In any industry, it is crucial for good leaders — and even rank-and-file workers — to stay on top of the latest industry news, insights and trends. And for everyday Americans looking to grow their knowledge and skills in nearly any area, it is important to keep informed.
But unfortunately, busy schedules can often get in the way of doing the research and other homework required to stay in the know. And with this in mind, search giant Google provides a mobile experience designed specifically to keep users well versed in their areas of interest: Google Discover.
What is Google Discover?
Formerly known as Google Feed, Google Discover is a digital functionality available to smartphone users via the Google app. The app feature compiles a personalized, simple-to-review collection of articles, videos and other newsworthy content that it deems likely to be of high interest to the user.
Discover makes its inclusion selections based on the user’s ongoing interactions with Google (including past web searches and content-consumption choices), along with his or her direct in-app selection/addition of preferred topics. Users can further customize the content that Discover provides to them by tapping “Follow” to see more about a particular topic moving forward, or by selecting “Not interested” for articles and topics they’d prefer to see less of in the future.
The Discover feed can be viewed within the Google app by tapping the Discover tab on an Android device, or by looking just beneath the search bar on the Home tab when using an iPhone.
How to use Google Discover for business
There are two primary ways any business can benefit from Google Discover: education and exposure. Here are quick rundowns on how the enlightening feature of the Google app can be harnessed for each:
Use Discover to stay in the know
Of course, for business leaders and other professionals seeking to maintain high levels of awareness about topics of interest in their industry, Google Discover can be employed in the same way that most consumers use it.
- First, download the Google app from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
- While Discover will automatically begin curating content based on your online activities, it can be customized to follow specific topics of interest. The process for Discover customization is outlined for Android and Apple device users in this Google Support article.
- To ensure that Discover provides content on the topics you’re looking to stay informed on and learn more about, navigate to the “Your interests” page in the app’s Settings menu to add the topics you’d like to know more about, as well as to delete the topics you’d prefer not to follow.
Get featured on Discover
For a brand’s online content to appear in consumers’ Google Discover feeds, no special tags and/or data structuring are necessary. By and large, the same principles that drive general SEO best practices also apply for appearing in Discover.
There are a few insights to keep in mind for landing your brand’s content in more users’ Discover feeds, though:
- Google itself offers some helpful guidance for appearing in Discover, including tips on optimizing web pages for Discover’s Follow feature, making sure your RSS or Atom feed can be found and understood by Google, specifying multiple feeds and monitoring Discover performance.
- Just as with achieving high Google search rankings, demonstrating high levels of expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (E-A-T) with your content is critical.
- Since Discover tends to seek out newsworthy content, following trending topics in your industry or niche and publishing content about them in a timely manner can boost your chances of having content featured there.
- Google Discover is a highly visual medium, presenting content in users’ feeds within tiles that are highly scannable and dominated by a primary image or video clip pulled from your website. To make your content stand out when it is picked up by Discover, try to accompany your website content with high-quality imagery and videos that are relevant to the topic being discussed and compelling to viewers.
- Google Discover is also geared specifically toward smartphone users, making it highly likely that any traffic your brand attracts to its website via Discover will be viewing your content on a mobile device. This is yet another of the many reasons to ensure that your business’s website is mobile-friendly, ideally incorporating a responsive design.
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Nick McNeill
Interactive Director
Nick uses his talents in computer science and graphic design to grow the online presence of brands such as Santee Cooper, Southern Tide, frogg toggs, Farmers Telephone Cooperative and Blue Force Gear. A serial marathon runner, his steely determination shines through every brand he grows. As lead user interface designer of the GuestDesk software suite for online hotel reservations, he watched it explode from $1 million in reservations to over $400 million annually.