Google Discover is a feature that displays content tailored to each person’s interests as recommended articles on Google’s top page.
Have you ever had the news feed displayed on the top page when searching on Google? That’s what Google Discover is all about.
In this article, we will explain how Google Discover suggests articles tailored to our hobbies and tastes, how it works, its relationship with SEO, its effects, and tips for getting published.
What is Google Discover?
Google Discover is a feature that displays content related to the user’s interests based on the activity of the account logged in at the bottom of the Google search window.
Google Account activity specifically refers to the following actions:
- Search content and other operations on services provided by Google (Maps, Play, etc.)
- location, language, IP address, referring URL, and whether you use a browser or app.
- Ads clicked and purchases made on advertiser sites
- Information on your device (recently used apps, searched contact names, etc.)
In addition to the above activities,
- Device app information
- Device contact information
- Location history
- Current location settings, location information
Based on this information, Google recognizes and automatically displays articles, videos, news, etc. that are likely to interest you.
You can turn these settings on or off individually, but they are turned on by default.
(*About activity settings
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/54068?hl=ja
)
What kind of content will be displayed?
Websites and blog posts that meet the following criteria are automatically eligible for Discover:
indexed by Google
First, your website information must be registered in
the search engine
‘s database. As a premise, if it is not indexed, you will not get an
SEO
rating and it will not be displayed in search results. Please check in advance using Google Search Console or a “site:” search.
Meets Google’s content policies
Google publishes its website content policy.
- dangerous content
- cheating
- Harassment content
- Hate content
- manipulated media
- Medicine/medical content
- Content related to terrorism
- Content that contains sexually explicit depictions
- violence and brutality
- vulgar and abusive language
Source:
Google News Policy
Content must not make users feel uncomfortable or put them at a disadvantage.
Double check that the content you’re creating doesn’t violate our content policy.
Content that meets EAT
EAT refers to the criteria that Google officially emphasizes when evaluating web pages.
Specifically, it represents the following three concepts:
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
Keep in mind that websites and blog articles that meet EAT are more likely to be displayed on Google Discover.
- Is the content specialized in a specific field (specialization)?
- Does the content seem correct to everyone? (Authority)
- Is the content reliable (reliability)?
What happens if I appear on Google Discover?
What changes occur when an article is actually displayed on Google Discover?
I will explain it from the perspective of attracting customers and SEO.
Increase in number of accesses
For example, let’s say you regularly search for diet information on Google. If you search for similar keywords every time you open Google, articles about dieting will appear. If the content is in line with your own interests, you are more likely to access it.
Articles displayed on Google Discover are not limited to popular articles, but even those in niche categories will be displayed if they are judged to be useful based on the user’s behavior history. Therefore, the number of accesses to displayed articles is expected to increase rapidly.
This is also known as the “Google cannon,” and it is said that you can get more than 10 times the number of accesses than normal.
Spread on SNS
The increase in the number of accesses due to Google is temporary, but by being displayed on Google Discover, there is a higher possibility that it will be spread on SNS, which may increase the traffic to the website as a whole.
Impact on SEO
Google Discover is not directly related to SEO, but by gaining a large amount of access to the displayed articles, the overall number of visits and circulation rate of the website will increase, and the chances of acquiring backlinks will increase.
In general, it is not easy to increase traffic to a specific article, but if you can use Google to gather access to articles that match the needs of users, the possibility of backlinks will increase.
Strengthening these external factors will increase the authority of your website, and it will be evaluated by Google as a trustworthy site, which will lead to improved SEO effectiveness.
Tips that appear on Google Discover
Here are some tips for appearing on Google Discover while adhering to the minimum guidelines.
Content that is useful to users
Content that is useful to users is more likely to be evaluated and appear on Google Discover. It is desirable that the content is specialized and meets
the needs
of search users and prevents them from leaving after clicking.
Content is updated regularly
News sites and frequently updated column articles tend to be displayed.
Since trending topics and popular news are more likely to be displayed, it can be said that content that is updated regularly is more likely to be displayed.
Appropriate image selection
According to Google’s announcement, using high-quality images that are at least 1,200 pixels wide will improve both click-through rates and page viewing times, as well as increase user satisfaction.
There is a lot of information that can be obtained from vision, and it is thought that it accounts for an important proportion.
Source:
Publish content on Discover
How to check traffic from Google Discover
There are two ways to check if your site has appeared on Google Discover: Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
With Google Analytics, you can judge by checking the number of accesses. It is possible to measure in real time, and you can also check back in the past.
If the number of accesses is higher than usual, or if the access source is “googleapis.com” or “discover.google.com”, you can conclude that it is a Google cannon.
In the case of Google Search Console, check “Search Performance”.
If “Discover” is displayed, it means that Google cannon is occurring.
If Discover is displayed, you can check the URL of the published article by looking at Discover’s performance.
summary
I’m sure many of you have felt that when you open Google, the articles that are always displayed are similar to your own hobbies. Google Discover analyzes website search content, location information, click information, and other activities to display articles tailored to each individual.
By displaying your website on Google Discover, you can expect a significant increase in the number of visits, so it is thought that it will indirectly play a large role in attracting web customers. It is also strongly related to SEO, so taking measures is an important element when creating a website.