Google Discover: What is it? & How to Optimize it?

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What is Google Discover?

Google Discover is an impressive new feature on the Google app that was introduced in the year 2018. The feature curates content based on the user preferences, and the curated content shows up on the user’s feed.
From the user's point of view –
Even if you are not searching for content, Google Discover will keep supplying you with information that might be useful to you. You can customize your preferences, or Google Discover will note the kind of content you follow. Either way, the content you view on your feed will keep updating based on your interests.
From the content creator’s point of view –
Google Discover can prove to be a great source of organic traffic to your website. The only condition is you have to ensure that your content is good enough and follows Google content rules to show up on the relevant people's feeds.

Tips to Optimize Your Google Discover Feed

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There are several reasons for optimizing your content for Google Discover.

• Firstly, it is not required for your content to be the latest to gain users' attention. Even old content that is relevant to users' interest will show up on their feeds.
• Secondly, Google Discover Analytics will help you see which kind of content is driving the most traffic to your website. You can then utilize this information to better your content strategy.

1. Optimize for Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs)

Enhanced user experience (UX) is an important ranking factor on Google. So, to get featured on Google Discover, you need to improve UX. And, how do you achieve this?
By optimizing for Google AMPs.
AMP is designed for speed and helps a web page load much faster. Any web page that loads quickly attracts more visitors and also makes them stays.
In simple words, by optimizing your website for AMPs, you will not only attract more visitors, but your bounce rate will reduce too.
The reason mentioned above is why speed is a critical factor for getting featured on Google Discover. Hence, by optimizing for Google AMP, you will enhance UX and get featured on Google Discover.

2. Comply with Google’s Content Publishing Policies

To ensure that your content appears on users' Google Discover feed, you need to follow Google's content publishing policies. It is obvious because Google gives utmost importance to UX.
By complying with their content policies, you are letting Google know that you, too, are concerned about the users' experience.
Just make sure your content is up-to-date, original, valuable, and follows the community guidelines. For a detailed list of the publishing policies, you can check the Google policies guidelines.

3. Produce and Publish High-quality Content

The most important tip for getting featured on Google Discover is to produce original and high-quality content. Only by creating such content can you entice readers to your web page.
Also, Google Discover aims to show the highest-quality and relevant content to its users. Google will not just pick any random content; it will only choose the ones that provide real value to its users.
Hence, keep churning out original, well-researched articles and blogs that are also rich in relevant keywords. It is your best bet of getting featured on the Google Discover feed.

4. Follow the Best SEO Practices

Optimizing your website is the only way to ensure that Google finds you and ranks you. So, you must follow the best SEO practices to make sure that Google not only finds you but rates highly of your content.
But what are the SEO best practices that you must most definitely follow?
Here they are:

• Use relevant keywords in your content. Make sure to follow Google content policies on how to write good keyword-rich content.
• Improve your website speed.
• Make your web pages mobile-friendly so that users can view your website from any device.
• Switch your website to HTTPS from HTTP with an SSL (secure socket layer) certificate. It is one of the crucial factors for Google to rank websites.

5. Use High-quality Images and Videos

It is a known fact that videos are much-preferred content over long articles. People don't have the patience to read long texts.
In contrast, videos provide a concise way of getting the point across. It is the reason Google gives precedence to high-quality videos over articles.
However, it doesn't mean you will stop creating articles and blogs altogether and make videos. Google also ranks pages with good-quality images better. The idea is to break up blocks of texts with attractive images to keep your readers interested.
Hence, make sure you create visually appealing content, be it articles with images or short videos.

6. Ask Your Community to Follow You on Google Discover

One of the best things about Google Discover is that it lets users choose the content topics that they want to follow. So, one of the easiest ways to gain more visibility for your content is to request your community to follow you on Google Discover.
Whenever some of your content is picked up by Google to show on the feed, your followers will get the notifications.
Furthermore, the more people add your content topics to their list of interests, the better your rankings will be. Google will deem your content interesting, valuable, and relevant, thus ranking your website better.

7. Keep Track of Your Competitors

First, create a list of all your competitors who frequently feature on Google Discover feed. Then take a look at the kind of content they are posting. It would help if you asked yourself questions like:

• Why is the content created by my competitors getting picked up over mine?
• What are the topics they are creating content on?
• How are they structuring their content?

You must research the content posted by your competitors to answer the above questions. All the while, you should also look at other things carefully that you might be doing wrong, such as:

• Are you following the best SEO practices?
• Are you complying with the Google content publishing policies?

Answering the above questions can provide valuable insights into how Google Discover can pick up more of your content.

8. Create Both Trending and Evergreen Content

You can get organic traffic with both kinds of content through Google Discover. Google News mainly prioritizes fresh content. But Google Discover gives equal importance to old yet evergreen content.
In fact, evergreen content is one of the best ways to keep featuring on Google Discover feed and receive organic traffic.
However, don't just stop at creating evergreen content since trending topics can bring in organic and valuable traffic too.
The trick is to have a balance and publish both kinds of content on your website. It will not only bring in new readers but will prompt them to keep coming back too.

9. Get Your Website Listed on Google My Business and Create an Entity on Google Knowledge Graph

These are one of the first steps you should take to have a fighting chance of getting featured on Google Discover. If you are not listed on Google My Business or your business is not in the Google Knowledge Graph, your content has to be really high-quality to get featured.
So, make sure you list your business or website on Google My Business. It would also help to have an entity on Google Knowledge Graph. These two steps would ensure that your content gets featured on Google Discover. Of course, provided your content is relevant, informative, and valuable to the readers.

10. Leverage Social Media to Get Picked and Featured by Google Discover

If you haven't noticed, the concept of Google Discover is much like social media. The users see content on the feeds that are relevant to them. The content they receive on their feed is the one they are most interested in.
Hence, by posting your content on social media and creating a buzz around it, you can get picked by Google Discover.
How?
When your content is read and shared on social media, it shows that your content is good. What matters to Google is user experience. So, when Google notices that your content is getting a lot of publicity, it will also feature your content on Google Discover.
Thus, make sure you leverage your social media community to promote your content.

Google Discover Feed FAQs

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Q1. What is the Difference Between Google Discover and Google News?

The main difference is in the content type. Google Discover curates content that is relevant to a user. The content can be fresh or evergreen, depending on what interests the user. Google News, on the other hand, shows mostly new content or the latest news.

Q2. What is the Difference Between Google Feed and Google Discover?

Google Discover is an updated version of Google Feed. The immense popularity of Google Feed led Google to make changes and bring out a better version with a new name.
The latest version is Google Discover. It is a much better version than Google Feed in simple words, but in essence, it is the same.

Q3. How to get my Content featured on Google Discover?

Verify your URL on the Google Search Console. The search console will then crawl and index your website. The main thing, however, is to have good quality content on your website. Make sure your content includes:

• Relevant keywords people would use to search for your business.
• Good-quality images and videos
• Valuable information

Apart from the above, you should follow SEO best practices to get noticed by Google faster. Also, do comply with Google’s content publishing policies.

Q4. How to Get My Website Listed on Google Discover?

The fact is you cannot list your website on Google Discover. It will just pick out content from your website that is relevant and informative for its users and features the content on the feed.
Since most Google Discover content is AMP, you will not see the traffic stats. That is unless the users click on the links and visits your website.

Q5. Can My Old Blog Post Feature Again on Google Discover Feed if I Update the SEO?

Yes, if your content is still relevant to the current users and is informative, it might get featured once again.
Updating an old blog post with new information and SEO keywords is an excellent way to utilize old content. Google will consider it as fresh and unique content and feature it again on the Google Discover feed.

Q6. How Does Google Find Out New Websites?

Usually, when someone creates a website, they will submit the link to Google Search Console to be indexed and crawled. Creating and submitting an XML sitemap further quickens the process of indexing and crawling.
Even if a website is not submitted in Google Search Console, Google might still find the website through links posted anywhere on the web.
So, now that you know everything about Google Discover, you can easilyuse it to gain organic traffic to your website. Hopefully, the tips given above, along with the FAQs, will help you create better content that will help you get featured on Google Discover.
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