John Mueller explains why you shouldn’t rely on Google Discover traffic

Do you receive traffic from Google DIscover? 

Although not the best, it still can be an excellent source of free, organic traffic of people who are interested in your niche.

But is that a dependable source? Google’s John Mueller thinks differently.

Relying on Google Discover for traffic

When talking about Google Discover traffic’s inconsistency, Muller says, one either gets the traffic or they don’t. And due to this binary behavior, any changes in traffic would be quite visible.

Muller reasons the disappearance of traffic by saying:

“I think it’s always tricky with Discover because it’s… at least what I hear from people, it’s very binary in that either you get, like, a lot of traffic or you don’t get a lot of traffic from Discover. And that also means that any changes there tend to be very visible.

So my main recommendation is not to rely on Google Discover for traffic, but rather to see it as an additional traffic source and not as the main one.”

Improving performance on Google Discover

In order to improve traffic, Muller asks to follow the content guidelines provided by Google and to avoid using click-baits. Website content is evaluated by search crawlers under those oriented guidelines. 

“The other thing is with Discover, in particular, we have a set of content guidelines that we try to stick to in an algorithmic way.

And depending on the website itself, it might be something where some of these content guidelines, your website is kind of borderline.

So, for example, I don’t know the content guidelines all by heart, but I think there is something like clickbait-y titles or clickbait-y content in general or kind of adult-oriented content, for example,” says John.

What is Google Discover?

Google Discover tailors a feed of content according to your personal choices and interests. By keeping tabs on your interests and preferences, Google Discover presents a feed of curated content and monitors your interaction and engagement with the content to improve future recommendations. The feed can be customized by following content categories.

Google Discover can send a good amount of traffic to your website. However, as we just learned, relying on that traffic isn’t the best thing to do.

Instead, in order to build a stream of consistent, free traffic, we recommend optimising your website for the Google search engine.

Conclusion 

Muller is of the view that traffic on a website must not primarily rely on Google Discover. That’s because such a source of traffic can be inconsistent and reliable and, therefore, may have adverse effects on the foundation of a business. 

Following guidelines and avoiding click baits can improve chances of getting Google Discover traffic, however, keep it as an auxiliary source.