If you want your website to be visible on Google, you should know that there is life far beyond search. Today we are going to talk about an option that you may have overlooked until now: Google Discover.
Google Discover and Discovery Ads They can be a very interesting source of quality visits. This functionality offers personalized content to users and also includes some features typical of social networks. You want to know more? Keep reading!
What is Google Discover?
Google Discover is a news feed provided by Google that shows content adapted to your tastes, your previous searches and your interests. You could say that it is similar to a social media feed, but without content from your contacts.
Google Discover news appears on the mobile version of Google search, just below the search engine. You can adapt the content to your interests, using the buttons that appear below each news item to tell Google if you want to see more content of that type or less.
It must be clarified that the content that appears in Google Discover is not related to any user query (as is the case with the results shown in Google search), but is based on what Google’s automated systems consider to be of interest to the user. user.
It is also important not to confuse this tool with Google News. Although in both cases potentially interesting content is shown to the user in the form of a feed, Google News focuses on current topics (content published recently or at most a few days ago), while Google Discover can show much older content if it considers it relevant to the user.
How to set up Google Discover
To start using Google Discover, you just have to enter from the Google app on your mobile or from the Google widget on your mobile desktop (the G that appears on the left side of the search box). Once there, you can configure different options like:
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Weather information. You can hide the news, change the units or prevent this information from being displayed again.
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The topics and sources that don’t interest you. By clicking the three-dot icon to the right of each result, you can mark “Dislike” + the topic in question from the drop-down menu. You can also indicate if the medium in which the news appears does not interest you.
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The frequency with which a topic appears. You may not want to stop seeing a topic completely, but you may want it to appear less frequently. Or on the contrary, you may want to see even more news related to that topic, since it is a priority for you. To change this setting, press the three-position toggle button that appears in the lower right corner of each news box.
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Your favorite themes. If you go to the More section and click on Personalize Discover, you can choose your favorite topics to start seeing news about them. You can also delete several topics that do not interest you at the same time.
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The information sources that Discover uses. In Personalize Discover — More preferences — Show more — Sources, you can access a screen to manage the sources from which Google obtains its information. For example, you can disable them from reading your Gmail emails to obtain information about invoices, events, flights, etc.
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Google Discover notifications. If you go to the More section and click on Settings — Search — Discover, you will reach the specific Discover settings. Here you can turn Discover-specific notifications on or off, including alerts about weather changes, commutes, recommended departure times, sports and topic reminders, and more.
What are Discovery Ads?
Discovery Ads or Google Ads discovery ads They are native ads that appear in different Google feeds, including Google Discover. Here are some key points to better understand how they work:
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The main novelty that these advertisements provide is that they are aimed at audiences, not keyword-based search intent. Audiences are generated from data collected by Google, such as user searches, YouTube video behavior, Display Network visits, and apps downloaded from the Play Store.
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They can include both images (in horizontal or square format) and text. You can also add a carousel of multiple images.
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The main goal of Discovery Ads campaigns is performance. You can only choose between two bid objectives: “Target CTA” and “Maximize Conversions.”
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In addition to Google Discover, Discovery Ads can appear on the YouTube home page and in the Promotions and Social tabs in Gmail. They are an alternative to advertise on YouTube without the need for video content. On Google Discover alone, it is estimated that you can reach a potential audience of 800 million users.
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Discovery Ads use the machine learning to create the best creatives. The advertiser enters up to 5 titles, 5 descriptions and 15 images, in addition to the company name, logo and final URL. Google then uses machine learning to find the best combinations of headlines, descriptions and images and progressively optimize the campaign.
How to make your content appear on Google Discover
In principle, any content that is indexed by Google can appear in Google Discover. To increase the chances that your content appears more frequently in users’ feeds, take note of these recommendations:
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Optimize your entire website with in-page SEO techniques, paying special attention to semantic SEO. In the end, what works for ranking your website in Google search also works for Discover results. The key is that Google can understand what your website is about in order to offer relevant content to users.
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Think mobile. Google Discovery is designed for the mobile environment, so it is absolutely essential that your content is mobile friendly if you want to generate visits with it. Also, you should keep in mind that most of the content displayed in this section is AMP.
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Give your pages titles that summarize the essence of the content and do not use clickbait techniques.
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Create quality and relevant content. There are no shortcuts possible here: Google rewards quality content that provides value to the user. Additionally, since Google Discover displays personalized content for each user, it is also essential that it is highly meaningful to your buyer persona.
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Include current news and evergreen content in your content plan. Unlike Google News, Google Discover can display old content, as long as it believes it is relevant to users. Therefore, you are interested in creating evergreen content and reviewing it from time to time so that it is always updated.
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Analyze which content generates the most engagement, both within the website itself (fewer bounces, more time on page, more comments…) and on social networks, and make sure they are well optimized. In general, the more successful a piece of content is at generating engagement, the more likely Google is to include it in Discover.
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Include high-quality images that encourage users to click. Images should be at least 1200 pixels wide, as this increases the chance of appearing in the Google Discover feed by 5%. Also keep in mind that images are very important to attract users’ attention and generate clicks. Typically, images that work on social media should also work on Google Discover.
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Always comply with Google’s publishing standards. In particular, avoid misleading or exaggerated information in headlines and introductions and morbid, outrageous content, etc., since Google can understand that this is an attempt to manipulate users.
And finally, if you dare with a campaign Discovery Adskeep these in mind good practices To improve results:
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Segment audiences that are related to your product. You need to clearly define your buyer persona and your current customers to search for users similar to them and segment Discovery campaigns based on that audience.
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Consider whether you want to use audience exclusion. Discovery Ads allows you to exclude audiences, so it may be a good idea to exclude your recent customers unless you’re looking to build loyalty.
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Use images of good quality and that help capture the user’s attention. Keep in mind that you’re trying to attract users who haven’t done a search directly related to your brand, so your ad needs to stand out.
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Use automated bidding strategies. Discovery Ads only work with automated bidding strategies and allow you to choose between target CPA or maximize conversions. In the first case, Google recommends that the daily budget be 10 times greater than the target CPA.