[Case Study] Maximizing the Potential of Google Discover

roydan

roydan

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This was planned to be a short case study, showing what I found to drive more traffic from Google Discover.
First of all, this is the data I’m basing my observation of:

Screenshot at May 09 19-14-39.png

Do you see all of these peaks at the beginning? These are articles on one of my sites that performed very well on Google Discover. ‘Very well’, of course, is relative, so bear that in mind. Somewhere in July 2022, I started getting traffic more consistently, which is great for me, but it makes it harder to differentiate between articles just by looking at the graph, so you have to take my word for some of my observations.

What’s Google Discover?
Google Discover is some sort of mobile feed of content from around the web that Google makes for you based on your interests.

Any Special Requirements?
To be featured on Discover, your site have to be “whitelisted”. Additionally each post on Google Discover must have an image which is at least 1200px wide, so make sure your featured image is at least 1200px wide.

Moving on...
Anyway, I analyzed the articles that performed above average, and these are the things that differentiated them from other content on that site:

  • They will interest any single one of my users.
  • They are broad yet very relevant to my audience.
  • They are written very well.
  • Most of them are lists (random numbers work better than the usual top 10)
  • They are comprehensive but not exhausting - no fluff whatsoever!
  • They are not optimized for search, but would be a nice youtube video if I had filmed them - I hope you get what I mean by that.

You need to understand that if your post doesn’t bring a good CTR, it’ll get 300-400 impressions, and Google won’t show it again.

There are two things you can optimize for good CTR:
  • Headline
  • Featured Image
The headline on Discover is longer than in Search, don’t be afraid to go over the character limit if you thought of a good one.

This is your time to be clickbaity, but make sure your headline represents the content.
  • 5 Different Ways to Get Infinite Ammo in Doom 95
  • These are the Best 17 (and a half) Supercars of All Time
  • Have a Baby? This Simple Test Will Tell if They’re Gonna Have ADHD
  • Stay A While and Listen. Have You Heard Deckard Cain’s Rap Song?

Your featured image can make or break your feature on Discover. Do not half-ass it. Make it pop, add some text, and make it awesome! AI-Generated Images also work very well for some reason. Just make sure they’re good.



When I applied everything that I learned (and got a bit lucky), this is what I got:

Screenshot at May 09 19-15-49.png

I’m still experimenting with it, and I’ll post updates in this thread if I find anything worth sharing.


If you're interested in my method of getting a site into Google Discover, let me know, and I can write a guide for that.
 
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Your your content evergreen or trend/news based? Sure will be interested, I got few site which showing discover, I never bother to optimize them. This post itself is a sorta mini guide for me. Cheers!
 
IM Dude said:
Your your content evergreen or trend/news based? Sure will be interested, I got few site which showing discover, I never bother to optimize them. This post itself is a sorta mini guide for me. Cheers!
Click to expand...
I didn't get into it because both work. Trendy content will have a more extreme bump and then a fall to 0. Evergreen can have the same curve going up, but the traffic will decrease slower and rarely get to absolute 0 before a month or two.
 
roydan said:
I didn't get into it because both work. Trendy content will have a more extreme bump and then a fall to 0. Evergreen can have the same curve going up, but the traffic will decrease slower and rarely get to absolute 0 before a month or two.
Click to expand...
Interested in the method if you don't mind

Thanks...

I see a lot of potential
 
Thanks for sharing
How old is the content you usually get up there? is it always new content you specifically optimized for it?

can old articles that you optimize get up there?

 
roydan said:
This was planned to be a short case study, showing what I found to drive more traffic from Google Discover.
First of all, this is the data I’m basing my observation of:

View attachment 254944

Do you see all of these peaks at the beginning? These are articles on one of my sites that performed very well on Google Discover. ‘Very well’, of course, is relative, so bear that in mind. Somewhere in July 2022, I started getting traffic more consistently, which is great for me, but it makes it harder to differentiate between articles just by looking at the graph, so you have to take my word for some of my observations.

What’s Google Discover?
Google Discover is some sort of mobile feed of content from around the web that Google makes for you based on your interests.

Any Special Requirements?
To be featured on Discover, your site have to be “whitelisted”. Additionally each post on Google Discover must have an image which is at least 1200px wide, so make sure your featured image is at least 1200px wide.

Moving on...
Anyway, I analyzed the articles that performed above average, and these are the things that differentiated them from other content on that site:

  • They will interest any single one of my users.
  • They are broad yet very relevant to my audience.
  • They are written very well.
  • Most of them are lists (random numbers work better than the usual top 10)
  • They are comprehensive but not exhausting - no fluff whatsoever!
  • They are not optimized for search, but would be a nice youtube video if I had filmed them - I hope you get what I mean by that.

You need to understand that if your post doesn’t bring a good CTR, it’ll get 300-400 impressions, and Google won’t show it again.

There are two things you can optimize for good CTR:
  • Headline
  • Featured Image
The headline on Discover is longer than in Search, don’t be afraid to go over the character limit if you thought of a good one.

This is your time to be clickbaity, but make sure your headline represents the content.
  • 5 Different Ways to Get Infinite Ammo in Doom 95
  • These are the Best 17 (and a half) Supercars of All Time
  • Have a Baby? This Simple Test Will Tell if They’re Gonna Have ADHD
  • Stay A While and Listen. Have You Heard Deckard Cain’s Rap Song?

Your featured image can make or break your feature on Discover. Do not half-ass it. Make it pop, add some text, and make it awesome! AI-Generated Images also work very well for some reason. Just make sure they’re good.



When I applied everything that I learned (and got a bit lucky), this is what I got:

View attachment 254945

I’m still experimenting with it, and I’ll post updates in this thread if I find anything worth sharing.


If you're interested in my method of getting a site into Google Discover, let me know, and I can write a guide for that.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing this :) Waiting for the guide :) Good luck
 
Jaordas said:
Thanks for sharing
How old is the content you usually get up there? is it always new content you specifically optimized for it?

can old articles that you optimize get up there?
Click to expand...
They are usually picked up within a couple of days of being posted. Sometimes they go back for another round after some time passes. In these cases, I think they are re-evaluated, but their age is considered a negative factor, like in this example:

This graph shows 5 "rounds" of the same page going in and out of the Discover feed.
Screenshot at May 09 22-44-50.png

I've tried finding an article that was featured only after an optimization, but I couldn't find a single article of mine that was featured for the first time after an update or any type of optimization.
 
roydan said:
They are usually picked up within a couple of days of being posted. Sometimes they go back for another round after some time passes. In these cases, I think they are re-evaluated, but their age is considered a negative factor, like in this example:

This graph shows 5 "rounds" of the same page going in and out of the Discover feed.
View attachment 254981

I've tried finding an article that was featured only after an optimization, but I couldn't find a single article of mine that was featured for the first time after an update or any type of optimization.
Click to expand...
Thanks very much, it seems like we need to publish it right from the start then, since updating doesnt seem to get them re considered.
 
"They are not optimized for search, but would be a nice youtube video if I had filmed them - I hope you get what I mean by that." i don't undrestand this part :) Can you explain please? Thank you
 
rejja said:
"They are not optimized for search, but would be a nice youtube video if I had filmed them - I hope you get what I mean by that." i don't undrestand this part :) Can you explain please? Thank you
Click to expand...
It should be of the things your audience won't necessarily search by themselves, but be interested to see if they were scrolling on YouTube or Facebook.
In can be searchable, too, but it has to be interesting to those who didn't look for it.
 
But ultimately, you're just picked up by Google, if they want to. You can't decide to get up there by yourself. All you can do is to optimize your pages for the "Follow" feature, and then wait. Sometimes forever.
 
Nice method! I managed to get web-story in Google discover but never tried with posts. I'll update after trying this out.
 
CC2023 said:
But ultimately, you're just picked up by Google, if they want to. You can't decide to get up there by yourself. All you can do is to optimize your pages for the "Follow" feature, and then wait. Sometimes forever.
Click to expand...
That's true, but that's the same thing with SEO. There are some ways to "force" a feature on Discover, but they are not 100% reliable, and I'm still experimenting with them.
mmubeen8 said:
But how someone can put their website in google discover?
Click to expand...
I'm working on a guide.
 
Never think of discover but if u make guide would be so cool count me in for copy )
 
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