Imagine this: a search engine combined with a social media newsfeed. Well, that’s exactly what Google Discover is set to establish itself as in the near future.
Previously known as Google Feed, the tech giant rebranded this feature to Google Discover in 2018. In a nutshell, it functions as an automatically generated and highly personalised mobile feed based on your online activity, or the data that it already has stored based on your internet usage. According to those in the know at Google, the following data is used to generate your feed:
- Your activity across all Google products (e.g., your search activity, watched YouTube videos, and engagement with Discover results)
- Events and activities stored in your Google Calendar or Gmail account
- Location history
- Location settings
- Topics you follow
While it shows information and news about the topics that interest you, whether that be travel, tea or Tiger King, the platform was previously only available to Android users or accessible via the Chrome or Google apps on iOS. However, recent announcements from the tech titan indicate that Google Discover is about to be rolled out across all mobile browsers, and will be linked directly to the Google homepage.
While this is just part of Google’s long term plan when it comes to revolutionising how the search engine works, it has digital marketers and online brands from all industries in somewhat of a flutter, with many asking queries such as how will SEO work for Google Discover, will it function in the same manner as traditional SEO, how can I measure click-throughs and traffic, and will my existing content be compatible?
Six Tips On Optimising Content For Google Discover
For those at the very early stages of their content marketing journey, it’s probably wise to keep your attention firmly on the traditional practices used to attract organic traffic through SEO. However, for those who are slightly more seasoned, optimising your content for Google Discover is still a hotly debated topic. It’s also still in the experimental phase, particularly as the only data and analytics available is via the Google Search Console, meaning that there’s no way to check out what the competition is up to.
In saying that, if you think you’re ready to tackle Google Discover, the good news is that there are a few basic fundamentals to deploy if you want your content to reach the right types of audiences.
Be Mobile Friendly – Since Google Discover is a mobile-only feed, your website’s mobile experience is hugely important. At the very least, you need a responsive, fast loading site that has limited or no ads or pop ups. Expect to be docked SEO points if you’ve only given attention to your website’s desktop version.
Creative Headlines – When writing content for Google Discover, remember that you’ve only got one shot to capture the attention of your potential readers. Emotionally charged headlines, titles that are fashioned as a question, and even list style articles that use numbers are a great start but avoid ‘clickbait’ style content that doesn’t deliver what the title insinuates.
Tackle Google EAT – If you aren’t already familiar with the concept, Google EAT is a term that stems from Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines, a 168 page document used by actual humans to assess the quality of the search engine’s results, and stands for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Thus, ensure that your website meets this criteria to rank.
Be Consistent – Like just about everything the search engine touches, Google Discover is all about accurately categorising data and information as a means to present users with the most relevant content. Stick to your niche, and don’t bounce around too much between topics, as this can hurt whether Google deems you to be an authority within your field or not.
Evergreen Is Key – Google Discover looks very favourably upon evergreen content, or as the search engine puts it, “articles and videos that aren’t new to the web, but are new to you”. Thus, try to write content that will essentially last forever – meaning that the information it contains doesn’t age or expire.
As the world continues to rapidly shift online, trying to do business in this space is a whole new ball game when compared to the traditional bricks and mortar methods. As a result, getting seen online involves much more than having a slick website, and brands simply need clear, consistent and on brand content like blogs, videos and graphics in order to reach the top of the search engine results. While it’s certainly not an easy task if you don’t know what you’re doing, the good news is that outsourcing your brand’s content marketing needs might actually be easier than you think.
Outsourcing Your Blog Content With The Professionals
Producing quality, consistent and on brand content takes time, effort, experience and resources – and you’re not alone if you can’t quite commit to that. Avoiding blogging for business altogether may actually be doing your brand a disservice. Thankfully, investing in a solid content marketing strategy has never been easier.
Here at Content Hive, producing top quality digital content is exactly what we do best. We have itemised a list of digital content services and allocated credits next to each of these. This means that each month, you can use your credits with us to produce digital content such as blog articles, social media posts, videos and even animated Instagram stories. By using this model, we believe that it enables us to produce high quality content with faster delivery times. It also means that because you have a monthly credit, you are going to want to make sure you use these up – and so do we – meaning that your digital content is always consistent.
If you aren’t quite sure where to start on your digital marketing journey and would like to speak to a professional, why not book a free discovery call with us at Content Hive today to discuss how we can get your brand buzzing online.
