Barry Adams ➢ Active in SEO since 1998 ➢ Specialist in SEO for news & publishing ➢ Newsletter: SEOforGoogleNews.com ➢ Co-founder: News & Editorial SEO Summit
Google Discover • Fully personalised content feed; ➢ User’s location ➢ Known interests ➢ Google activities; - Recent searches - Frequently visited websites • Built in to the Android browser; ➢ Also on Chrome browser on iPhones and the Google app ➢ Experimental: Chrome on desktop - So far limited to Australia & New Zealand
Site-Wide Signals • General authority; ➢ How trusted is your site as a news source? • Topic authority; ➢ What editorial specialities does your site have? • Author authority; ➢ How trusted are your journalists?
Technical Optimisation • Article structured data; ➢ Article / NewsArticle / BlogPosting • Hi-res featured image; ➢ Minimum 1200 pixels wide and 16:9 aspect ratio -1200 x 675 ➢ Defined in structured data and in og:image meta tag • Robots meta tag; <meta name="robots" content="max-image-preview:large">
Headlines • Ensure your <H1> headline is descriptive and accurate; ➢ Include relevant topics & entities • Avoid clickbait, exaggeration, misdirection; ➢ BUT… tap into the ‘curiosity gap’
Headline Example • Bad headline: “Hamilton: No decision yet about future” • Better headline: “Lewis Hamilton undecided about his post-F1 career” • Optimised headline: “Life after F1: Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton undecided about his future”
Intro Text • Short description / summary of the article content; ➢ Sentence or bullet points • Include additional topics & entities; ➢ Expands the article’s relevance • If possible, use semantic HTML; ➢ <H2/3/4/5>, <em>, <strong>
Featured Image “Include compelling, high-quality images in your content that are relevant, especially large images that are more likely to generate visits from Discover.”
Featured Image • People, faces, dramatic scenes; ➢ A little text is okay -Not too much ➢ You can include your logo • Experiment with images to see what drives the highest CTR Source: Newsifier
Engagement Optimisation • Discover is highly sensitive to interaction signals; ➢ Bounce rate, time on site, pages per visit • Optimise for engagement; ➢ Core web vitals ➢ Recirculation ➢ User-generated content
Follow on Google • New feature allowing users to follow a publication on Discover • Improved visibility for your publication in that user’s feed • Not yet rolled out globally
Social Media & Discover • Direct visibility in Discover feed; ➢ YouTube, X, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn • Indirect impact; ➢ Articles that achieve a lot of traffic in a short time via non-Google channels often see a boost in Discover ➢ Google measures traffic (Chrome browser) and knows what’s popular ➢ Use social / email / promotion to drive traffic to key articles
Do not let Discover set your editorial strategy • Discover is seductive; ➢ Huge traffic potential ➢ Encourages clickbait and churnalism • Click-chasing works… for a while; ➢ Clickbait and low-effort content accumulates low quality signals ➢ Those signals eventually bear fruit in a Google core update ➢ Sites negatively impacted by a core update very rarely recover • Optimise for Discover as an extra layer on top of your journalism ➢ Don’t chase clicks – chase your audience
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