This is exactly how Google Discover works

According to the SEO Director of the British newspaper The Telegraph, Harry Clarkson-Bennett, based on his own experience and the leaks that have occurred on the subject, this is exactly how Google works…

Factors that most influence Google Discover

In his post, this professional states that Google first uses a publisher trust score to identify reliable sources and remove spam and he acknowledges that it does not do this very well.

Second, it is very important to get the click and on the other hand for that click to be good, high quality, generating loyalty or a long time on page.

Third, he highlights the great importance of freshness. Success then depends on a high CTR and positive engagement from the start.

Fourth and last, he highlights that Discover is a viral product that focuses on each user’s interests. You have to identify those interests and then optimize the content with a photo of at least 1200 pixels, attractive headlines, and prioritize the entities you tend to appear for most.

Content flow in Discover

Still according to the SEO Director, content goes through a flow that consists of 6 major steps.

1. Eligibility check: at this moment it is checked whether your page is a candidate to appear. Google’s trust in your project and your authority in that thematic block matter.
2. Initial exposure and testing: at this moment the content receives an initial and temporary boost to evaluate its performance.
3. User quality evaluation: quality is evaluated by the user’s interaction with the content. It is important for the article to generate good stats from the beginning without repeated clicks.
4. Engagement and feedback loop: once the article is accepted and has a good start, a refinement process follows with more and more data, both explicit and implicit. Data from Discover can be used and also from other Google products, such as Chrome.
5. Personalization layer: Google knows a lot about each of us and uses it. Content that matches your personal interests and those of your group will appear in your feed.
6. Decay and renewal cycles: at this last moment the freshest news degrades the performance of older items.

All this is without prejudice to Google’s latest announcements, which aim to turn Discover into a kind of social network where Youtube, Tik Tok, and AI-generated content will appear.

11 recommendations to make the most of Discover

1. The image must be at least 1200 pixels wide.
2. Identify your thematic area of authority and exploit it.
3. Invest in content that creates real value, not clickbait.
4. Make sure you follow the flow mentioned above. If you are not the first to publish something, try to add value in some way.
5. Google uses entities. Be very clear.
6. Use the Open Graph title, it must be striking, inspiring, rich, and interesting. But focused on the entity.
7. Share and support the content well in its early stages of life.
8. Create a good user experience on your page in terms of usability, speed, and so on.
9. Try to hook Discover users in some creative way.
10. Get the traffic to convert in some way.
11. Evergreen content can be updated and republished year after year and can continue to generate value.

Access more details in the post by Harry Clarkson-Bennett.

* Original article written in Spanish, translated with AI and reviewed in English by Jorge Mediavilla.