4. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
Merkle offers a broad set of capabilities
Strategy and Planning
Media Science and
Analytics
Display and Programmatic
Media
Ad Tech
Implementation
Paid Social
Creative
& Content
Paid Search SEO
7. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
Available to mobile users on:
Android devices Google App Mobile browsers*
*When logged into a Google
Account
View on desktop: www.google.com > Chrome DevTools > toggle device > mobile > refresh
8. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
Discover uses 2 primary mechanisms
Google News
AI/ML
to bring a variety
of perspectives on
the latest news.
Topic Layer in
the Knowledge
Graph
to understand user
interests and how
they progress over
time.
9. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
Performance varies across industries
News site Travel site Ecommerce site
14% 9% 2%
Search Discover
In October 2019, Vogue saw more traffic come from Discover than Google Search (https://rb.gy/qh6cj4)
10. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
How to check Google Discover traffic
Google Search Console > Performance > Discover
How to track Google Discover in Google Analytics: https://rb.gy/6tigb2
19. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
What’s interesting about interests
Sports &
Entertainment
was the most
prevalent category
Hobbies &
Activities
were a large focus
across categories
Brand
Names
had a strong
presence
Search Engine
Optimization
had its own
category
21. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
• Discover uses your information to identify and
display topics Google believes will be relevant
for you, known as “interests”
• In Discover, the understanding of the user
replaces the understanding of a query
• Representative of a switch in the focus of
search – from instant information to
understanding more intricate user journeys
#SMXInsights
28. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
Evergreen content can drive long-term traffic
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
8/8/20 9/7/20 10/7/20 11/6/20 12/6/20 1/5/21 2/4/21 3/6/21
Google Discover clicks to financial blog article "What is an RRSP?"
136 days of traffic
30. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
• Google Discover is a major traffic driver for news
publishers and can be used to reach a large, broad
audience
• Non-news content is heavily interest-focused, and will
likely be displayed to a smaller, more targeted
audience
• Most pages in Discover have a short shelf-life, around
3-4 days, but evergreen content can drive longer-term
traffic
#SMXInsights
32. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
Optimizing a site for Discover
Page Experience Technical SEO Credibility
• Core web vitals
• Mobile friendly
• Safe browsing
• HTTPS
• No intrusive
interstitials
• Crawl
• Render
• Index
• Signaling
• Quality of content
• Expertise and
authority
• Website information
• Online reputation
37. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
Emphasize your site’s credibility
Quality of
Content
• Well-written
• Factually accurate
• Up to date
• Comprehensive
• Answers questions
Expertise &
Authority
• Proof of claims
• Verifiable expertise
• Known for topic
• Clear who created
content
Website
Information
• Contact information
easily accessible
• Optimized about
page
• Customer service
information
Online
Reputation
• Credible reputation
across the web
• Awards/accolades
• Majority positive user
reviews
42. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
What are the [attributes] of the product,
that lead to [functional benefits],
which affect [how users feel]
that reflects their [personal values]?
Product Attributes
Benefits
Feeling
The Self
Alexis Sanders
@AlexisKSanders
Means-ends Model
47. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
Google Search / Industry Publications
Source: Statista
4%
11%
26%
29%
31%
U.S. pet ownership by generation
Builder
Gen Z
Gen X
Baby Boomer
Millennial
55. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
Combine insights to inform topics
860,120
avg monthly searches
related to [puppy training]
94%
more likely to advise friends
on home décor
47%
more likely to advise friends
on health/exercise
Cooking
One of pet parents’ favorite
TV genres
Insight Topic
83%
of pet parents
have children
76%
of U.S. homeowners updated their
home during the COVID pandemic
Colorado
Highest search interest in
“dog parks”
“Dog Food Recalls”
Trending topic
How to involve kids
in puppy training
Pet friendly furniture
Best dog parks
in Denver, CO
Easy homemade dog food
recipes
Insight
+
+
+
+
=
=
=
=
56. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
Focus on niche topics
“FullyVaccinated
Americans CanTravel
With Low Risk”
The NewYorkTimes
“30 Best Places
toVisit in the
USA”
U.S. NewsTravel
“Best Colorado Spring
Skiing of 2021”
Vacasa
“BestThings to Do in
Winter Park, CO”
Ski Magazine
Competition
Days of traffic
Broad
Niche
Trending Evergreen
58. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
Optimizing content for Discover
Page Content Discover Cards Visuals
• Page information
• Publisher
information
• Article markup
• Internal links
• Original
• Unique benefit
• Google News
guidelines
• Reading level
• H1
• Meta description
• First sentence
• Images
• Video
• Web stories
59. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
Increase the
likelihood of
your content
getting shown
in Google
Discover
Original content that is timely,
tells a story well, or provides
unique insights
Compelling, high-quality images
(or video)
Information about date
published, author, publisher,
and company
Source: https://rb.gy/lsnjie
74. @abbynhamilton
#SMX
To succeed in Discover:
• Create a mix of fresh and evergreen
content that is relevant to your brand and
your users
• Provide unique value (i.e., original, timely,
tells story well, includes unique insights)
• Include high-quality, captivating visuals
#SMXInsights
Discover content you didn’t even know you needed
learns how you search and what you like in order to provide your with the best, or most timely content for your needs
Google Discover takes the query part out of the equation and provides you with a smart system that suggest new content based on your activity and interests.
The goal of Discover is to make you come into contact with new, but relevant things. Always there when you didn’t know you needed it.
The system doesn’t take long to find out if you are on the lookout for something else — say, when you are planning your holiday. Your actions indicate changes and new timely and evergreen content will pop up for your reading pleasure.
Anticipates user behavior to surface new and interesting content, no query required.
Makes “exploring your interests easier than ever”
Google Discover is a personalized feed of articles that is available to mobile users via Android devices or the Google App on iOS.
Google Discover can also be accessed by visiting the Google.com homepage while logged into a Google Account on a mobile device using Google Chrome.
Two primary mechanisms are used to determine what content is displayed in Google Discover:
Google News AI/ML: to bring a variety of perspectives on the latest news.
Topic Layer in the Knowledge Graph: to understand user interests and how they progress over time.
If you are just beginning to explore a topic you’ll get content for beginners. If you’re more advanced, you’ll get more advanced stuff.
Google Discover uses your information to identify and display topics Google believes will be relevant for you, known as “interests”.
Users can also provide direct feedback to further customize their feed by following or unfollowing topics, selecting “show more” or “show less”, and choosing not to see content from certain publishers.
Occasionally, Google will directly prompt the user for feedback.
One of the goals of Google Discover is to serve fresh content, and scrolling through the Discover feed, it is mostly news. But when clients from other industries started seeing Discover traffic in Google Search Console (GSC), it was time to investigate. I analyzed 12 months of Google Discover traffic to over 11,000 URLs from 62 domains. Of those 11,000 URLs:
46% were from news sites.
44% were from ecommerce sites.
7% were from entertainment sites.
2% were from travel sites.
The remaining 1% were from other industries including:
B2B.
Automotive.
Education.
Finance.
Health.
While news accounted for less than half (46%) of URLs analyzed, it received 99% of Discover clicks and got significantly more clicks per page.
For non-news sites, the remaining 1% of clicks (still totaling over 1 million in the past 12 months) were dispersed across different types of content.
The most prevalent type of content across industries was blog posts.
49% of clicks to ecommerce sites went to product pages, which included both product category and product detail pages.
Entertainment saw the largest percentage of clicks (16%) to pages with a video as the primary content (i.e., cast interviews, movie trailers).
Special offers, mostly travel or hotel deals with limited time/availability pricing, accounted for the largest percentage of clicks to travel sites (53%).
Takeaway: Non-news content is heavily interest-focused, and will likely be displayed to a smaller, more targeted audience.
Blog topics that were displayed in Google Discover were highly relevant to specific interests/hobbies, such as hiking, makeup, and nutrition.
In the instances where I’ve seen more mature, evergreen content appearing in my personal Discover feed, I was searching similar topics 2-3 days prior.
Takeaway: Most pages in Discover have a short shelf-life, around 3-4 days, but evergreen content can drive longer-term traffic.
https://moz.com/blog/seo-cyborg
https://moz.com/blog/seo-cyborg
In market: conscious, temporary behavior
Affinity: general interests, hobbies, behavior
Other: everything that didn’t fit
