Let's Discuss 'Google Discover'

Hey there,

So we all know this little plugin that automatically comes up in most phones using Android chrome, which gathers info on what you usually search and shows you recent articles from all around the web based on that.

Well, I got a website that, a couple of weeks after being resurrected (inactive for a couple of years), was getting consistent spikes of 'Discover' traffic, most of the times a new article was published.

But for no apparent reason, one day this stopped, and google decided to stop showing my new articles on Discover.
Check this out (keep in mind that the rate/quality/quantity of posting did not go down from the start to the end of the graphic:



I don't really know what triggered the inclusion on 'Discover' on the first place, or what made the traffic stop. My organic traffic kept going up all they way until today, so the Discover breakdown does not correlate with Google rankings.

I'd like to discuss with you all:

1) Anyone had similar experiences? Do you know the cause? Did you manage to fix it?
2) How do you usually optimize for Discover, if you ever do?
3) Whatever other insight you want to give.

Hi.

you have nothing to do with them. google does this with many without giving you any explanation

Big G might be running tests

If your site doesn't get enough engagement, it gets dropped

They do this with SERPS through the RankBrain algo

I'm not agree with you. I know websites with 60-80 sec users time on site, with a lot of traffic from Google Discover. More then 4-500 000 unique daily.

3mPtY said:

I'm not agree with you. I know websites with 60-80 sec users time on site, with a lot of traffic from Google Discover. More then 4-500 000 unique daily.

Click to expand...

Think engagement refers more to the CTR. Which is definitely a factor even if Google decides to pick a completely old and irrelevant article and the CTR failure is their fault.

To the OP - have you checked which article was the last to surface?
This "zeroing" happens quite often for a lot of sites. No rhyme. No reason. Just happens. Then it randomly comes back sometimes. Sometimes after a few days, sometimes after as long as two months. Sometimes, for a few unlucky ones, never.