Google Discover

How content gets in

“Content is automatically eligible to appear in Discover if it is indexed by Google and meets Discover’s content policies. No special tags or structured data are required. Note that being eligible to appear in Discover is not a guarantee of appearing.”

Officially documented · Google Search Central

Discover “makes use of many of the same signals and systems used by Search to determine what is helpful, people-first content.” Google recommends avoiding clickbait and sensationalism. Titles and headlines should capture the essence of the content.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

Images

Google recommends large, relevant images: “At least 1200 px wide”, more than 300,000 total pixels and a 16x9 aspect ratio. They should be enabled by the max-image-preview:large setting. Specify the image with schema.org markup or og:image. Avoid generic images there, such as your site logo, and text-heavy images.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

max-image-preview:large is a robots meta value. See Snippet controls for AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Traffic changes

“Traffic from Discover is less predictable or dependable when compared to keyword-driven search visits.” Google suggests treating it as a supplement to keyword-driven search traffic. Changes can be unrelated to the quality or publishing frequency of a site’s content.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

The Performance report for Discover in Search Console shows impressions, clicks and CTR for the last 16 months, once a minimum impression threshold is reached.

Generative AI features in Discover

The Search generative AI control also covers generative AI features in Discover, alongside AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Officially documented · Google Search Console Help

See Search generative AI control.

This site

Indexable pages here set max-image-preview:large. Each entry has its own share image showing its title, type and evidence level, rather than one site-wide image. The images are 1200×630, the common Open Graph size. That is about 1.91:1, not the 16:9 Google recommends for Discover.