What makes a page eligible for Discover?

Check indexing and policy compliance first. Indexing means Google has included a page in its searchable collection. Discover is part of Google Search and presents content connected to people's interests, informed by their Web and App Activity. See Google's explanation.

Separate eligibility from selection

Google says eligible content needs no special tags or structured data. Structured data is code that describes information on a page. Meeting the conditions still does not guarantee that an article will appear. That distinction is explicit in the eligibility guidance.

Give your website manager a specific page to inspect. Ask for its indexing status, any obstacle they find, and the next action. Request a plain explanation that you can understand without opening a technical report.

Keep the editorial brief equally specific. Write down who the article helps, the question it answers, and what the reader should be able to do afterward. I would use these notes when deciding whether an article deserves more work.

For the phone reading experience, use the mobile SEO guide as a separate checklist. Ask a colleague to read the finished page on their phone and point out anything that interrupts the explanation.

Which story should your business publish?

Choose a question you can answer with useful detail. Google recommends content that connects with current interests, tells a story well or offers distinctive insight. Older material may also appear when it remains relevant and helpful. These recommendations come from Google Search Central.

Hypothetical example: an independent outdoor shop

Imagine customers keep asking how to pack a waterproof jacket without damaging it. Interview the person who handles these questions in your shop. Ask them to demonstrate the process and identify anything that depends on the manufacturer's instructions.

Build the article around that demonstration. Include the preparation, the steps and the point where readers should check their own product guidance. Do not invent a product test or claim that every jacket behaves the same way.

A proposed headline might be “How to pack your rain jacket: checks before you fold it.” Use it only if the article delivers those checks. This is an illustrative brief, not a campaign with measured results.

• Collect questions from recent customer conversations.
• Select one your team can answer responsibly.
• Write the answer before adding a promotional message.
• Identify where an original photograph would help.
• Remove promises the finished article cannot support.

Google advises against exaggeration and withholding essential information to attract clicks. Check your headline and preview against that presentation guidance.

If a related article helps readers complete the task, connect it naturally. Use the internal linking guide to plan that next step, rather than attaching an unrelated reading list.

What image size does Google Discover require?

For large images, Google recommends at least 1200 pixels in width, more than 300,000 total pixels and a 16:9 aspect ratio. These are image recommendations, not a promise of inclusion. The specifications appear in the Discover documentation.

A pixel is a tiny unit of a digital image. Aspect ratio describes its shape: 16:9 is a wide rectangle. Google's example of 1280 × 720 satisfies its stated specifications. Check the example in the image guidance.

Write a useful image brief

For the hypothetical jacket article, request a clear photograph of the packing step being explained. Specify which details must remain visible when cropped. Ask for the final dimensions alongside the file.

Review the image with the writer before approving it. Would someone expect a different article after seeing this photograph? If so, revise the picture or the headline until they describe the same task.

For the rest of the image workflow, follow the image SEO guide. Keep a copy of the approved image and the brief so a future editor understands the choice.

What content could make your page ineligible?

Check misleading previews and commercial disclosures before publishing. Discover prohibits previews that promise information absent from the page, and sponsorship must not be disguised as independent editorial content. These rules are set out in Discover's content policies.

The policy page also covers dangerous content, deception, harassment, hate, manipulated media, medical content, sexually explicit content, violent extremism, graphic violence and profanity. Review the applicable category in the official policy list.

Do not interpret a category heading as a blanket ban on discussing that subject. For example, the presence of medical content policies does not mean every health article is forbidden. Examine the relevant rule before judging a particular page.

Make commercial relationships understandable

Advertising and paid promotion should not exceed the editorial content, and sponsorship must be clearly disclosed. This includes relevant financial or material support, according to the sponsorship rules.

Hypothetically, a supplier lends your shop a jacket for an article. I recommend explaining that relationship near the beginning. Describe what you actually examined and leave out claims about testing you did not perform.

Google specifically asks news sources to provide clear dates, bylines, publisher information and contact details. That requirement appears under transparency. I recommend similar clarity for a business blog; use the website trust guide to review your presentation.

How should you review an article that gets no visible response?

Start with a written diagnosis. I suggest separating technical status, editorial usefulness and business relevance. For each one, record what you know, what remains uncertain and who will check it.

Use evidence before rewriting everything

• Ask the website manager to confirm the selected page's indexing status.
• Have a reader identify the answer promised by the headline.
• Compare the chosen image with the article's actual subject.
• Check disclosures and author information.
• Write down the next change before making it.

Discover policy violations may appear under Security & Manual actions in Search Console, Google's site reporting tool. That possibility is explained in the policy documentation. If an action appears, have the responsible person review its stated reason.

For business evaluation, choose a useful reader action in advance. You might track requests about the featured product or visits to the relevant service page. Treat these as your own business measures, not as published Discover selection criteria.

If the next step is an email resource, make its purpose clear and let the reader choose it. The email list guide offers a separate planning route. Avoid turning every paragraph into a signup request.

Keep the first review modest: what was checked, what was corrected and what still needs evidence. An inconclusive result should stay inconclusive. Do not label a rewrite successful simply because the team finished it.

What can a small team finish this week?

Finish one article and document its preparation. The schedule below is my suggested workflow, not a Google deadline or a forecast of when traffic will arrive.

1. Monday: select a customer question and assign a writer and reviewer.
2. Tuesday: draft the answer, gather the relevant evidence and mark any uncertainty.
3. Wednesday: prepare the image and check the finished file's dimensions.
4. Thursday: review the headline, disclosures, author information and policy concerns.
5. Friday: read the page on a phone, record the corrections and schedule another review.

Before signing off, ask someone outside the writing process to explain the article's main point. Then ask what they would do next. Use their answers to identify unclear instructions, without treating one person's reaction as proof of future performance.

Give the reviewer permission to remove material. If a paragraph neither answers the question nor helps the reader act, ask whether it belongs. If the headline promises a comparison, check that the comparison actually exists.

For any short summary you prepare alongside the article, use the meta description guide to clarify the promise. Keep the summary faithful to the finished page.