- September 29: Added more explanation about why Discover traffic may change over time.
Why Discover traffic might change over time
Traffic from Discover is less predictable or dependable when compared to keyword-driven search visits. Given its serendipitous nature, you should consider traffic from Discover as supplemental to your keyword-driven search traffic. Here are some reasons why Discover traffic may fluctuate:
- Changing interests: Discover is designed and always improving to show content aligned with what someone is interested in, which in part can be based on their search activity. If someone is no longer as interested in a particular topic—perhaps reflected by a decline in searching for it—their Discover feed might show other content they’re more interested in. In turn, this may cause changes in traffic for publishers.
- Content types: Discover has and continues to adjust the types of content that might appear on the feed to better align with what people are looking for. Discover regularly shows content including but not limited to sports, health, entertainment, and lifestyle content from across the open web.
- Updates to Google Search: Periodically, we also make updates to Search designed to better provide people with links to helpful content. Because Discover is an extension of Search, updates can sometimes produce traffic changes. If you notice changes to your website’s performance after an update, the following pages may be useful to consider:
Monitor your performance on Discover
If you have content on Discover, you can monitor your performance using the Performance report for Discover. This report shows impressions, clicks, and CTR for any of your content that has appeared on Discover in the last 16 months, as long as your data reaches a minimum threshold of impressions. The Discover performance report includes traffic from Chrome, and fully tracks a site’s Discover traffic across all surfaces where users interact with Discover. This includes impressions and clicks from the Following tab.
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