Art Blog #79: What is Google Discover about
14. November, 2024 - Reading time 12 Min.
#Google #GSC #GoogleDiscover
In short, Google Discover doesn’t replace Search but offers a new pathway for users to find content. It might shift some traffic from Search to Discover, especially for content that aligns with trending or visually engaging topics, but it serves a distinct purpose by offering personalized, interest-based discovery rather than intent-driven results.
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The "Discover" section in Google Search Console
It is designed to help you understand how your content performs in Google Discover, a personalized content feed on mobile devices that surfaces articles, news, and other content based on users' interests, browsing habits, and interactions with Google services. The goal of this section is to give insights into how your website content is reaching audiences through Discover and how well it resonates with them.
Here's what you get from the Discover section:
1. **Performance Insights**: See how your pages are performing on Google Discover, with metrics like impressions, clicks, and average CTR (click-through rate). This can help you gauge how often your content appears and how engaging it is.
2. **Audience Understanding**: Learn about the type of content that Google’s algorithms are recommending to users, helping you align future content with popular topics and styles that appeal to Discover’s audience.
3. **Optimization Opportunities**: By seeing which topics and pages perform well, you can better plan your content strategy to increase visibility in Discover, where click-throughs often come from compelling visuals, engaging titles, and relevance to trending topics.
The Discover section is especially useful if your website includes fresh, visually appealing, or evergreen content that could attract users looking for new and relevant information based on their interests.
Google Discover doesn’t directly replace regular Google Search
It is rather complementing it by offering a different way for users to find content. While Google Search requires users to actively type in a query to get specific results, Discover presents content based on a user’s interests without requiring any search input. However, Discover does have some implications on how users access content and may shift traffic patterns in a few key ways:
1. **Passive Discovery vs. Intent-Based Search**: Discover is meant for passive content discovery, targeting users who may be interested in topics without directly searching for them. For instance, a user who regularly reads about space might see a recommended article in Discover about a recent space mission. This is different from regular Search, which fulfills a specific search intent, like “latest space missions 2024.”
2. **Content Consumption Patterns**: Users who frequently engage with Discover might reduce their need to search for content in certain categories because Discover surfaces articles based on their history and preferences. This can impact traffic for sites heavily reliant on informational or trend-based searches, where Discover may already fulfill that need by directly showing relevant content.
3. **Higher Click-Through Rates (CTR)**: Discover often sees higher CTRs than traditional search because it presents visually engaging and relevant content at a glance. Publishers with visually rich, newsworthy, or evergreen content can experience boosts in Discover traffic, which might indirectly reduce the traffic coming from search queries for related content.
4. **Shift Toward Personalization**: With Discover’s algorithm prioritizing content based on user behavior and interests, there’s a trend toward more personalized content discovery. This personalization can lead to fewer generic search queries as Discover meets the user's informational needs with similar accuracy to search.
In short, Google Discover doesn’t replace Search but offers a new pathway for users to find content. It might shift some traffic from Search to Discover, especially for content that aligns with trending or visually engaging topics, but it serves a distinct purpose by offering personalized, interest-based discovery rather than intent-driven results.
Google "Discover" Impressions
They primarily take place in the Google Discover feed on mobile devices. This feed is accessible through the Google app on both Android and iOS, and on some Android devices, it appears directly on the home screen when users swipe right. Google Discover is designed to deliver relevant, personalized content to users based on their browsing habits, interests, and interactions with Google services.
Here are the main places where Discover impressions occur:
1. **Google App**: On both Android and iOS, users who open the Google app are greeted with the Discover feed, which shows a variety of content such as news, articles, and updates tailored to their interests.
2. **Mobile Google Home Screen Feed (Android)**: On many Android devices, users can swipe right on the home screen to access the Discover feed. This screen integrates Discover directly into the mobile experience, making it easily accessible without needing to open the app.
3. **Chrome Browser (Mobile)**: On mobile, when opening a new tab in the Google Chrome browser, users may also see the Discover feed if they’re signed in to their Google account and have Discover enabled. This provides an additional way for users to interact with Discover content while browsing.
These locations make Discover highly visible for mobile users, allowing them to encounter new content that aligns with their preferences and reading history. Discover impressions aren’t currently available on desktops, focusing instead on mobile-first interaction.
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