According to Google Trends, the keyword ‘Google Discover’ has been on the rise since its launch in 2016.
Most of news websites, independent bloggers, their grandmas, and the SEOs have one thing in common.
They all believe that SEO is pretty much dead! Especially after the launch of Search Generative Experience (SGE), and Google’s other latest antics (read Core updates, Helpful content updates, Spam updates, Review updates).
But SEO is no joke. It provides bread and butter for many families, pays their bills, and whatnot! Of course, Google doesn’t care much. It has its glorious purpose, to improve the internet (No, I too don’t agree with ‘The Verge article‘)
Twitter is full of resentment against Google for practically decimating people’s ‘perfectly alright’ websites out of existence (SERP).
Google is not always wrong, though. Overall, I agree that the Google search is much better than ten years ago. But I must agree that blogging isn’t the same as it was three years ago.
Back then, you could start a small niche website, rank it on Google, and earn through ads and affiliate links.
Now, big giant newspapers such as CNET, NY Times, and Forbes rank for almost anything ranging from ‘Best toothpaste’ to ‘Lebron James net worth’. Small niche websites are being forced out of the top page, even if they are written by truly expert bloggers.
On top of that, Google is now more of an ‘answer-generating machine’ rather than a search engine. It answers people’s queries pretty much on its own in the form of SGE.
Where is your E-E-A-T BS now, Google?
Key takeaway: getting traffic from SEO is pretty much impossible now. So what can we do? Well, there is a new hope. This new hope is called Google discover
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What is Google Discover?
Open the Google app or Chrome on your smartphone, and you will see tons of articles below the search bar.
This is Google Discover, almost similar to YouTube’s ‘Suggested Video’ feature. You get articles recommended to you based on your interests (and other factors as well).
What’s the big deal about it anyway?
Well, if you get lucky (it’s almost about luck, though, if you are a smaller blog), it can get you traffic at levels you could only imagine in your dreams.
See the attached screenshot of Discover traffic on my mom’s Bengali recipe website.
Did I say ‘pure luck’?
It might be for this website. It was a brand-new website with zero backlinks and just a Facebook page. I kid you not; that’s almost ten times the traffic this website got from Google searches!
Is Google Discover traffic always pure luck?
Not always. There are some ‘hacks and tricks’ though.
But that has been discussed in a separate article: Google Discover All Ranking Factors
This article almost hit the ‘sweet spot’ of 600 words for Google Discover.
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