Digital strategy consultant Virginie Clève was invited, during SMX Paris, to unveil the latest elements that make Google Discover a powerful audience lever. Based on a study she conducted, the expert provided 10 tips for optimizing editorial products to give them a greater chance of appearing in Google's personalized information feed.
Google Discover, a little reminder
Ahead of SMX Paris 2022, we interviewed Virginie Clève about Google Discover. This is how she described this flow of information to us: “Google Discover brings together a selection of articles that automatically appear in the Google SERP, natively on Android, but also in the Google application on Android and iOS. Thus, it automatically recommends content to users based on their interests, their browsing history and their behavior on the web.
With Google Discover, we are in the era of ultra-personalization of content, where the Internet user passively receives information links.
A technique then deemed “very effective” by the consultant: “Once you have read all the articles offered on Discover, you generally have no more time to consult other links. The whole challenge is therefore to offer content that will please readers while optimizing it so that it appears in Discover. For this, several small techniques are applicable, even if the results can be very different depending on the websites. These rules evolve over time and, if properly respected, they can significantly increase the audience of a website.
10 Content Optimization Tips for Google Discover
To increase the chances of seeing your editorial content highlighted via Google Discover, Virginie Clève has provided 10 tips to help you with this task. Here are the new content optimization rules for Google Discover in 2024, and some information to know:
- Title: The ideal length of a title differs for each site. It is advisable to absolutely avoid titles of less than 50 characters. Beyond 109 characters, the expert does not consider that it is too long a title for Discover, but such a length can be harmful for SEO.
- Optimal syntax: Discover seems to increasingly highlight titles close to “what works on social networks” with a more “emotional” tone without racing for keywords.
- Photo: It is important to upload “a beautiful and strong visual leader of large size." . If it is less than 1200 pixels wide, it then falls outside the guidelines not only of Discover but also of Google News, Facebook, and potential . ”
- EEAT: The EEAT criteria (experience, expertise, authority, and trust) remain particularly important. “Sites with a good EEAT are preferred; having real authors is a real plus, with a file dedicated to each of them,” explains Virginie Clève. “Avoid unsigned content and dispatches,” she adds.
- Paid articles: paid articles, with paywalls as with many media, “are as visible as free content," points out the specialist, and generate, in Discover, a larger audience in general.
- Length of content: avoid articles of less than 1,200 characters, recommended Virginie Clève, while specifying that the “optimal length is different depending on the site.".
- Updating articles: “You can update your articles; this will give you a little boost of freshness,” notes the consultant.
- Click-through rate: to break into Google Discover, “a very good CTR is required. For this, title, image, and publication schedule are key elements that must be worked on. The number of these very good CTRs depends on your site.
- Lifespan: The lifespan of an item in Discover “depends from site to site. An article can appear on Discover several years after its publication,” notes Virginie Clève.
- Site optimization: it is necessary to have a technically up-to-date website optimized for Discover in order to avoid technical rejections as much as possible.