[Case Study] Maximizing the Potential of Google Discover

ZeberuS said:

Congratulations, your work is on the right track.
I've been doing this for years. I have 13 websites, but I have always done my work in Turkish. If I get a chance, I plan to set up a website in English. I will help those who are wondering. Don't be afraid to post 2 3 titles. Even if there is no AMP, pay attention to the site speed. Use 1280x720 weighted images. Use the right keyword.

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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.

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Golden Nose Slim said:

To be honest, managed to get semi- consistent with Discover until recently.
The Google update knocked it to 0 ) But after a week I'm seeing a few signs it might push back, hopefully.

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roydan said:

Yep.. Google seem to include the Discover feed in many of the recent updates. I'd say that it's not the same since Oct 2023.

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Golden Nose Slim said:

Where do you see that moving to next?

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roydan said:

I think that the discover feed becomes closer to social feeds, and is less affected by things outside the feed itself. It's harder to manipulate by upvotes, etc...

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Golden Nose Slim said:

Sound encouraging. To be honest, there was only a particular type of article that it tended to take from my website.
Do you think past results (click-through rate, impressions etc) will matter in whether or not they promote your site on Discover?

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tayfun2009 said:

I'm interested in the Google Discover method

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jls428 said:

for this should you use google analytic inside or not a must??

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jls428 said:

do i need backlink too for this to for the posting???

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Epicster said:

Are you still getting traffic from discover?

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Epicster said:

Are you still getting traffic from discover?

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roydan said:

Very little, but I haven't posted anything on that blog in 6 months.

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Golden Nose Slim said:

Not much.
It died completely a few months ago. Now, when I post a new article it will try it out on Discover, but will rarely get above a few hundred views.
I think that there's still potential there though.

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