Reinterpreting Google’s Insight on Regaining Lost Discover Traffic

Martin Splitt of Google asserts that Google «Discover aligns with the user’s requirements and their browsing patterns.» In the July 2023 Office Hours session, Martin Splitt from Google responded to an inquiry about the strategy to adopt once traffic from Google Discover declines. Martin provided brief but useful information about Google Discover’s primary focus.

Understanding Google Discover Discover is a platform where users can find articles relevant to their interests.

Google gathers hints about a user’s preferences to display content connected to those preferences. The specifics of these interest indicators remain undisclosed.

There isn’t any concrete documentation providing explicit details about the indicators Google uses to understand a user’s preferences.

Nevertheless, it is evident to keen observers of Discover that one of these indicators could be a user’s search history.

How to Gain and Retain Traffic from Google Discover? This was the posed question:

“I am no longer visible on Google Discover… What should I do to make a return?”

In response, Martin Splitt from Google said:

“Discover is a natural feature that aligns with the user’s needs and their browsing behaviors.

Hence, there isn’t a straightforward solution to regain Discover traffic.

Typically, content that gets indexed and aligns with our content guidelines can feature in Discover.

However, the traffic on Discover is unpredictable and it fluctuates.” Google’s Emphasis on User’s Demand and Habits This explanation of how Google Discover operates is insightful as it underscores that the selection procedure aligns with the user’s preferences.

Google’s guide on making it onto Google Discover provides these clues:

Current and Evergreen Subjects Google displays relevant evergreen content, but it also seeks fresh content on certain subjects that demand newness.

For instance, areas such as sports, technology, entertainment, and certain products constantly evolve, with fresh, newsworthy topics emerging every single day.

Other subjects like recipes do not change as often unless a chef introduces a new twist on a traditional recipe. Google suggests:

“Discover automatically updates as new content gets published, but it is designed to showcase all kinds of helpful content from across the web, not just recently published material.”

Concentrate on Themes Rather Than Keywords A common error I observe in the SEO field is an excessive focus on keywords or word semantics and not enough on themes.

In my opinion, concentrating too much on word semantics is futile. Emphasize on themes of interest instead.

Themes deal with the current happenings in the industry and recognizing what people are interested in at the moment.

I believe, focusing on themes brings the writer closer to addressing the people’s needs, which is what Google Discover aims for. The Google Discover website states:

“Being a part of Google Search, Discover employs many of the same signals and systems used by Search to determine what content is helpful and prioritizes the users.”

Signals Leveraged by Google Discover Once the theme is identified, the challenge lies in drafting the article in a manner that clearly represents the theme of the article.

This is where writers overly focused on keywords and SEOs preoccupied with semantics go astray.

In my experience, an article that ranks well is the one that stays focused on the theme and communicates it effectively.

Reviewing the heading outline of an article, a theme-oriented article would reveal headings that clearly indicate the theme, without the need to delve into the sentences.

Examining the heading outline is akin to viewing the forest – where one sees the overall landscape and not the individual trees (sentences).

Craft your content in a way that it is structured and covers each theme-specific point, like a story divided into chapters.

Google offers the following best practices:

“Ensure your page titles encapsulate the core of the content… Incorporate appealing, high-quality images in your content… Deliver content that aligns with current interests, narrates a story effectively, or offers unique insights.” Google further recommends avoiding deceptive titles, hyperbole, inciting anger, and gruesome or shocking topics.

Final Thoughts Google Discover could be an excellent source of traffic, albeit inconsistent.

In my experience, focusing on the theme, writing effectively, using an apt and related image, and staying updated can significantly increase the chances of drawing traffic from Discover.