How to Get Your WordPress Site Into Google Discover: The Complete Guide

Want more people to discover your WordPress site‘s great content? Who doesn‘t!

Google Discover offers an amazing opportunity to reach new audiences by having your articles and videos recommended in the Google mobile app.

But how exactly can you get your site included in this coveted personalized feed?

In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll explore the ins and outs of Google Discover along with actionable tips to optimize your WordPress site.

After 15 years as a webmaster, I‘ll also share some pro strategies based on real-world experience!

Let‘s dive in…

Why Google Discover Matters

Google Discover isn‘t just a minor feature — it‘s exploded in popularity over the past few years.

Consider these stats:

• 800 million monthly active users of Google Discover as of May 2022 [source]

• 135% increase in Discover traffic from 2020 to 2021 [source]

• Higher click-through-rates compared to traditional Google search

By curating content tailored to users‘ interests, Discover provides a more engaging experience than plain old search results.

Getting your content included allows you to reach new audiences who are primed to actually click and consume what you‘ve created.

It‘s an amazing opportunity for more eyeballs, leads, and revenue.

Now let‘s see how you can capitalize on this with WordPress…

Step 1: Ensure Your Site is Mobile-Friendly

Since Google Discover is only available on mobile, having a responsive WordPress site is non-negotiable.

Your theme needs to dynamically resize and rearrange itself to look great on any device — desktop, tablets, and smartphones.

Here‘s an example of a site with a responsive design:

![Responsive site screenshot]

Notice how the navigation menu collapses into a hamburger icon on mobile. Images and text also adjust nicely.

Enabling a mobile-friendly view like this is crucial.

You also need blazing fast load times on mobile. Google recommends keeping pages under 2 seconds if possible.

Some tips to speed up your WordPress site include:

• Enable browser caching
• Minify CSS and JavaScript
• Compress images
• Install a performance caching plugin like WP Rocket
• Use a content delivery network (CDN) like Cloudflare

AMP pages can further accelerate load speeds. Check out our guide on how to create AMP content with WordPress plugins.

With site responsiveness and speed covered, you‘ve got the base to be discoverable!

Step 2: Analyze Your Audience‘s Interests

Google Discover surfaces content based partially on users‘ interests. So it‘s smart to analyze what your audience cares about.

Installing Google Analytics is a must. Dive into the detailed Audience reports to uncover:

• Demographics like age, gender, location
• Interests and hobbies
• Most visited pages and content

You can then create content tailored to what your readers like.

Also leverage Google Trends to find rising search trends and hot topics:

![Google Trends screenshot]

This allows you to create timely, relevant content primed for Discover.

Step 3: Create Visually Engaging Content

Eye-catching images and videos are key for getting clicks in Discover.

For images, Google recommends at least 1200px wide and enabled by max-image-preview:large in robots.txt.

Properly optimize your visual content too:

• Descriptive filenames
• Alt text for accessibility
• IPTC captions for images

Embedded YouTube videos can also help your content stand out. Be sure to enable Video Sitemaps in your WordPress SEO plugin so Google can find and index the rich media.

![SEO video sitemap setting screenshot]

Step 4: Demonstrate Expertise and Trust

Google wants Discover to showcase authoritative sites and high-quality content.

Some ways WordPress sites can demonstrate expertise and trustworthiness:

• Add detailed author bios and contact pages
• Share your business address, founding date, and other transparency details
• Publish consistently in your niche
• Enable Review and FAQ schema markup

Citing sources also signals authority. Link out to industry experts and statistics where relevant.

And build social proof with testimonials, customer logos, and reviews.

Step 5: Set an Open Graph Meta Title

Many webmasters have found success getting their Open Graph title displayed in Discover rather than their on-page <h1> tag.

For example, this is what a shared post might show in Discover:

![Open graph Discover screenshot]

To customize your Open Graph data in WordPress, use a plugin like Yoast SEO or RankMath SEO.

In the Social tab, optimize your Open Graph title, description, and image.

Step 6: Get the Google Knowledge Panel

You may have noticed the Follow button that appears for some searches:

![Google Follow button screenshot]

Tapping this allows users to subscribe and get your new content recommended in Discover.

But it requires having a Knowledge Panel displayed:

![Knowledge panel screenshot]

This panel shows up when Google considers you an authoritative source.

Optimize your Knowledge Graph data with your logo, social links, contact info, and other details. Knowledge Graph markup can help here.

Step 7: Continuously Monitor and Refine

Gaining visibility in Discover takes time and ongoing optimization.

Monitor your progress in Google Search Console to see impressions, clicks, rankings, and more.

Run experiments with different content formats, topics, headlines, and images. Watch the analytics to see what resonates.

Stay on top of Google algorithm updates and best practices so you can refine as needed.

The Key is Creating Content For Your Audience

While we‘ve covered a lot of tactical tips in this guide, never lose sight of the bigger picture.

Creating content tailored to your audience is what will ultimately get you discovered in Discover.

Understand your readers‘ motivations and challenges. Develop that trust and relationship over time. Offer true value.

The rest will fall into place.

I hope this guide gave you plenty of practical tips and pro insight to get started optimizing your WordPress site for Google Discover.

Let me know if you have any other questions! I‘m always happy to help fellow webmasters.