on the app as they can instantly learn about new developments in the topics they are interested in. Therefore, you must go beyond simple keyword research and search intent for your content to appear in the Google Discover feed.
Traditional SEO
SEO executives often work with a few keywords. There is one downside to this phenomenon. You are working with only one type of search query and proposing solutions through your content. Your blogs fail to understand the psychology of the user’s mind from these single queries. Therefore, the results are also lopsided. A holistic Google Discover SEO strategy that dives deeper into your user’s mindset will help you appear on the Discover feed.
Technical SEO
Your website must be mobile-friendly. Many users open the Google app for news updates. Hence, a mobile-friendly website and faster page-loading speed will enhance your ranking. You can do this by optimizing the UX of your website for mobiles. This will ensure that the schema and other website elements appear properly and do not disturb the reading process.
Content
Content is king for Google Discover SEO. It should not be redundant and contain some unique instances that no other website can provide to your consumer. Think about yourself when you read an article on Google. Would you like to read something that everybody knows? No, right? Therefore, focus on abundant research to produce value-adding content. The content must pass Google’s EEAT parameter.
Metadata
The title of your article matters a lot for it to get clicks. It should be catchy enough to captivate the audience’s attention when they scroll through the feed, hungry to read something. Your title should evoke a sense of curiosity in them. Simultaneously, ensure that it is optimized with keywords. Your users can also give negative feedback to Google, which will hamper your SEO efforts. Hence, remember to engage them throughout the article.
SEO Strategies for Discover Domination
There are more Google best SEO practices that you can use to appear in the Discover section. We have tested these practices. You can also verify them using Google Search Central’s guidelines.
High-Quality Images
Google says that you can use a preview image of at least 1,200 pixels, and it is enabled by the max-image-preview: large setting. Large images are more likely to appear on the feed. You can include vital information about the content in these images that will tell the reader what lies ahead. Another catch is that you must avoid using your website logo for the images.
Non-clickbait Preview
Google takes clickbait titles very seriously. It will penalize your content if you are not providing the value you promise. Hence, another Google Discover SEO practice is to ensure none of your preview elements are clickbait. Use honest titles, descriptions, and images for your previews. You can solve these issues by analyzing Discover’s performance report.
Trending Content
One of the best ways to rank in the Google Discover feed is through trending content. It is no wonder that 46% of news articles appear on the feed compared to other articles. Moreover, 99% of the clicks are received by these news articles. Hence, you can imagine the value of trending content on the Discover feed. Users click more on this content, and you should produce more trending articles.
The Evolving Landscape
Short-form content is in vogue right now. Let’s take one example. You must have seen Web Stories in your Discover feed. You can quickly click on these stories, see the images, and read the content. More such web stories will appear in your feed later. Thus, we can infer that Discover will show the type of content that we are more likely to click on.
The Discover feed will also change based on new Search updates and user preferences. Maybe Google’s use case will change tomorrow, and Discover will also show different things. The introduction of AI-generated search results will also change user activity. Hence, all these factors will contribute to a more nuanced Discover section on the Google app.
The Final Verdict
Traditional SEO focuses on keywords and search intent, while Google Discover prioritizes user behavior and high-quality content. Optimize your website for mobile, create unique and informative content, and utilize effective metadata to improve your chances of appearing in Discover. Remember, Google Discover SEO constantly evolves, so get updates on the latest trends and user preferences!
