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Google Discover is a big shift in how people find things online. It’s not about users typing in keywords anymore.
Instead, Discover shows them personalized content. If you’re a publisher or own a website, you need to understand Google Discover. It can bring you a lot of interested readers.
Here’s a deep dive into Google Discover that will equip you with the knowledge that less than 1% of SEOs have.
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Google Discover SEO Essentials
To do SEO for Google Discover effectively, you need to understand what Google Discover is, how it works, and what sets it apart from regular search.
What is Google Discover and how does it work?
Google Discover is a personalized content feed that appears in the Google app (or if you swipe right on most Android phone), on mobile Chrome’s new tab, and now—slowly—on desktop too.
Regular Google Search needs you to type something in. Discover is different; it works like a newsfeed, suggesting articles and videos without you searching for anything. This means your Google Discover SEO strategy can’t just be about keywords. You need to match user interests and show high quality.
For your content to even be considered for Discover, Google has to index it, and it must follow Discover's content policies. You don’t need special tags or structured data, but they can help Google understand your content better. Just being eligible doesn't mean you'll show up in Discover; your content also has to be good and relevant enough for Google’s systems.
Google Discover changes how people find information. They are shown content Google thinks they’ll like, not just what they search for.
This means your Google Discover SEO content strategy needs to do more than answer questions. It should also guess what users might be interested in.
How content shows up in Google Discover
Google Discover works mainly through personalization. Google’s systems try to match content to what individual users like. They look at a user’s web and app activity, search history, browser history, location (if turned on), and how they’ve interacted with Discover content before. Users can also tell Discover what they like, follow topics, or follow specific websites.
Because it’s so personal, what one person sees in Discover can be very different from what another sees. So, to do well in Discover, you need to create content that really connects with specific interests. Discover can show all sorts of topics. Even older content can pop up again if it’s still useful to users. This shows why good evergreen content that you keep updated is so valuable.
Because Google uses “Web and App Activity,” what users do on YouTube, Chrome, and Google News also shapes their Discover feed. So, having content on different Google platforms might help your Discover chances.
Why Google Discover matters
Google Discover can send a lot of traffic to websites. Some publishers say it brings as much, or even more, than regular Google Search. This traffic can be a bit unpredictable compared to keyword-driven search traffic, but there can be a lot of it. Think of it as extra traffic that can get your content in front of new people.
One cool thing in Discover is the “Follow” button. Users can use it to get updates from websites they like. These updates show up in a “Following” tab in their Discover feed.6 The Follow feature gives you a way to build a steady group of readers in Discover, which could mean more regular traffic.
As Google Discover on desktop rolls out, the opportunity only gets bigger. Now’s the time to get your content ready.
Check Google Discover SEO documentation on Google Search Central.
1: E-E-A-T for Google Discover SEO
Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) is super important for content quality. It’s especially key for Google Discover SEO.
E-E-A-T is how Google checks if your content is good, credible, and reliable. For Google Discover, which sends content to users directly, strong E-E-A-T signals tell Google your content is worth showing.
E-E-A-T not a direct ranking factor like in old-school SEO, but E-E-A-T is a way of thinking about making helpful, people-first content.
Here’s what E-E-A-T means:
- Experience: The person who made the content has real, first-hand experience with the topic. For instance, if I review a hotel, I should have actually stayed there.
- Expertise: The author knows their stuff, has skills, or qualifications in the subject.
- Authoritativeness: The content creator or website is known as a go-to source in its field.
- Trustworthiness: The content and website are accurate, honest, safe, and reliable.
Each part of E-E-A-T is important. Experience makes content real. Expertise makes it accurate. Authoritativeness builds respect. Trustworthiness makes it safe.
Since Discover suggests content, Google needs to be extra sure it’s not harmful or low-quality. High E-E-A-T makes your content “safer” for Google to recommend. The better your E-E-A-T, the more likely Google will show your content in Discover.
How to Build and Showcase E-E-A-T Signals
Building and showing E-E-A-T isn’t just one thing; it’s many things you do with your content and website. Here are the most important ones:
- Use Real Experts and First-Hand Experience:
- Have people with real experience or expertise write or check your content.
- Show their qualifications or life experiences in the content or in author bios.
- For news, be clear about dates, who wrote it, and information about the author and publisher.15
- Build Trust with Accuracy and Transparency:
- Make sure your content is accurate and honest.
- Cite good sources, especially for facts or data.
- A good brand reputation also helps build trust.
- Use Original Pictures and Videos:
- Use your own photos and videos when you can, not just stock images.
- Original visuals can show first-hand experience and make content more unique and trustworthy.
- Make Good Author Profiles:
- Create author pages on your site.
- These pages should show who the author is (with a photo), their experience and expertise, contact info (if it makes sense), a list of their articles, and any press mentions.
- Personal Stories:
- The “Experience” part of E-E-A-T fits well with what Discover likes: “soft-lens” content, personal stories, and unique views.
- Content that shares personal journeys or unique insights from real experience has strong “Experience.”
- This makes it more interesting and trustworthy for Discover. You should try to create and feature these kinds of stories.
- Author and Publisher Credibility:
- Google looks at E-E-A-T for both the person who wrote the content and the website itself.
- For news, it’s important to give information about the company behind the content and have contact info.
- Discover success depends on both the quality of one article and the reputation of the author and the publisher. A website known for good, trustworthy content in a certain area is more likely to get into Discover.
Even if a website is generally good, a specific page can still lack E-E-A-T. So, you need to keep up quality and E-E-A-T on all content you want in Discover.
Building strong E-E-A-T takes time; it’s not a quick fix. A few good articles on a site that usually has low E-E-A-T won’t do as well in Discover as consistent, high-E-E-A-T content from a site that has built up authority and trust. Google rewards ongoing effort in publishing expert, reliable content.
Summary of E-E-A-T Signals & Google Discover SEO Optimization Tactics
The following table outlines how different E-E-A-T pillars can be translated into actionable tactics for Google Discover.
Table 1: E-E-A-T Signals & Discover Optimization Tactics
| E-E-A-T Pillar | Key Signal for Google | Actionable Tactic for Discover | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Experience | First-hand involvement, real-world application | Publish content by authors with direct experience; use original photos/videos from experiences; share personal stories/insights. | A travel blogger reviews a resort they personally visited, including their own photos of the amenities. |
| Expertise | Deep knowledge, skill, qualifications | Feature content from credentialed experts; cite authoritative research; provide in-depth analysis. | A finance site publishes an article on investment strategies written by a certified financial planner. |
| Authoritativeness | Recognition as a go-to source, established reputation | Build a strong brand; earn mentions/links from reputable sites; showcase awards/accolades; create comprehensive author bios. | An established medical journal publishing a new study that gets cited by mainstream news outlets. |
| Trustworthiness | Accuracy, honesty, safety, reliability, transparency | Ensure factual accuracy; provide clear sourcing; maintain a secure website (HTTPS); have clear contact info & policies; clearly disclose sponsored content. | A news site promptly issues corrections for any factual errors and has a clear ethics policy. |
Check Google’s E-E-A-T documentation for more detail.
2: Content Strategy for Google Discover SEO
Creating content that resonates with Google Discover’s algorithms and user expectations requires a strategic approach to topic selection, headline crafting, content development, and maintaining freshness.
Identifying high-potential topics for Google Discover
The main thing for a good Discover content strategy is matching content with what your audience really likes. Discover shows content based on users’ past browsing, search history, and stated interests.
So, you need to know what your audience cares about, their hobbies, and what problems they have. Looking at how your audience engages with your content can give you clues about good topics.
Pro tips for choosing topics for Google Discover:
- Being timely is important for some Discover content. Google likes fresh content on trending topics or updates on current situations.
- For news or trends, content might only stay in Discover for a day or two. This means you need to be quick if you cover current events.
- Evergreen topics can also do well, as long as you update them to keep them relevant and accurate.
- Discover often likes “soft-lens” content. This includes personal stories, lifestyle articles, deep dives into niche topics, unique insights, and good storytelling.
- Very factual content, like hard news or dry civic info, might not do as well in Discover as content that’s more engaging or emotional.
- Things like educational content, good listicles, insightful opinion pieces, and detailed product reviews can do well if they are high quality and focus on user interest.
- For listicles, being specific (like “7 Obscure SEO Tactics for Emerging Niches” instead of “7 SEO Tips”) usually works better.
Creating Compelling Headlines for Google Discover
Headlines in Google Discover are different from search headlines. Search headlines often focus on keywords. Discover headlines need to grab attention and make the user want to click, right away.
Tips for writing headlines for Google Discover:
- They should describe the content accurately but avoid clickbait. Misleading or over-the-top titles are against Discover policies and can hurt trust.
- A good trick for Discover headlines is using the “curiosity gap”—give enough info to make someone curious, but not the whole story, so they click to find out more.3 Be careful not to hide key info or promise too much.
- Headlines that create strong emotions, like excitement or curiosity, can also get more clicks. Think of headlines as conversation starters, not just keyword phrases.
- A good click-through rate (CTR), from compelling (but honest) headlines, probably tells Discover that the content is hitting the mark with users. This could help it stay in the feed or reach more people.
Table 2: Google Discover Headline Strategies: Do’s, Don’ts, and Examples
| Strategy | Do | Don’t | Good Example | Bad Example | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Curiosity Gap | Tease information; make readers want to know more. | Withhold ALL crucial info; overpromise; tell the whole story in the headline. | “This One Simple Habit Could Transform Your Mornings – Here’s How” | “You Won’t BELIEVE What Happens Next!” / “Morning Habits” | Encourages clicks by creating intrigue without being deceptive. |
| Emotional Appeal | Evoke relevant emotions (excitement, concern, inspiration). | Use overly sensational or gratuitous emotional language; manipulate. | “The Heartwarming Reason This Dog Travels 10 Miles Every Day” | “SADDEST STORY EVER! Click or You Hate Dogs!” | Connects with readers on a personal level, increasing engagement. |
| Clarity & Essence | Clearly capture the core topic/value of the content. | Be vague, generic, or purely keyword-focused. | “Experts Reveal 5 Lesser-Known National Parks Perfect for Solitude” | “Travel Tips” / “Best Parks National Parks USA Travel Guide 2025” | Sets accurate expectations and quickly conveys relevance to user interests. |
| Intriguing Question | Pose a question that resonates with potential reader interest. | Ask a question that is too broad or easily answered without clicking. | “Could Your Daily Coffee Be Sabotaging Your Sleep More Than You Think?” | “Is Coffee Bad?” | Engages the reader directly and prompts them to seek the answer within the content. |
| Unique Angle | Highlight a novel perspective or surprising element of the story. | Present information in a completely standard or predictable way. | “Why Silicon Valley Billionaires Are Suddenly Obsessed With Ancient Philosophy” | “Billionaires Like Philosophy” | Stands out in a feed by offering something unexpected or counter-intuitive. |
Developing In-Depth, Valuable, and Unique Content that Resonates
Shallow content won’t get you far in Google Discover. Users want value, and Google wants to give it.
Pro tips for creating content for Google Discover:
- So, focus on making your content deep, with good explanations, detailed analysis, and useful insights.
- Your content should be well-researched and, if possible, offer unique views or info not found elsewhere. Being unique can really make you stand out.
- Using storytelling, real-life examples, case studies, and relevant anecdotes can make articles more relatable and connect with readers emotionally. Stories engage users more, which might make them stay on your page longer and share your content.
- The preference for “soft-lens content” and good “storytelling” connects to the “Experience” part of E-E-A-T. Content that shares personal experiences or tells interesting stories is more likely to be “soft-lens” and show strong “Experience.” This is a win-win for Discover.
- While being timely is important for some Discover content, the platform also likes “content depth and value” and “unique insights.” This means there’s a good chance for thought leadership and detailed evergreen resources that offer something different. This kind of content can stay relevant and interesting for a long time in Discover, even if it’s not about a current trend.
Content Freshness and Regular Updates for Google Discover
Updating content regularly is vital for Google Discover.
This means publishing new stuff, but also refreshing old posts, checking existing content for quality, and responding to user feedback or new developments.7 Google’s systems like current and reliable information.
Tips on content freshness for Google Discover:
- When you update old content, make real changes.
- Just changing the date without adding much new value doesn’t work and can even hurt you.
- Updates should add to the story, include new research, or offer new insights that make the content genuinely better.
- Using phrases like “this week” or “last month” in the content can also signal freshness to Google.
3: Images and Videos for Google Discover SEO
In Google Discover, which is very visual, good images and videos aren’t just for show. They are key for grabbing attention and getting clicks.
Image SEO for Google Discover
Good, high-quality images are a must for Google Discover.
Large images, especially, are much more likely to get clicks from the Discover feed. Visuals are super important because Discover is a visual place. The image is often the first thing a user sees and it heavily influences if they click.
Don’t use your site logo as the main image for an article in Discover; a relevant content image is much better. Images need to be at least 1200 pixels wide. If your images are smaller, even if they’re good quality, they are much less likely to be featured well, or at all.
This will hurt your click-through rates and visibility because Google’s systems prefer content with images that meet this size.
Technical and quality rules for images in Google Discover:
- File formats:
- For images in Google Discover, you should primarily use JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG. Google also supports GIF, BMP, and AVIF, but JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG are generally recommended for their balance of quality and file size.
- Size and Settings:
- Large images must be at least 1200 pixels wide.
- You also need to allow these large image previews by using the
max-image-preview:largemeta tag in your page’s<head>. - The
max-image-preview:largetag tells Google it can show a large preview, which is key for Discover.
- Aspect Ratios:
- Many aspect ratios can work, but common ones for Discover images are 16:9 (landscape), 4:3 (traditional), and 1:1 (square).
- A 1:1 ratio is often good because it’s easy to crop for different screens.
- For Google Discovery ads (which can give clues for organic content), landscape (1.91:1), square (1:1), and portrait (4:5) images are also used.
- Using these standard ratios, while keeping the 1200px minimum width, gives Google options.
- Quality and Authenticity:
- Images must be relevant to the content, add value, and not be misleading.
- The best image looks natural and human. It should be sharp, in focus, well-lit (not too dark or washed out), and have balanced colors.
- Avoid staged photos, blurry images, images with bad lighting, or images with heavy, unnatural filters.
- Also, don’t add graphics, text, borders, or logos on the photo itself if it’s for Discover previews.
- Thumbnails:
- The thumbnail image you choose is very important.
- It’s often the first visual that grabs a user’s attention and can really affect if they click.
Table 3: Optimal Image Specifications for Google Discover
| Specification | Requirement/Recommendation | Why It Matters for Discover |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Width | At least 1200 pixels | Essential for large, engaging previews; images below this are less likely to be featured. |
| Key Meta Tag | max-image-preview:large (or use AMP) | Explicitly allows Google to use large image previews, crucial for Discover visibility. |
| Recommended Aspect Ratios | 16:9, 4:3, 1:1 (1.91:1 and 4:5 also seen in related contexts) | Provides flexibility for display across devices; 1:1 offers good cropping versatility. |
| File Formats | JPG, PNG (Animated images like GIFs are not suitable for main article images) | Standard web formats ensuring compatibility and quality. |
| Image Quality | High-resolution, sharp, well-lit, natural colors, authentic, relevant to content | Ensures a positive user experience and accurate representation of the content. |
| Avoid | Site logos as main image, misleading images, heavy filters, overlays, text on images | Maintains content integrity, user trust, and visual appeal in the feed. |
These image rules help make sure visuals give a good, trustworthy user experience, which fits Discover’s goal of being a “helpful experience for everyone”.
Video SEO for Google Discover
Video also shows up a lot in Google Discover and needs its own optimization.
Technical and quality rules for video in Google Discover:
- Getting In and Indexed:
- For videos to appear, they need to be on an indexed “watch page.”
- The video should be embedded on this page with standard HTML like
<video>or<iframe>. - It shouldn’t be hidden (like behind a paywall without the right structured data), and it needs a good, high-quality thumbnail image at a stable URL.
- Google also needs to be able to get the video files themselves; don’t block them with robots.txt.
- Stable URLs for both the video and its thumbnail are important for indexing.
- Thumbnails:
- Just like with static images, a great video thumbnail is key for getting clicks in the Discover feed.
- Aspect Ratios (from Ad Specs):
- Organic Discover video specs aren’t super clear, but video ad guidelines (which often show best practices) suggest aspect ratios like 16:9 (horizontal), 9:16 (vertical), and 1:1 (square).
- Using these common ratios, especially vertical video for mobile-first Discover, is a good idea.
- Video Length (from Ad Specs and Best Practices):
- There’s no strict length for organic Discover videos.
- But YouTube ad specs mention lengths like 15-20 seconds for awareness/action and 2-3 minutes for consideration.
- Also, short video summaries with news updates can work well.
- This suggests that while long videos can work if the topic and user interest are strong, videos for Discover should grab attention quickly, since people scroll through feeds fast.
- Autoplay (from Ad Specs):
- Some video ads on Google platforms autoplay, with a view often counted after a few seconds (e.g., 10 seconds) or when shorter ads finish.
- We don’t have exact details for organic Discover videos, but autoplay is common in feeds.
- So, videos should be made to grab attention right away, assuming they might start playing automatically without sound.
Table 4: Recommended Video Guidelines for Google Discover (Organic)
| Aspect | Recommendation | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Thumbnail | High-quality, compelling, relevant, stable URL. | Critical for attracting clicks in a visual feed; first impression of the video. |
| Aspect Ratios | 16:9 (horizontal), 9:16 (vertical), 1:1 (square) are common engaging formats. | Optimizes display for various orientations, especially mobile-first vertical. |
| Indexing Requirements | Embedded on an indexed page, visible, accessible to Googlebot, stable video file URL, paywall structured data if applicable. | Ensures Google can find, crawl, and understand the video for potential surfacing. |
| Content Focus | Capture attention quickly; consider short summaries for news; ensure value for longer content. | Adapts to feed-scrolling behavior; quick engagement is key, but depth can work for strong interest. |
| Accessibility (Technical) | Supported video file type, stable URLs for video and thumbnail, sufficient server resources for crawling. | Technical prerequisites for Google to process and consider the video. |
4: Technical SEO for Google Discover
Good technical SEO is a must for getting your content seen and performing well in Google Discover.
This includes mobile usability, page experience signals, structured data, and overall site health.
Mobile-First Usability and a Good Page Experience for Google Discover
Most people use Google Discover on their phones. So, a great mobile experience isn’t just nice to have; it’s essential. Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it mainly looks at the mobile version of your site for ranking and indexing.
A smooth mobile experience means your website design adjusts to different screen sizes, text is easy to read without zooming, and buttons and links are spaced out enough so people don’t tap the wrong thing.
Core Web Vitals for Google Discover
While I am definitely not a fan of Core Web Vitals, they may play a role in Google Discover presence.
Core Web Vitals (CWV) are specific metrics Google uses to measure user experience: loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. These are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
They are part of Google’s page experience ranking signals. While they aren’t listed as direct ranking factors for Discover like they are for Google Search, a good page experience (which CWV measure) is key for keeping users happy. Since Discover wants to give a good user experience, pages with bad CWV scores are less likely to be shown.
Here are the main Core Web Vitals and their “good” scores:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP):
- Measures how fast the main content of a page loads. Good LCP is 2.5 seconds or less.
- To improve it, make your server respond faster (Time to First Byte – TTFB), use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), optimize images and videos, and get rid of unnecessary third-party scripts that slow down loading.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Measures how responsive a page is to user actions (clicks, taps, key presses). Good INP is 200 milliseconds or less. INP took over from First Input Delay (FID) as a Core Web Vital in March 2024.
- To improve it, break down or delay long JavaScript tasks, reduce input delay by doing less work on the main thread, and use web workers for background tasks.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures how much a page unexpectedly shifts around as it loads. A good CLS score is 0.1 or less.
- To improve it, set size attributes (width and height) for images and videos, save space for ads or other content that loads later, and preload important fonts.
Hitting these targets makes the user experience better, which makes your content more suitable for platforms like Discover.
Sites that do poorly on these technical user experience aspects might be at a disadvantage in both traditional Search and in Discover.
You can use tools like Google Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report (recommended as is shows real-world data, Lighthouse (in Chrome DevTools), and other performance tools to check and fix CWV issues.
The following table demystifies Core Web Vitals, providing targets and optimization paths relevant to Discover:
Table 5: Core Web Vitals: Metrics, Thresholds, and Key Optimizations for Discover
| CWV Metric | Definition | “Good” Threshold | Common Causes of Poor Scores | Key Optimization Strategies | Relevance to Discover User Experience |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | Measures perceived loading speed of the main page content. | ≤2.5 seconds | Slow server response, render-blocking resources, large unoptimized images/videos. | Optimize server (TTFB), use CDN, optimize images/videos, defer non-critical CSS/JS, enable browser caching. | Faster loading leads to quicker content access, reducing frustration and abandonment from Discover. |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | Measures overall page responsiveness to user interactions. | ≤200 milliseconds | Long JavaScript tasks, complex script execution, excessive main-thread work, large DOM. | Break down/optimize JS tasks, reduce input delay, use web workers, optimize event handlers, minimize layout thrashing. | A responsive page feels smooth and usable, critical for interaction after clicking a Discover item. |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | Measures visual stability by quantifying unexpected layout shifts. | ≤0.1 | Images/ads without dimensions, dynamically injected content without reserved space, web font loading. | Specify dimensions for media, reserve space for dynamic content/ads, preload critical fonts, avoid non-composited animations. | Prevents jarring shifts as content loads, avoiding misclicks and improving reading comfort. |
Structured data for Google Discover
Google says you don’t need special tags or structured data for Discover , but using relevant schema.org markup like Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting, and Author can really help Google understand your content, its context, and its E-E-A-T signals.
This better understanding can lead to better presentation in Discover, like more accurate titles, the right images, and correct dates.
Structured data gives clear, machine-readable clues about your page’s content. This helps a system like Discover, which tries to match content to specific user interests. It can make Google’s job of categorizing and assessing E-E-A-T easier, possibly leading to better matching and more appearances.
Key structured data practices for Google Discover:
- Specify Content Type:
- Use schema types like Article, NewsArticle, or BlogPosting to classify your content.
- Author Schema:
- Clearly state author details using properties like author (with Person or Organization type), author.name (for the author’s name only), and very importantly, author.url (a link to a page that uniquely identifies the author, like their author profile page on your site).33
- Include all authors listed on the page in the markup.
- Don’t put publisher names or job titles in the author.name property.
- Publisher Schema:
- Use the publisher property (with Organization type) to specify the publishing organization, making it different from the author.
This table provides a practical guide to implementing impactful structured data for Discover:
Table 6: Essential Schema.org Properties for Discover Content (Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting, Author)
| Schema.org Type (Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting) | Property | Expected Value/Format | Importance for Discover |
|---|---|---|---|
| Article (and its subtypes) | headline | Text (The headline of the article) | Helps Google understand the main topic; can influence the displayed title. |
| Article | image | URL or ImageObject (A representative image for the article, meeting size guidelines) | Crucial for visual appeal in Discover; must be high-quality and at least 1200px wide. |
| Article | datePublished | ISO 8601 Date (e.g., “2025-04-15T09:30:00+00:00”) | Signals content freshness and publication time. |
| Article | dateModified | ISO 8601 Date (The date the article was last substantially modified) | Indicates updates and continued relevance. |
| Article | author | Person or Organization | Identifies the creator(s) of the content, contributing to E-E-A-T. |
| Person (for author) | name | Text (The author’s full name) | Clearly attributes authorship. Do not include publisher name or job titles here. |
| Person (for author) | url | URL (A link to a page uniquely identifying the author, e.g., their profile page) | Strongly reinforces author E-E-A-T by linking to a page detailing their credentials and other work. |
| Article | publisher | Organization | Identifies the publishing organization. |
| Organization (for publisher) | name | Text (The name of the publishing organization) | Clearly states the publisher’s identity. |
| Organization (for publisher) | logo | ImageObject (The publisher’s logo) | Helps with brand recognition, though the article image is primary for Discover cards. |
Optimizing RSS Feeds for the Google Discover “Follow” Feature
The “Follow” feature in Google Discover lets users subscribe to updates from websites using their RSS or Atom feeds. These updates show up in the “Following” tab in their Discover. This gives users a direct way to show they like a publisher’s content.
Tips on optimizing the Follo feature in Google Discover:
- Link Your Feed: Add a
<link>tag in the<head>section of your main and individual pages, pointing to your RSS or Atom feed. For an RSS feed, it looks like this:<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="https://example.com/rssfeed">. - Feed Accessibility and Freshness: Keep your feed updated with the latest content and don’t block it with your site’s robots.txt file. The feed
<title>and per-item<link>elements are especially important. - Descriptive Feed Title: Use a short but descriptive title for your RSS feed, like you do for web page titles.
- Handling Multiple Feeds: If your site has several RSS feeds (e.g., for news, business, tech sections), link to the single, most relevant feed for any given page. For example, an article in the tech section should link to the tech RSS feed. This makes it clear for Google and better for users.
Optimizing RSS feeds for the “Follow” feature is more than just a technical job; it’s a way to build a direct, interested audience in Discover.
This can help create a more stable source of Discover traffic from loyal followers, which helps balance out the sometimes unpredictable nature of the main Discover feed.
Website Speed and Overall Technical Health for Google Discover
Besides Core Web Vitals, overall website speed and general technical health are important for Discover performance.
Slow loading speeds are a big technical issue that can hurt rankings and user experience.27 Technical problems like slow loading, mobile-friendliness issues, or major structured data errors can directly stop you from getting into Discover.
A technically good website helps Google crawl, index, and understand your content efficiently, which helps its chances in Discover.
If you ignore technical SEO, it can create a barrier, stopping even great content from getting Discover traffic by weakening the signals Google uses to judge page experience and site quality.
5: Google’s Content Policies and Google Discover
You absolutely must follow Google’s content policies to get into Google Discover and stay there. These policies are there to make sure users have a safe and helpful experience.
Google Discover’s Content Policies: What’s Not Allowed
Content in Discover has to follow Google Search’s general policies, Google Search’s spam policies, and specific policies for Search features. If you break these rules, your content can be removed from Discover. If you break them repeatedly or badly, your whole site might not be allowed in Discover anymore.
What is not allowed in Google Discover’s Content Policies:
- Dangerous content: Content that could cause serious harm to people or animals, like dangerous goods or activities, and self-harm.
- Deceptive practices: Content or accounts that pretend to be someone else, lie about who owns them or what their purpose is, or try to trick people.
- Harassing content: Content that harasses, bullies, or threatens people.
- Hateful content: Content that promotes violence, discrimination, or hatred against groups based on things like race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, etc.
- Manipulated media: Audio, video, or images that have been changed to trick people in a way that could cause serious harm.
- Medical content: Content that goes against scientific or medical facts and best practices.
- Sexually explicit content: Content with nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material (unless it’s for medical or scientific reasons).
- Violent extremist content, Violent & gory content, Vulgar language & profanity.
Also, Discover usually tries to show content like articles and videos that fit in an interest-based feed. It might filter out things that could confuse readers or don’t fit, like job applications, petitions, forms, code, or satire without context.
These extensive policies show that Google takes more responsibility when it recommends content, compared to just showing search results. Because users don’t ask for Discover content, Google is a stricter gatekeeper to protect the user experience and keep trust.
Transparency is a big part of Discover’s content policies, especially for ads and publisher identity.
The rules and best practices for transparency in Google Discover:
- Ads and Sponsored Content:
- Ads and other paid promotional stuff on your pages shouldn’t be more important than your main content.
- You must clearly tell readers if content is sponsored and not pretend it’s independent editorial content.
- The sponsored content shouldn’t mainly be about the sponsor unless you clearly say so. Hiding sponsorship is a direct violation.
- Publisher and Author Information:
- News sources especially need to have clear dates and bylines for articles, good information about the authors, the publication, the publisher, and the company behind it.
- Contact information should also be easy to find.
- These rules directly support the “Trustworthiness” and “Authoritativeness” parts of E-E-A-T. Not being transparent here hurts user trust and can break policy while also weakening E-E-A-T signals.
Avoiding Misleading Previews, Engagement Bait, and Other Tricks
To keep user trust, your preview content (titles, snippets, images) must accurately show what the article or video is about.
- Misleading Previews: Tricks to get more engagement by using misleading or exaggerated details in previews, or by hiding key information needed to understand the content, are not allowed.
- This includes clickbait titles that don’t match the page content.
- Breaking these rules, especially with misleading previews, can create a bad feedback loop: users click, get disappointed, and leave quickly.
- This tells Google your content is low-quality or deceptive, which can lead to it being demoted or removed from Discover , no matter how good other signals might be.
- Manipulating Appeal:
- Content shouldn’t try to get users by playing on morbid curiosity, titillation, or outrage.
- The goal is to show genuinely interesting and valuable content, not stuff that relies on shock value or cheap emotional tricks.
Summary of key Discover content policy no-nos and best practices
The following table summarizes key Discover content policy prohibitions and best practices:
Table 7: Google Discover Content Policy: Key Prohibitions and Best Practices
| Policy Category | Specific Prohibition (Illustrative) | Example of Violation | Best Practice for Compliance | Consequence of Violation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deceptive Practices | Misleading users with preview content (title, image, snippet) that doesn’t reflect actual content. | Headline: “Cure for Baldness Found!” Article: “Tips for healthy hair.” | Ensure titles, images, and snippets accurately represent the core content and its value. Avoid exaggeration. | Content removal from Discover, potential site-level action. |
| Hateful Content | Promoting violence or disparaging individuals/groups based on race, religion, gender, etc. | An article calling for discrimination against an ethnic minority. | Ensure all content is respectful and promotes inclusivity. Avoid any language that incites hatred or discrimination. | Content removal, site ineligibility for Discover. |
| Ads & Sponsored Content | Concealing sponsored content or misrepresenting it as independent editorial content. | An article heavily promoting a product without disclosing it’s a paid endorsement. | Clearly label all sponsored content as “Sponsored,” “Ad,” or similar. Ensure disclosure is prominent. | Content removal, potential site-level action. |
| Manipulated Media | Using altered images/videos to deceive users about events that didn’t verifiably occur. | A photoshopped image showing a public figure in a compromising situation that never happened. | Verify the authenticity of all media. Do not use media that has been altered to mislead. | Content removal, site ineligibility for Discover. |
| Medical Content | Content contradicting scientific/medical consensus or evidence-based best practices. | An article promoting an unproven “miracle cure” for a serious disease. | Base medical information on credible, scientific sources and established medical consensus. Clearly cite sources. | Content removal, potential site-level action. |
| Transparency (News) | Lack of clear bylines, author information, publisher details, or contact information for news sites. | A news website with anonymous articles and no clear “About Us” or contact page. | Provide clear author bylines, detailed author bios, comprehensive publisher information, and easily accessible contact details. | Reduced trust, may impact E-E-A-T assessment and Discover eligibility. |
How to monitor, analyze, and improve your Google Discover SEO strategy
Getting Google Discover right is an ongoing job. You need to watch your performance, analyze traffic, and keep improving your content and technical strategies.
Google Discover in Google Search Console (GSC)
Google Search Console (GSC) is the main tool for checking your website’s performance in Google Discover.
The Performance report for Discover in GSC shows impressions, clicks, and click-through rates (CTR) for any content that appeared in users’ Discover feeds in the last 16 months, if the data meets a minimum impression level.
This report covers traffic from Discover in the Google app on mobile, Discover on the Chrome new tab page, and traffic from the “Following” tab.
Key metrics in the GSC Discover report:
- Clicks: How many clicks from Google Discover brought users to the canonical URL of a page on your site.
- Impressions: How many times links to your site were seen by users in their Discover feed. An impression counts when a link is scrolled into view. If a user scrolls away and then back to the same link in one session, it usually counts as one impression.
- Average CTR: Total clicks divided by total impressions.
Understanding these metrics helps you see how visible your content is in Discover and how much users like it.
All data in this report is grouped by the canonical page URL. So, if non-canonical versions (like AMP pages) get traffic, it’s credited to the main canonical URL.
It’s important for analysts to know that Google Discover traffic can’t be reliably tracked in Google Analytics; GSC is the only true source for this data. This makes it harder to connect Discover traffic with on-site actions like conversions, which are usually tracked in GA.
However, you can use the data from Google Search Console to keep making your Discover strategy better.
- Find Top Performers: Use the GSC report to see which URLs, topics, content formats, and headline styles get the most impressions and clicks from Discover.
- Learn from Success (Yours and Competitors’): See what successful content has in common. Also, use Google Discover yourself to see what types of content and headlines are working for your competitors.
- Do More of What Works: If a piece of content or topic does well in Discover, think about making more content like it, publishing follow-up articles with updates or new angles, or adding internal links from other relevant pages on your site to the successful Discover piece to make it more visible and authoritative.
- Optimize Based on CTR: Regularly check GSC data, looking at different time frames (like the last 7 days, last 28 days, last 3 months, all-time) to find trends in CTR. Use this data to improve future headlines. For example, if articles with a certain headline style always get low CTRs, you should change that style.
Google Discover Traffic Changes (And Reasons)
Traffic from Google Discover is less predictable than traffic from keyword-driven organic search.
You should expect changes, which can happen for several reasons:
- Changes in User Interests: Discover shows content based on users’ changing interests, which can shift based on their search activity and interactions.
- Changes in Content Types Google Features: Google might change the types of content or topics it shows in Discover to match user preferences or current events. This can affect traffic to certain sites.
- Updates to Google Search Algorithms: Since Discover is part of Google Search, updates to Search algorithms can also change Discover traffic. Sometimes, these changes might not be related to your content quality or how often you publish.
When looking at traffic changes, the Click-Through Rate (CTR) in the GSC Discover report is probably the most important performance metric for individual content pieces. A high CTR tells Google that the headline, image, and topic of an article really connected with the users who saw it. This positive signal can lead to that content being shown more widely or for longer in Discover. A consistently low CTR suggests a mismatch with user interest or that the presentation (headline/image) isn’t appealing. This might make Google’s systems show it less.
Because Discover traffic is unpredictable, don’t rely on it as your main, stable traffic source. It’s better to treat Discover traffic as extra to more predictable channels like organic search and to focus on consistently building strong E-E-A-T, high-quality content, great visuals, and good technical health.
This overall approach makes your site more appealing to Google’s systems over time, allowing you to benefit from Discover when opportunities arise and better handle its natural ups and downs.
Troubleshooting Google Discover SEO Issues
Even if you try to follow all the best practices, sometimes your content might not show up in Google Discover, or content that used to do well might drop off. Understanding common reasons (besides breaking policies) is key for fixing things.
While following content policies is a basic need, other things can affect Discover visibility.
Possible reasons why your content doesn’t appear in Google Discover:
- Eligible vs. Appearing:
- Your content can automatically be eligible for Discover if Google indexes it and it follows content policies. But being eligible doesn’t mean it will appear.
- Google’s systems also have to think the content is interesting and relevant enough for certain users.
- Part of Discover’s selection process is a bit of a black box; following all known best practices doesn’t guarantee you’ll show up, as complex personalization algorithms and unknown quality levels play a big role.
- Content Quality and Relevance:
- Low-quality, uninformative, shallow, or outdated content probably won’t be featured.
- Content needs to be well-written, genuinely informative, offer unique value, and be kept up-to-date to appeal to Discover. This goes back to showing strong E-E-A-T.
- Technical Issues: Many technical problems can hurt Discover visibility.
- These include slow loading times, poor mobile-friendliness, major structured data errors, or images that don’t meet specs (e.g., too small or not set up for large previews).
- For the “Follow” feature, make sure your RSS/Atom feed is set up right and not blocked by robots.txt.
- Ignoring technical SEO can create a barrier, subtly weakening the signals Google uses to judge page experience and site quality, even if it doesn’t cause a manual penalty.
- Site Authority and Engagement:
- Google Discover might prefer content from established websites that get high user engagement (like clicks, shares, comments). This relates to the site’s overall E-E-A-T and its past performance.
- Algorithmic Updates:
- Google’s search algorithms, and so Discover’s algorithms, are always changing.
- An update might change what content gets selected, or how different signals are weighed.
- Sometimes, traffic changes might happen that aren’t related to your content quality or how often you publish, but because of bigger algorithm changes aimed at making Discover better for users overall.
- User-Side Issues (Less Common for Publishers):
- Sometimes, a user might not see Discover content because of their own device settings, like Discover being turned off in their Google app, app cache problems, an old Google app version, internet connection or account sync issues, or their search history being off. You can’t control these, but it’s good to know about them.
Fixing Discover issues often means looking at your whole site, not just one thing. Problems are often a mix of things related to content quality, E-E-A-T signals, technical health, and how well your content matches real user interests.
Here is a nice Google Discover guide in Polish I recommend you read 😁
Steps to Investigate and Fix Issues in Google Discover presence
If your content isn’t showing up in Discover like you expect, here’s what I suggest you do:
- Check Google Search Console for Manual Actions: The “Security and Manual actions” report in GSC will tell you if you have any site-wide or page-specific manual penalties for breaking Discover’s content policies. Fixing these is your first job.
- Review GSC for Technical Errors: Look at GSC reports for any technical errors or warnings about indexing, mobile usability, Core Web Vitals, or structured data that might be affecting Discover eligibility or performance.
- Do a Content Quality Check: Honestly look at your site’s content against E-E-A-T principles. Is it really high-quality, informative, unique, and relevant to your audience? Does it meet the standards for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness?.
- Check Image Compliance: Make sure images in content for Discover meet all technical specs, especially the 1200px width rule and the max-image-preview:large setting.
- Review Google Discover Guidelines: Reread Google’s official documents on Discover and its content policies, and general Webmaster Guidelines, to make sure you’re following everything.
- Analyze Performance Data (if you have it): If your site used to get Discover traffic, look at the GSC Discover report for patterns in falling impressions or CTR for specific pages or content types.
What’s Next for Google Discover SEO
Google Discover is moving to desktop search after being mobile‐only for years. Google confirmed tests with logged-in users in April 2025. You should brace for shifts in traffic and user behavior as desktop Discover rolls out.
To spot early desktop Discover hits in GA4, filter your page referrers for “pubsub2” (often tied to Discover) and add a “Desktop” device filter. I expect Google Search Console to add device-specific filters in its Discover reports soon.
This change shows Google leaning into proactive content suggestions over keyword searches. On desktops, users may dive into longer articles, detailed infographics, or high-res videos. That means new content formats and engagement habits for you to plan around.
As Discover expands, E-E-A-T signals will matter more than ever. Sites that clearly show expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness will stand out and get recommended more often.
Need a Google Discover SEO expert?
If you’re serious about getting your content into Google Discover and want expert help with your SEO, I’m here for you. Whether you need a full SEO audit, help with E-E-A-T, or just want to know why your site isn’t showing up in Discover, I can take a look.
You can contact me directly at olga@seosly.com. Just tell me what’s going on with your site—and I’ll tell you exactly what to do next.
