Google Discover is a Google tool that recommends you interesting content published by media, web portals, blogs, etcetera, based on the searches you have previously performed.
Google Discover allows you to learn about topics of interest and is a fundamental source of traffic for any web publication
That is, if you have done a Google search on “Croatia”, it is very likely that Google Discover will show you recommended articles related to that term (that country). This not only refers to current news, but also to “evergreen” content, evergreen, about that search.
For example, in this case, a Wikipedia content about Croatia could appear, or an article from a travel blog with recommendations for traveling there. In the same way, related videos posted on YouTube or all kinds of pictures about Croatia, recommended in Google Discover, could appear.
How to use Google Discover
You can use Google Discover to receive content recommendations related to your searches only from your mobile device. Google Discover is not currently available for desktop.
You can access Google Discover from your Android phone through the Google app or your smartphone’s browser. On some Android phone models just swipe right on your phone screen to access Google Discover, although it is not available for all.
When you first enter Google Discover you will see content recommendations centered on searches you have previously performed. You can customize your experience, because by clicking on the content you are interested in, you will receive similar articles recommended by Google Discover in the future.
You can also follow topics, so that they appear among your recommendations in the future. You only have to click on those topics -as hashtags- to indicate your interest in them.
If you do not want more content on a particular topic to appear, you can also choose it. In the “Data” option of the Google app you will see which topics have been selected for you or that you selected in the past. Just click on them to stop following them and related content will no longer appear among the recommendations in Google Discover.
Why use Google Discover
Google Discover is a very useful content recommendation tool to find topics that are of interest to you, based on your previous searches. It gives you the opportunity to learn more and expand your knowledge on relevant topics.
If you are a media or content creator, Google Discover is a tremendously useful tool, which will allow you to get more visibility for your content. Getting an article referenced in Google Discover is a boost to the web traffic your website or media outlet gets.
But in addition, if the content is interesting, the user can follow that topic and, possibly, new articles related to it will be recommended when you publish them, because Google Discover considers that, for that person, you will be a reference source.
If you want to achieve that higher visibility, you have to adapt your content to have a better chance of appearing highlighted in Google Discover:
How to be featured in Google Discover
As with SEO positioning in search engines, getting your articles to be recommended by Google Discover is not an easy task or an exact science, in which you can give some basic rules to achieve appear yes or yes. However, there are a number of tips that can be taken into account to get to appear in Google Discover.
-Personalization. Keep in mind that the goal of Google Discover is to be a tool that offers personalized content to each user based on their experience. In this sense, optimizing your topics so that they are the ones that really interest your target audience will help you appear among Google Discover recommendations.
It is recommended to focus on a thematic niche rather than trying to cover different sectors. Wanting to diversify with other content that we do not control or simply because we think it “could be more viral” is not recommended.
-Authorship. The contents must be signed and the author must be properly identified. Who he/she is, what he/she does, what is his/her specialty… providing links that allow checking this (for example, to his/her Twitter or LinkedIn profile).
-General topics. Extensive and in-depth content on general topics will allow more people to be interested and to appear recommended in Google Discover.
-Audiovisual elements. If a content includes additional elements that support the information, it will be easier for it to be recommended in Google Discover. Including several large photographs or related videos makes the tool see that it is an enriched content that could be of interest to users who follow the topic in which it is included.
-Evergreen vs. topical content. There is no fixed rule as to how much content should be evergreen and how much should be topical. In this sense, it is advisable to develop your own technique, adapted to the interests of your users and the idiosyncrasies of your publication. Any content can be referenced in Google Discover.
-Mobility. This last feature is essential: the content must be adapted to mobile devices. Remember that Google Discover is a mobile-only tool and will enhance the contents of those portals or web pages whose mobile version offers a better user experience.
