Dan Taylor's Google Discover slide deck from SEO Camp'us Paris 2020 (delivered virtually).

1. Optimizing For
Google Discover.
The Rise Of Push Notifications
In Content Discovery.
Technical SEO

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● Head of Research & Development @
SALT.agency
● 2018 TechSEO Boost Innovation Award
● Search Engine Journal Author
● Search Engine Journal Top 140
● SEMrush Top Author
Websites
● https://salt.agency
● https://hreflangchecker.com
● https://sloth.cloud

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What is Google Discover?
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Discover is a feed that provides personalised content (based on
user search behaviour) in the in a web-portal like fashion.
Whilst not directly mentioned, Discover ties in with the objectives
laid out in Ben Gomes’ (SVP Search, News & Assistant @ Google)
2018 20th Anniversary blog post:
https://www.blog.google/products/search/improving-search-
next-20-years

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In July 2020, Google made significant changes to their Google
Discover “help” documentation
This mostly reaffirmed what the general consensus was/is for
getting the most out of Discover, and how to stand the best
chance of having your content featured.
The July 2020 update also introduced EAT to the Discover
documentation.

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● Studies have shown that
articles typically only last for
3 days in Discover, although
they can reappear.
● There is a connection
between core Search
algorithm updates and
Discover.
● Google have stated we
shouldn’t rely on Discover as
a traffic source.

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Great! So what does Google have to
say on how we can optimize?
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Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-discover-ranking/374459/

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Optimization TLDR
● Have great, non-clickbait content titles.
● Don’t mislead or over-exaggerated the content’s contents
within snippets or images.
● Don’t use negative emotions to clickbait.
● Produce timely and relevant content, that provides unique
insights and isn’t the same blog/story reproduced.
● Provide clear authorship: dates, bylines, author, publication,
company…
● Use high-quality imagery.
● You must comply with Google’s content policies.
● … the content also needs to be mobile friendly...

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Google Discover: Image
Optimization
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Optimizing Images For Google
Discover
● Article featured image & OG
image: 1600 x 840
● Losslessly compressed and
a small file size (don’t just
rely on your CDN)
● Descriptive file name with
hyphens
● Appropriate ALT text
● A user-friendly, descriptive
caption

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Use unique image, with a
focus on the centre
Studies have shown that
Discover favours unique
imagery.
Even though the image is large,
when it crops it, it does so with
a focus on the centre - so when
planning imagery, try and
centralise the key elements so it
makes sense.
Image credit: Brodie Clark, SEJ - Google Discover Case Study

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Using image entity tags for
data led creativity
Google introduced a filtering
system to image search, that
helps build out a “tree” of
related topics.
This can be used to inform the
images themselves, file names,
ALT text, captions… And other
inbody imagery/topics.

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AMP & Web Stories
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AMP
Google has surfaced AMP
Stories since late 2018 to give
publishers a way to deliver
“news and information as
visually rich, tap-through
stories.”
In July 2020, they started
testing a (Web) Stories carousel.
AMP is not a silver bullet.

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Web Stories
● Google Discover Carousel
● Google Search Grid
● Google Image Search Icons
Uses AMP technology.
Google’s AMP tested can tell
you if your implementations are
valid:
https://search.google.com/test/
amp

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Content Quality & Time Relevancy
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Content can be a mixture of different time relevancies to
succeed.
As users search on Google and interact with Discover, it learns a
lot about you and your interests and tries to serve content that it
doesn’t believe you’ve engaged with previously.
To succeed in your Google Discover strategy, your content also
needs to be a mix of content types.
● Evergreen pieces (updated to reflect accurate information).
● News around relevant topics and creating informative opinion
pieces around them.

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Evergreen Content
In-depth content pieces that
achieve Discover feed
placements over time.
Needs minimal maintenance
over time.
Ahref’s guide to creating
evergreen content:
https://ahrefs.com/blog/evergre
en-content/

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Immediate News/Industry
Pieces
Typically has a short-shelf life in
terms of Discover, and success
is dependent on a number of
factors, including your
perceived authority around the
topics and entities you’re
publishing about.

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Showing Potential To The Feed
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Define your topic cluster and topic areas of relevance.
Be timely and as active as your competitors in terms of content
curation and promotion.
Have visible authorship (at an author and company level)
Invest in branding.
Have at least baseline technical: HTTPS, mobile friendly, fast...

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Getting Discover to notice
your potential.
Discover shows content to
users based on their Search
behaviour.
You want to encourage users to
interact with your content first,
to show Discover it has
potential and could be worthy
of being shown to new
audiences via the feed.
Optimize your
content for regular
organic search
performance.
Share it on social a
lot, email it out, get
engagement!
Get engagement
through promoted
adverts.

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Are you competitors visible in Discover?
● Why is Google Discover showing your competitors’ content to
users?
● What is your competition doing differently?
○ Look outside of this specific content piece, are they
generating more general SEO signals/plugging more
gaps?
● What makes their content different?
● Do I have to come up with a different angle when creating
content?
○ Have you got a similar article? What’s different? +1

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Google - don’t rely on Discover as a
traffic source:
https://twitter.com/methode/status/1192
906838804582400
Core updates & Google Discover:
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/201
9/08/core-updates.html
Google’s Discover documentation:
https://developers.google.com/search/d
ocs/advanced/mobile/google-discover
Tracking Discover in GA (Valentin
Pletzer): https://valentin.app/discover-
tracking.html
Google Discover & Images (Brodie
Clark)
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/
google-discover-case-study/355124/
Image Entity Tags (Dan Taylor):
https://dantaylor.online/blog/entity-
research-for-travel-brands-using-
google-image-search/
Brodie Clark: Image thumbnail testing:
https://twitter.com/brodieseo/status/120
3634574619631619
Google’s content policies:
https://support.google.com/news/publis
her-center/answer/6204050

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What it means to have good EAT (Lily
Ray):
https://www.pathinteractive.com/blog/s
eo/what-does-it-mean-to-have-good-e-
a-t/
Enabling Web Stories:
https://developers.google.com/search/d
ocs/guides/enable-web-stories
Marie Haynes Search News You Can
Use Podcast Ep. 156:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT8
1H-R2x_A
Manish Dudharejia how to improve
your EAT right now
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/i
mprove-google-eat-score/270711/
Kevin Indig Internal linking based on
business model: https://www.kevin-
indig.com/the-best-internal-linking-
structure-depends-on-your-business-
model/
Kevin Indig site structure weaknesses:
https://www.oncrawl.com/technical-
seo/site-structure-weaknesses/

30. Question Mug
#seocampParis 2020
Merci!
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@taylordanrw
https://dantaylor.online/seo-camp

31. MERCI AUX SPONSORS
#seocampParis 2020 31