Google’s Discover feed presents mobile users with a stream of content based on the user’s interests. For publications that have managed to get their content featured in it, the Discover feed can drive substantial traffic — but, unfortunately, “there’s no way to create content that explicitly targets Discover’s interest matching,” John Shehata, VP, global audience development strategy & CRM at Condé Nast, said, quoting Google during his session at SMX Next.
“That’s absolutely true, but there are certain things [that you can do to] increase your chances of ranking well in Google Discover,” he added. Using data obtained from one million pages (equating to 27 billion impressions) over the prior 90 days, in tandem with his own experience, Shehata provided the following tactics publishers can use to strengthen their ability to rank in Google Discover.
Use emotional titles, not clickbait
“When we analyzed the titles that perform very well in Google Discover [the top titles above 25% CTR and have at least 10,000 impressions] . . . You will see a lot of them are in that area of ‘clickbaity,’ so is there bait and switch?” Shehata said.
“No, that will not work, if you promise one thing and you go to the site and it’s completely something else, Google can recognize this very well, but emotional titles still work very well,” he said, pointing out that there is a fine line between clickbaity, outrageous titles and titles with an effective emotional element.
Additionally, data from GD Dash, which Shehata used throughout his presentation, revealed that 13% of the top 100 articles in Discover (with a 25%+ CTR and >10,000 impressions) were listicles. For brands looking to attract Discover traffic, Shehata cautions them against using 10-item listicles: “It gets the lowest CTR. People think it’s generic and it’s a made-up list, so try to avoid ‘10,’” he said.
Include high-quality visuals
“I cannot stress enough how important this is,” Shehata emphasized, providing the following guidance:
- Your larger images should be at least 1200 pixels wide and enabled by the max-image-preview:large setting or by using AMP. “That will transfer your small images, like this on the left [in the screenshot above] to the right size, which is the full-width image,” he said, adding, “I have seen this increase CTR by two or three times.”
- Use 16:9 aspect ratio for hero images.
- Avoid using a site logo as your image.
- Avoid manipulated media.
- Use a descriptive file name for the image.
- Add appropriate alt text.
- Use a descriptive caption.
Understand and enhance E-A-T signals
While Search and Discover are different products, the overall principles of E-A-T as they apply to content are similar. In 2020, Google added the term E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) to its Discover guidelines. “This phrase has not been there before,” Shehata said, “They’re going to be looking at E-A-T when they are evaluating Google Discover content.”
Demonstrating E-A-T within your content can help you convince Google that it is reliable, free of misinformation, serves users and is thus worth recommending to them. One way to increase your E-A-T is through optimizing your author pages.
“Make sure to avoid as much as you can — because there are certain exceptions — ‘Written by staff’ or ‘Written by admin,’” Shehata said about article authorship, “This doesn’t transfer any good E-A-T or trust signals.”