Let’s talk about how to show up on Google Discover
Hello! And thanks for listening to SEO tips today.
Google has made updates to their help documentation for Google Discover, and here’s a summary of the updates:
- There is a focus on content that meets E.A.T (Expertise, Authority, and Trust).
- You also want to make sure that your page title is accurate but not optimize for clickbait.
- You should create content that is related to your audience’s current interests, content that provides unique insights, or tells a story well tends to be shown the most.
- Content should have clear dates, bylines, author information, and information about the publisher. (This makes sense since you need to meet Google’s news guidelines to appear in Discover)
- Content should have compelling, high-quality images.
You might not know, but Google Discover also powers the “Interesting Finds” section on mobile as well.
It’s important to keep in mind (when creating content for Discover) that Discover is focused on a transition from answers to journeys – providing answers depending on the user’s learning journey in a visual way.
We know that Google Discover uses the topic layer to present information to its users, so if you’re not conducting topic and subtopic research while you’re writing, you should.
There’s a few DIY options to build out content that is well optimized for topics and subtopics.
- You can look at the People Also Ask for a query (and I love the Chrome SEO Minion plugin here, which allows you to export the PAA for a query).
- You can use Google’s Cloud Natural Language API and demo to check top ranking copy for known entities that you might want to mirror in your own copy
- You can look at the topics outlined in Google images or Pinterest.
- You can also use a content brief tool software powered by AI and NLP like MarketMuse or Content Harmony.
- You should also check which topics Google suggests that you follow inside of Discover to see if you’ve missed a topic.
Also, nothing beats mapping your searcher’s journey as they learn about your topic. Here are few questions to consider:
- How do you educate them from initial discovery through a deep understanding of your topic and becoming a brand advocate?
- And how do you do that while keeping visuals front and center?
Remember when you create those topics and subtopic pages, make sure to link them together. Hubspot calls it a Pillar Page strategy. Make sure the content pieces have photos and videos. And Google Discover follows Google News content quality requirements so make sure your writers are aware of those policies.
To get started, make sure to measure the traffic you’re currently getting from Discover in the Google Search Console report (as clicks to those pieces will be tracked as “direct” in your Google Analytics).
Look at how often your site appears and what content is appearing – particularly what the CTR might be for your Discover pieces and think through how you can create more of that type of content. Add that data to your monthly reporting and particularly your video content brainstorming.
And if your brand has a Knowledge Card showing in Google Discover with a “follow” (for topics) or the “notifications” bell (for brand updates) and tell your current email list to follow you for updates.
So that’s your tip for today – how to see how much engagement you’re currently getting on Google Discover and how to create a plan to get more traffic from this Google source.
Thanks for listening.
Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.
Listen to the previous episode: Do you need a voice search plan?
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