WHAT IS GOOGLE DISCOVER?
Google Discover is a new functionality of Google based on an interface structured by content cards and whose objective is to offer the user personalized information (based on their online profile) through a feed that feeds on their historical browsing data, online behavior, interests and ultimately of all the data (and there is a lot) that Google can collect from us. It seems that Google is pursuing the saying “If Muhammad does not go to the mountain, the mountain goes to Muhammad”
“If you can steal an idea from someone’s mind why can’t you plant one.” (inceptionChristopher Nonal, 2010)
The content offered in Google Discover can be posts, news, videos, images and, furthermore, they do not necessarily have to be current content, they can also be news that Google values as having great informative value and with enough authority to be of interest to a user. certain user.
The interesting thing about Google Discover is that it aims to change the trend (or at least offer an alternative) in the reception of online content by the user, since this goes from being a active user (a user who performs a search: either typing keywords in the search engine or performing a voice search) to become a passive userreceiver of news “programmed for him”.
What does Google Discover look like?
Google Discover is a news feed built primarily for mobile devices. It is in a Smartphone where it unfolds its full potential. Normally, it is enough to slide the mobile screen to our right for this functionality to appear (if it is active). For this to happen you must be logged in with your Google account. The appearance (seen in the photo below) is based on a feed made up of rectangular cards where an image, video or infographic usually predominates, accompanied by a text with a title and intro. Also, other widgets such as weather, time and location can appear on top. Of course, the Google search box will continue to dominate the feed and also a small icon to display the customization and advanced features of Google Discover.
How to appear in Google Discover?
Briefly explaining this new functionality of Google (notice to navigators: to which the Mountain View giant is attaching great importance) we are going to explain how to appear in Google Discover, or what is the same, how to choose to be one of the news chosen to belong to the exclusive world of Google’s personalized feed.
For now and , Google Discover only shows organic results selected by an algorithm based on user profiles. He himself already gives several keys to the elements that he considers important to appear in Google Discover:
Position in Google Discover
Your position within the Discover news feed will be almost exclusively dictated by the theme or interest that the user has on the subject. If, for example, a user browses mainly mountaineering pages, searches for related topics and interacts with mountaineering elements, it is almost certain that the first card that appears is a news or post related to mountaineering.
content policies
Here are several issues that Google is placing a lot of emphasis on (especially in its fight against fake news) and concepts such as (Experience, Authority and Trust) are put on the table. The elements that are valued to belong to the exclusive world of Google Discover are:
- Original and updated content
- Transparency
- Avoid ad abuse and sponsored content
- Do not contain personal and confidential information
- Respect copyright
- Avoid explicit sexual content
- Avoid explicit violent content
- Avoid hateful content
- Not offering medical advice
- Do not incite or promote dangerous or illegal activities
- Do not promote or incite bullying and cyberbullying
- Avoid deceptive practices
- Not contain spam and/or malicious software
High-quality images and videos
Both the images and videos that accompany your content must have optimal quality to appear in Google Discover. HD videos will be more likely to appear, as well as large format images (minimum 1200 pixels wide) and with good resolution. In addition, Google where you can indicate that you use this type of images and that you are interested in participating in its large format images program.
Content in AMP format
The vast majority of content displayed on Google Discover is in AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) format. If you do not have pages in this format, you already have one more reason to install an AMP plugin on your site or develop this technology for your content.
Fresh, current and user-focused content
The most suitable content and with more possibilities to appear in Google Discover is that which deals with trending topics or very focused on specialized topics. Content that is rich in technical information, has domain authority on the topic, and offers reliable sources will dominate Google Discover. Informative content that can be very general or very specific but that is continuously updated. This content usually has the name in English evergreen.
Google discover and SEO
As we can already guess, Google Discover becomes one more platform where a site can appear organically positioned and therefore, with the proper content strategy and some patience, we can begin to appear on the platform, which generates an amount amazing clicks. (We know this from experience with some of our clients who have already appeared on Google Discover and because Google Search Console, which we’ll now talk about, shows us these results.) In any case, the SEO optimization that we can do is not based on the inclusion of tags or structured data, nor on the treatment of traditional on-page elements such as URL, keyword density, internal, external linking… but, as we said, on a content strategy very focused on the user, analyzing trends (Google Trends), taking care of the presentation of the content and creating useful, accessible and worth sharing information.
Google Discover in Search Console
One of the quintessential SEO tools is GSC (Google Search Console). With the search console we can analyze the data generated by those urls that have appeared in Google Discover. Relatively recently, Google has implemented a dedicated Discover block in the GSC side menu.
If we click on the Discover box we can see a graph like this where we will see the data on clicks, impressions and CTR:
In the block below we can analyze the url that has appeared in Discover, the countries, the type of content and the date:
How to customize Google Discover
Like almost any Google tool, Discover can also be customized both in appearance and in the type of news and content we want to reach the feed. Here are some steps on how to customize the tool for Android:
- You have to be logged into your Google account. With the account open, you only have to click on the circle with the letter of your account (in the example of the image “A”). The elements seen in the vertical bar will be displayed and you will have to go to Interests (if you want to customize the content) or Widget (if you want to customize the structure).
2. If we click on Interests, another menu will be displayed to customize the content that will reach us according to tastes:
3. Once interests and structure are personalized, we can realize that a certain medium bombards us with information, or we discover that its news is of no value to us. In this case we can disavow media directly from the Discover news feed:
If we click on the icon on the left (in the image above, a red box) we can modulate the frequency that this medium sends us news. If we click on the icon on the right we can indicate several things that are shown below:
How to turn Google Discover on or off
It’s extremely easy on Android to turn Google Discover on or off. The following will appear in the vertical menu of the Google account in General Settings:
Do you want your company to appear in Google Discover?
From we can help your business appear on Google Discover and thus increase your online visibility and clicks to your website, blog or site. take a look at our and do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the service or about any other issue related to digital marketing.
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