At CanadaCreate, we understand the thrill of analyzing your website’s analytics and discovering a significant, unexpected increase in traffic. This remarkable boost often comes from Google Discover, a unique platform for attracting visitors that functions differently than conventional search engines.
Getting your content featured on Google Discover can seem like a puzzle. You may be producing excellent articles, yet that influx of Discover traffic may not be materializing, leading to considerable frustration.
Through our experience assisting numerous website owners and refining our own strategies, we’ve realized that success isn’t just a matter of chance. There are specific, actionable steps you can implement to greatly enhance your likelihood of being featured.
This guide outlines those effective strategies. We will provide you with the exact tips we utilize to optimize our articles for Google Discover.
What Is Google Discover and Why Is It Essential?
Google Discover is exclusively a mobile feed, making it crucial for your WordPress site to be mobile-responsive. Using a responsive WordPress theme that automatically adapts to the user’s screen size is an excellent starting point.
A reliable method to evaluate this is by using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. It’s free and not only assesses your site’s loading speed but also determines its usability on mobile devices.
Google Discover creates a personalized mobile feed by analyzing your previous web searches, location history, settings, and interactions across various Google services, rather than just responding to specific search queries.
This smart system adapts to your search habits and preferences, allowing you to view content tailored to your interests, hobbies, and the topics you follow.
Getting your WordPress site featured in Google Discover can significantly increase your organic traffic, allowing new users to find your content and helping you connect with broader audiences.
If your content resonates with users’ interests, it can enhance your visibility and attract a larger audience.
Before your site can appear in Google Discover, it’s essential to ensure that it complies with Google’s content policies.
Your content must not be harmful, deceptive, manipulated, misleading, or hateful, and any advertising or promotional elements should not overshadow the main content.
With this in mind, we will guide you on how to make your site visible in Google Discover. Since there is no guaranteed method for inclusion, you can implement the following strategies:
- Make Sure Your WordPress Site is Mobile-Friendly
- Discover Your Audience’s Interests
- Cover Relevant and Trending Topics
- Incorporate High-Quality Images in Your Content
- Integrate YouTube Videos into Your WordPress Blog
- Enhance Your E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
- Utilize Open Graph Titles in WordPress
- Configure Knowledge Graph Information in WordPress
- Common Questions About Google Discover
- Additional Resources to Enhance Your SEO
Are You Ready? Let’s Begin!
1. Ensure Your WordPress Site Is Mobile-Friendly
Google Discover operates exclusively on mobile devices, making it crucial for your WordPress site to be mobile-friendly. Opting for a responsive WordPress theme that adapts to different screen sizes is an excellent first step.
Additionally, it’s vital to ensure your site loads quickly. Since site speed is now a factor in Google’s ranking algorithm, having a fast-loading website is essential.
For example, you might consider changing your web hosting provider, utilizing a content delivery network (CDN), optimizing images, installing a caching plugin, and more. Check out our comprehensive guide to improving WordPress speed and performance.
Finally, consider implementing Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) on your WordPress site.
AMP is a framework designed to ensure that web content loads almost instantly on mobile devices. Although AMP is no longer a strict requirement for appearing in Google Discover, having a super-fast mobile site—which AMP can help you achieve—is crucial.
2. Identify Your Audience’s Interests
Google curates content in the ‘Discover’ feed based on user interests. Understanding what your audience cares about can help you explore new content topics and enhance your chances of appearing in Google Discover.
With Google Analytics, you can activate demographics and interest reports to discover what captivates your visitors. This insight allows you to create blog posts, videos, podcasts, and other content formats that resonate with your audience.
If you use MonsterInsights, you can easily access this report directly from your WordPress dashboard. Additionally, you can set up Google Analytics in WordPress without needing to modify any code.
3. Focus on Current and Trending Topics
While your content should align with user interests, Google recommends producing timely content to increase your chances of being featured in the ‘Discover’ section.
Focus on trending and popular topics within your industry. For instance, you can find the latest news, updates on sports you follow, and other blog posts that are currently trending on Google Discover.
A great way to discover new and trending topics in your niche is by utilizing Google Trends.
This free tool from Google allows you to enter various search queries to determine their trending status. You can customize the time frame, location, category, and more.
Additionally, by scrolling down, you can find related topics and queries associated with your keyword.
These represent additional trending topics and search terms. Including them on your website can enhance your visibility on Google Discover.
For further information, check out our guide on leveraging Google Trends to enhance your SEO.
4. Incorporate High-Quality Images into Your Content
Next, ensure you use unique, high-quality images in your content. Images attract significant attention on Google Discover, and using eye-catching photos can increase your click-through rate.
Google suggests using large images that are at least 1200 pixels wide. Make sure this is configured by the max-image-preview:largeEnsure your site includes the appropriate meta tags. Fortunately, SEO plugins like All in One SEO automatically manage this for you, enhancing the visibility of your images.
Additionally, it’s essential to optimize your images for search engines. For comprehensive guidance, check out our beginner’s guide on image SEO.
5. Incorporate YouTube Videos into Your WordPress Blog
In addition to images, Google Discover frequently features various YouTube videos in its feed.
By embedding YouTube videos in your WordPress blog, you can increase the likelihood of them appearing in Google Discover.
If you need assistance with adding videos to your site, refer to our guide on embedding videos in WordPress blog posts.
Moreover, you can enhance your strategy by creating a video XML sitemap in WordPress.
A video sitemap enables search engines like Google to easily locate and index content that includes embedded videos. Consequently, your videos can show up in search results, featured snippets, and potentially be featured in Google Discover.
With All in One SEO (AIOSEO), you can effortlessly create a video sitemap and customize its settings.
Simply enable the video sitemap feature, and the plugin will automatically detect video embeds in your content, adding them to a dedicated sitemap for search engines. This is the top SEO plugin for WordPress, allowing you to optimize your site for search engines without the need for professional assistance.
For further information, be sure to check out our tutorial on setting up video SEO in WordPress.
6. Enhance Your E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T is a concept used by Google in its quality guidelines. It stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
In straightforward terms, Google prefers to highlight content from websites that are credible, reliable, and authored by individuals with expertise in their subject matter. This is a crucial factor for appearing in Google Discover.
The ‘Discover’ guidelines offer straightforward strategies to highlight your site’s E-E-A-T. For example, you can include specific publishing dates and add bylines and author details to your content.
Additionally, you can enhance transparency by providing contact information, details about the organization or network behind your publication, and other relevant information to foster trust with your audience.
Enhancing your E-E-A-T can be achieved by incorporating schema markup in WordPress. This addition provides search engines with more context about your site, allowing Google to effectively showcase your content in Discover and search results.
You can easily implement schema markup in WordPress using All in One SEO (AIOSEO). At CanadaCreate, we utilize AIOSEO’s FAQ schema markup to include frequently asked questions in our articles.
For additional strategies to improve your E-E-A-T, check out our comprehensive WordPress SEO guide designed for beginners.
7. Implement Open Graph Title in WordPress
An effective method to enhance your site’s visibility in Google Discover is by utilizing the Open Graph title. Many users have noticed that Google often selects their ‘Open Graph’ title for ‘Discover’ instead of the primary H1 headline.
Open Graph metadata allows you to manage how your website appears when shared across various social media platforms. It enhances the visual appeal of your content on social media feeds, provides users with a clear understanding of the content, and boosts brand visibility.
If you’re using All in One SEO (AIOSEO), adding an Open Graph title to your blog posts and pages is a straightforward process.
In the WordPress content editor, navigate to the AIOSEO ‘Settings’ meta box. Under the ‘Social’ tab, the plugin allows you to enter a title specifically for Facebook and Twitter.
By creating an engaging Open Graph title, you enhance the appearance of your content when shared on social media. This can also affect the headline Google selects for your article in Discover, making it essential to optimize.
You might see a ‘Follow’ button for popular brands and topics. This occurs when Google identifies a site as a reliable source within its Knowledge Graph.
For additional information, check out our tutorial on how to incorporate Facebook Open Graph metadata into a WordPress theme.
8. Configure Knowledge Graph Information in WordPress
When you search for a brand or keyword on Google mobile, a notification icon will appear next to it. Clicking this icon allows you to follow the topic and view related articles in the ‘Discover’ feed.
You might see a ‘Follow’ button for popular brands and topics. This occurs when Google identifies a site as a reliable source within its Knowledge Graph.
You can include knowledge graph information in WordPress to enhance your chances of being featured in search results and displaying a follow icon.
You can easily input your ‘Knowledge Graph’ information using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin. This allows you to enter your business name and phone number, indicate whether it’s a person or an organization, upload a logo, and more.
Check out our comprehensive guide on how to obtain a Google-featured snippet for your WordPress site for additional insights.
While Google Discover remains somewhat unpredictable, implementing these tips can improve your chances of having your website featured in the ‘Discover’ section. Although there are no guarantees, dedication and consistency are crucial in attracting Google’s attention.
Frequently Asked Questions About Google Discover
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions regarding how to get your WordPress site featured in Google Discover. This information can help clarify any uncertainties and set realistic expectations.
1. How long does it take to be featured in Google Discover?
There is no fixed timeline for being featured. Some websites may see their content appear within days of publishing, while others might require several weeks or months of consistent effort. The key is to consistently apply the best practices we’ve shared.
2. Is it possible to pay for my site to be included in Google Discover?
No, you cannot pay for a spot in Google Discover. It operates as an organic feature, not an advertising service. Google’s algorithms select content based on its quality, relevance to user interests, and the overall authority of your site.
3. Is Google Discover the same as Google News?
While they share similarities, they serve different purposes. Google News focuses on timely, journalistic content from verified news sources, whereas Google Discover offers a personalized, interest-driven feed that includes a broader range of content, such as evergreen blog articles, videos, and how-to guides.
4. How can I determine if my traffic is originating from Google Discover?
You can monitor this traffic through Google Search Console. In your dashboard, navigate to the ‘Performance’ report. If your site is receiving traffic from Discover, you will find a dedicated ‘Discover’ tab where you can analyze clicks, impressions, and click-through rates.
Related Guides to Enhance Your SEO
Now that you understand how to optimize for Google Discover, consider exploring these additional guides to further enhance your site’s visibility and traffic:
- What is Content Decay? (And How to Address It)
- Top Internal Linking Plugins for WordPress (Both Automatic and Manual)
If you enjoyed this article, consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel for helpful WordPress video tutorials. You can also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook.
