How to Get Your WordPress Site into Google Discover (8 Proven Tips)

Hey there, fellow WordPress user! 👋 Want to get your site to appear in Google Discover?

You‘re in the right place. Today, I‘m sharing 8 proven ways to optimize your site for Discover and earn more organic traffic.

But first, let‘s talk about why you should care about Google Discover in the first place. This relatively new feature reaches over 800 million users globally. It‘s like a personalized content feed designed to surface relevant, interesting content to users before they even search.

Getting your WordPress site featured in Google Discover can help you:

Reach a wider audience of interested users
Boost your organic traffic by 50-100%+
Increase engagement metrics like time on page and pages per session
Strengthen your backlink profile and domain authority
Turn new visitors into email subscribers and customers

Pretty epic, right? Now let‘s dive into the 8 tips you can implement to get your site Discover-ready.

1. Ensure Your WordPress Site is Mobile-Friendly 📱

Since Google Discover is exclusively a mobile feature, having a mobile-responsive WordPress site is non-negotiable.

Over 70% of WordPress websites use responsive design in 2023. If your site isn‘t in that group, you‘re likely turning off mobile visitors and tanking your chances of appearing in Discover.

Fortunately, making your WordPress site mobile-friendly is easier than you might think. Here‘s how:

Choose a responsive WordPress theme. Most modern WordPress themes are responsive out of the box. If you‘re in the market for a new theme, look for "responsive" or "mobile-friendly" in the description. Some great options are:
Install Google AMP. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a framework that speeds up your site‘s load time on mobile devices. Google prioritizes AMP content in Discover. The AMP for WP plugin makes it easy to implement valid AMP versions of your posts.
Compress your images. Large media files are often the culprit behind slow loading times. Compress your images with a plugin like ShortPixel or Smush. Aim to keep image file sizes under 100 KB.
Implement lazy loading. Lazy loading defers loading of non-critical resources (like images below the fold) until they‘re needed. This can significantly improve initial load times. I recommend the WP Rocket plugin, which has lazy loading functionality built-in.

By taking these steps, you‘ll provide a better user experience to mobile visitors and show Google your content is Discover-worthy.

2. Research Your Target Audience‘s Interests 🔍

To earn a spot in Google Discover, your content needs to align closely with your target audience‘s interests and search intent. Put yourself in their shoes: what topics are they passionate about? What questions are keeping them up at night?

You can uncover these insights through:

Keyword research. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to find high-volume keywords in your niche. Look for long-tail phrases that signal clear intent.
Competitor analysis. Plug your top competitors‘ websites into a tool like BuzzSumo to see their best-performing content. Take note of common themes, formats, and angles you could cover on your own site.
Social listening. Monitor relevant hashtags, groups, and forums on social media to see what your audience is talking about. Hootsuite Insights and Sprout Social are helpful tools for social listening.

For example, let‘s say you run a WordPress site about organic gardening. Through your research, you discover popular topics like:

Composting tips for beginners
Companion planting cheat sheet
Best organic fertilizers
Natural pest control methods

Armed with these insights, you can create content that resonates with your target audience and has a better chance of appearing in their Discover feeds.

3. Jump on Trending Topics ⚡

Google Discover favors fresh, timely content. In fact, a staggering 93% of Discover traffic goes to pages published within the past 2-3 days.

To capitalize on this freshness factor, keep a pulse on trending topics in your niche. Set up Google Alerts for relevant keywords and monitor trending hashtags on Twitter.

When a relevant news story or trend emerges, act fast. Publish an article or video covering the topic from a unique angle. Provide your own commentary and insights to differentiate your content from other sources.

For instance, if Google announces a major algorithm update that affects WordPress sites, you could publish a post titled "Google‘s May 2024 Update: What WordPress Users Need to Know." Break down the changes and provide actionable tips for maintaining rankings.

The key is striking while the iron is hot. Aim to publish within 24 hours of a trending topic emerging for the best chance of appearing in Discover.

4. Use High-Quality, Original Visuals 🖼️

Google Discover is a visual-heavy feed, displaying large featured images for each piece of content. Using eye-catching, high-quality visuals can stop the scroll and entice clicks.

According to Google, your images should be at least 1200 pixels wide and enabled by the max-image-preview:large setting. Avoid using generic stock photos in favor of original graphics and pictures.

Some tips for optimizing your blog post images:

Tip	Explanation
Choose relevant images	Make sure your featured image clearly relates to the post topic. Avoid clickbait or misleading imagery.
Use descriptive file names	Instead of IMG_123.jpg, use descriptive file names like organic-gardening-tips.jpg.
Compress file size	Large image files slow down your page speed. Compress images to under 100 KB with a tool like TinyPNG.
Add descriptive alt text	Alt text helps visually impaired users and search engines understand your images. Describe what‘s shown in the image.
Overlay text on featured images	Adding the post title to your featured image can improve CTR from Discover. Just keep the text concise.

By following these image best practices, you‘ll make your content more compelling to both users and Google‘s Discover algorithms.

5. Embed Relevant Videos 📹

Video content performs exceptionally well in Google Discover. According to Google, over 10% of Discover traffic goes to videos, and users are 30% more likely to click video content in the feed.

If you‘re not already creating video to complement your blog content, consider investing in video this year. Videos can be simple and inexpensive to produce. A few ideas:

Record a quick talking head video summarizing your blog post
Create a screen recording tutorial walking through the steps in your post
Repurpose a blog post into a short animated explainer video

Embed your videos in relevant blog posts using WordPress‘s built-in embed blocks. You can also create a dedicated video sitemap in your Google Search Console account to help Google discover and index your videos.

Not sure what types of videos to create? Look at your Google Analytics data to see which blog posts get the most traffic and engagement. These are prime candidates for video companion content.

By providing video content, you‘ll keep visitors on your site longer, improve engagement signals, and increase your chances of being featured in Google Discover.

6. Prioritize E-E-A-T in Your Content 🙌

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is the framework Google uses to assess content quality. Demonstrating strong E-E-A-T in your content is crucial for ranking in search results and appearing in Google Discover.

Here are some ways to improve your site‘s E-E-A-T:

Showcase your expertise. Make your authors‘ credentials, experience, and background clear. Include detailed author bios on each blog post with links to their portfolio or social profiles.
Cite trustworthy sources. When making claims in your content, link to authoritative sources to back them up. Government websites, academic journals, and industry publications are good choices.
Provide accurate information. Carefully fact-check your content before publishing. If you make a mistake, issue a correction as soon as possible. Strive for originality in your reporting and analysis.
Keep your content up-to-date. Regularly update your blog posts with new information as it becomes available. Use the "last updated" date to show readers your content is current.
Manage your online reputation. Monitor your brand mentions online and respond to any negative reviews or feedback promptly. Cultivate positive testimonials and press mentions.

Google‘s Search Quality Rater Guidelines offer more advice on demonstrating E-A-T. I recommend giving the document a read and sharing it with any content creators on your team.

When you prioritize E-E-A-T, you‘ll build trust with your audience and send positive signals to Google that can improve your visibility in Discover.

7. Optimize Your OG Tags 🏷️

Open Graph (OG) tags are snippets of code that determine how your content appears when shared on social media or displayed in Google Discover.

At a minimum, you should include the following OG tags in the section of each blog post:

og:title: The title of your post, capped at 60 characters.
og:description: A brief summary of your post‘s content, around 155 characters. Make it compelling!
og:image: The URL of your post‘s featured image. It should be at least 1200 pixels wide.
og:url: The URL of the post.

Most WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast or All in One SEO Pack make it easy to set your OG tags without messing with code.

Why are OG tags important for Google Discover? Google may display your specified OG title and description instead of pulling from your post content. Optimizing these fields with keywords and calls-to-action can entice more clicks from Discover.

For example, you could use an OG title format like:

[Attention-Grabbing Headline] – [Your Brand Name]

And for descriptions, focus on the value and takeaways the reader will get, like:

Learn how to [accomplish X goal] with our step-by-step guide. You‘ll discover [benefit 1], [benefit 2], and [benefit 3]. Click to get started!

Just like with your post content, keep your audience‘s needs and interests top of mind when crafting your OG tags. A little optimization can go a long way in driving more traffic from Google Discover.

8. Publish Content Consistently 📅

Finally, one of the most important things you can do to get your WordPress site into Google Discover is to publish fresh content on a consistent basis.

Google‘s algorithms prioritize websites that demonstrate frequent updates and a steady stream of new content. In a study by HubSpot, businesses that published 16+ blog posts per month got 3.5X more traffic than those publishing less than 4 posts monthly.

Now, I‘m not saying you need to publish every single day to get into Google Discover. However, I do recommend committing to a minimum posting frequency of once per week.

Here are some tips for maintaining a consistent publishing schedule:

Create a content calendar. Map out your blog post ideas a month in advance. Assign due dates and stick to them!
Batch your content. Set aside a few hours each week to write multiple posts at once. This is more efficient than trying to write every day.
Outsource to freelance writers. If you‘re struggling to keep up with content creation, consider hiring freelance writers to help. Provide them with detailed briefs and editorial guidelines.
Repurpose your existing content. Turn an old blog post into an infographic, podcast episode, or video to get more mileage from your archives.

By committing to a regular publishing cadence, you‘ll show Google your site is active, authoritative, and worthy of inclusion in Discover. Plus, the more content you create, the more opportunities you have to appear in users‘ feeds!

Ready to Get Your WordPress Site Featured in Google Discover? 🚀

There you have it – 8 proven tips to help your WordPress site appear in Google Discover and drive more organic traffic.

As a recap, you‘ll want to:

Ensure your site is mobile-friendly
Research your audience‘s interests
Cover timely, trending topics
Use original, high-quality images
Embed engaging videos
Demonstrate E-E-A-T in your content
Optimize your OG tags
Publish content consistently

Focus on providing value to your target audience and creating content that meets their needs. It may take some experimentation to find what resonates, but stick with it!

Keep an eye on your Google Analytics and Search Console data to track your progress. Note any upticks in traffic and impressions, and double down on your top-performing content.

With some smart optimizations and a little patience, you could start seeing your site rubbing elbows with major publishers in Discover. Imagine the possibilities!

Now go forth and optimize, and may the Google Discover gods be ever in your favor. 😉

If you found this guide helpful, feel free to share it with your fellow WordPress pals. And don‘t forget to subscribe to our email newsletter for more juicy SEO tips and tricks delivered straight to your inbox.

Until next time, happy optimizing!