Google Discover Checker – Get Your Articles in the Discovery Feed

Google Discover is a personalized content feed that appears on the Google app homepage and Chrome's New Tab page. Unlike traditional search where users search for specific queries, Discover proactively surfaces content based on users' interests, search history, and engagement patterns.

Google Discover reaches over 800 million users monthly and can drive massive amounts of traffic to publishers. A single article featured in Discover can receive tens of thousands of visitors. For news publishers and content creators, optimizing for Discover is as important as optimizing for traditional search.

Discover content is personalized for each user, making it harder to predict what will be surfaced. However, there are specific technical and editorial signals that make content more eligible for Discover.

Images are one of the most critical factors for Google Discover. Articles with large, high-quality images perform significantly better in Discover. Here are the key image requirements:

• Minimum Width: 1200 pixels. Google strongly recommends images at least 1200px wide for large card display in Discover.
• Aspect Ratio: The recommended aspect ratio is 16:9 for the main article image. Avoid very narrow or very tall images.
• Image Quality: Use original, high-resolution images. Stock photos and generic images perform worse than original photography or compelling custom graphics.
• max-image-preview: Set the robots meta tag to max-image-preview:large to allow Google to display large images in Discover.
• Open Graph: Include og:image tags with the correct image URL. The og:image should match the main article image.

Google Discover heavily prioritizes E-E-A-T content. Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are the four pillars that Google uses to evaluate content quality for Discover inclusion.

Experience: Does the author have first-hand experience with the topic? Articles based on original reporting, personal experience, or direct research perform better than aggregated content.

Expertise: Are the authors recognized experts in their field? Include author bios with credentials, years of experience, and relevant publications.

Authoritativeness: Is your publication recognized as an authority in your niche? Brand recognition, backlinks from authoritative sources, and mentions in reputable outlets all contribute.

Trustworthiness: Does your site have clear editorial standards, privacy policies, contact information, and fact-checking practices? Transparency builds trust with both Google and readers.

While Google Discover can surface older evergreen content, news publishers benefit most from freshness. Here's how to optimize content freshness for Discover:

• Publish articles with accurate datePublished and dateModified in NewsArticle schema
• Update evergreen articles when new information becomes available, updating the dateModified
• Avoid backdating articles to manipulate freshness signals — Google can detect this
• Submit updated articles to your news sitemap to prompt faster recrawling
• For breaking news, publish quickly and update the article as the story develops