You’re scrolling your phone at 7:00 AM. Before you’ve even had coffee, you swipe right or open the Google app, and there it is: a perfectly curated list of articles about that obscure hobby you picked up last week, a breaking news story from your hometown, and a review of a restaurant you were literally just talking about. This isn't search. You didn't type anything into a box. This is Google Discover, a query-less feed that feels a little bit like magic and a lot like creepy surveillance.
Most people call it "the Google feed" or "those articles under the search bar."
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But for creators and businesses, it’s a high-stakes lottery. One day you have zero traffic; the next, a single post gets 100,000 clicks in four hours because the algorithm decided you were "relevant." It’s volatile. It's frustrating. Honestly, it's the most powerful traffic driver on the mobile web right now, yet most SEOs are still treating it like standard search. They're wrong.
Why Google Discover Isn't Actually Search
Search is pull. Discover is push.
When you go to https://www.google.com/search?q=Google.com and type "how to fix a leaky faucet," you have intent. You have a problem, and you want a specific answer. Google’s job is to find the most authoritative, technically sound page to solve that problem.
Google Discover operates on a totally different set of physics. It doesn't care about your intent because you haven't expressed any yet. Instead, it relies on your "Interest Graph." This is built from your location history, search history, app usage, and even the topics Google thinks you might like based on people who have similar profiles to yours.
It’s passive. It’s highly visual. It’s basically TikTok for the open web.
If you want to show up there, you have to stop worrying about keywords. Nobody is "searching" for your content in Discover. They are stumbling upon it. Therefore, the "keyword" is actually a "topic entities." If Google recognizes your article is about the entity "Electric Vehicles" and "California Infrastructure," it will push that content to people who have shown an affinity for those specific entities.
The Mystery of the "Discover Spike"
Every digital publisher has seen it.
The Google Search Console graph looks like a flat line for months, then suddenly—BAM—a vertical skyscraper of traffic appears out of nowhere. Then, 48 hours later, it vanishes. This is the "Discover Spike."
It happens because Discover is a trend-hungry beast. It prioritizes freshness, but not always "newness." Sometimes a year-old article about a classic movie will suddenly trend because a sequel was announced, and Google realizes the old content is relevant again. But mostly, it’s about high-engagement signals. If the first 100 people who see your article in their feed click on it and stay there, Google pours gasoline on the fire. If they swipe past it? You're dead in the water.
The Visual Tax: Why Your Thumbnails Suck
You can't win here with a boring stock photo of a person smiling at a laptop.
Google explicitly states in its documentation—and real-world testing by experts like Lily Ray confirms this—that high-quality, large images are a non-negotiable requirement. Specifically, your images need to be at least 1200 pixels wide. They also need to be enabled by the max-image-preview:large setting or by using AMP.
But it’s more than just size.
The image is your "hook." In a world of infinite scrolling, your thumbnail has to stop the thumb. It needs to be evocative. It needs to tell a story. Think about why YouTube thumbnails look the way they do—bright colors, high contrast, often a human face showing emotion. While you don't need to go "full MrBeast," a clinical, boring image will kill your chances of ever appearing in Google Discover.
E-E-A-T Is the Only Shield You Have
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
In standard search, you can sometimes "game" the system with great backlinks and technical SEO. In Discover, Google is way more protective. Since they are proactively pushing content into a user’s private space, they feel a higher level of responsibility for the quality of that content.
If your site is a "niche site" built by AI with no clear author, you are going to struggle. Google wants to see a real person behind the keyboard. They want to see an "About" page that doesn't sound like it was written by a legal bot. They want to see that you actually did the thing you're writing about.
If you're writing a review of a new smartphone, show original photos of you holding the phone. That is "Experience." If you’re a doctor writing about heart health, your credentials need to be clear and linked to a robust author profile. That is "Expertise." Without these signals, the algorithm views your content as a risk. And Google is very risk-averse when it comes to the feed.
The "Clickbait" Tightrope
Here’s the annoying part: Discover rewards curiosity gaps, but it punishes deception.
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If your title is "You'll Never Believe What This Celebrity Did," and the article is just a boring recap of a tweet, Google will eventually figure out that your "bounce rate" is astronomical. Users will also start clicking "Don't show stories from [Your Site]," which is the kiss of death.
The trick is to be provocative without being a liar. Instead of "You'll Never Believe...", try "The One Reason [Celebrity] Is Leaving Their Hit Show." It creates a curiosity gap (What is the reason?) but promises a specific answer.
Technical Hurdles You're Probably Tripping Over
You can write the best article in the world, but if your site takes six seconds to load on a 4G connection, you aren't getting into Discover.
Mobile usability is king.
- Core Web Vitals: If your CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) is bad—meaning things jump around as the page loads—users will get frustrated and leave. Google sees this.
- Ads: If your content is buried under three pop-ups and a "sticky" video player that takes up half the screen, you're disqualified. Google Discover users want a clean reading experience.
- Schema Markup: While not strictly "required" for Discover, using Article or NewsArticle schema helps the algorithm understand the entities involved. It’s like giving Google a map instead of making it wander through the woods.
What to Do If Your Traffic Suddenly Disappears
It’s going to happen.
Discover traffic is notoriously fickle. You might have a "golden month" followed by a "dark winter." Usually, this isn't a "penalty" in the traditional sense. It’s just that the interest in your specific topic has waned, or a competitor is currently hitting the engagement metrics better than you are.
However, if your traffic drops to zero and stays there, check your Manual Actions report in Search Console. Sometimes, a site-wide issue or a policy violation (like "helpful content" issues) can lead to a Discover shadow-ban. But most of the time? You just need to pivot your content strategy back to what the audience actually cares about now.
Actionable Steps to Get Into the Feed
Don't just wait for the algorithm to find you. You can actively optimize for Google Discover by changing how you produce and package your content.
- Audit your images immediately. Go through your top 20 most important pages. Are the images 1200px wide? Are they compelling? If not, swap them. Use original photography whenever possible.
- Write for "Entities," not keywords. Instead of targeting "best hiking boots," write about "The best hiking boots for the Appalachian Trail in late autumn." You are connecting your content to specific locations, seasons, and activities that Google can map to user interests.
- Refresh your "About" and "Author" pages. Make them human. Link to your social media profiles. Show that you are a real person with a real reputation.
- Monitor the "Discover" report in Search Console. Look at which of your pages have made it in. What do they have in common? Was it the headline style? The topic? Double down on what is already working rather than guessing.
- Eliminate intrusive ad units. If an ad covers the main content or mimics the UI of the site, kill it. The short-term revenue isn't worth losing the massive traffic potential of the feed.
Google Discover is a game of relevance and engagement. It’s about being the most interesting thing in someone's pocket at exactly the right moment. If you can master the balance between technical health and genuine, human-centric storytelling, the "Discover Spike" will eventually find you. Just don't expect it to stay forever—the feed never sleeps, and it's always looking for the next big thing.