By Alex Rivera, Founder of Growth Lab Marketing
As a digital marketer for over a decade, I thought I understood SEO. Then, a single algorithm change in September 2025 forced me to relearn everything. This is the story of how I went from 8,000 visitors a month to over 100,000—and how you can, too.
Last month, my blog had 8,000 monthly visitors. I was doing everything “right”—writing long-form, keyword-optimized content, building backlinks, and posting on social media. It was a slow, grinding process.
Yesterday, I checked my Google Search Console and saw this: 114,683 visitors in the last 30 days from Google Discover alone.
I didn’t spend a dollar on paid ads. I didn’t have a post go viral on TikTok. I simply found a crack in the Google Discover algorithm and created strategic content that the platform couldn’t ignore.
Here’s what changed on September 17, 2025—and the exact, step-by-step playbook I used to exploit it.
What Changed in Google Discover in September 2025?
For years, Google Discover has been a mysterious, unreliable source of traffic for publishers. You’d see a random spike one day and a complete flatline the next, with no clear explanation.
That all changed on September 17, 2025. Google rolled out its biggest Discover update in years, and it fundamentally changed the game. If you’re still using a 2024 playbook, you are leaving 90% of your potential traffic on the table.
Here are the core changes:
- Multi-Format Content: Discover is no longer just for articles. The feed now prominently features YouTube Shorts, Instagram posts, and even X (formerly Twitter) posts.
- The “Follow” Feature: This is the big one. Users can now follow specific creators and publishers directly within the Discover feed. This turns Discover from a passive content stream into an active subscription platform.
- Topic and Entity Layering: The algorithm is now better at connecting different content formats about the same “entity.” For example, if a user reads an article about OpenAI’s Sora 2, Discover is now highly likely to show them YouTube Shorts and Instagram posts about Sora 2 as well.
Why this is a game-changer: This means your content strategy can no longer be siloed. My YouTube Shorts are now directly driving traffic to my blog posts via Discover because Google understands that I am the entity connecting them. A multi-platform strategy is no longer optional; it’s essential.
The Content Formula That Google Discover Craves
After analyzing dozens of my own articles that took off in Discover, as well as those from other major publishers, a clear pattern emerged. The algorithm rewards a very specific type of content.
High-Performing Discover Content Attributes:
| Element | What Works in Discover | What Fails in Discover | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headline | “How I Accidentally 10X’d My Traffic” (Personal, Outcome-Driven) | “Tips for Increasing Website Traffic” (Generic, Boring) | Emotion, specificity, and a clear “what’s in it for me” for the reader. |
| Images | High-resolution (1200px+) images showing human faces with clear emotion. | Small, low-quality stock photos or brand logos. | The human brain is hardwired to connect with faces. Google knows this and prioritizes it in a visual feed. |
| Topic | A trending topic combined with an evergreen, personal angle (e.g., “My 7-Day Test of the New AI Browser”). | Pure news (too short-lived) or pure evergreen (not timely enough). | The hybrid approach captures the initial trend-based interest and has a longer tail as an evergreen resource. |
| Length | 1,200-1,800 words. | Under 800 words (too thin) or over 3,000 words (too dense for mobile). | This seems to be the “Goldilocks zone”—long enough to be comprehensive but concise enough for a mobile user to skim. |
My Discover Content Recipe:
This is the exact, repeatable process I use for every article I want to push to Discover. For a deeper dive, check out our SEO content optimization guide.
- Find a Rising Trend: I spend 10 minutes every morning on Google Trends and the X “Trending” tab to find topics with growing, not peaking, interest.
- Add a Personal Angle: I never just report the news. I frame it as a personal experience. “How I…”, “My Experience With…”, “I Tested X for 30 Days…”. This is the most crucial step.
- Write for Mobile-First: Short, 2-3 line paragraphs. Generous white space. Bullet points and numbered lists for skimmability. Assume your reader is in line at the grocery store.
- Use 8-10 Large, Emotional Images: Every image must add value and feature a human face or a strong emotional element.
- Publish at 6 AM EST: My data shows a strong correlation between publishing early in the morning (when Discover seems to refresh for the US East Coast) and getting picked up by the algorithm.
The Technical SEO That 90% of Publishers Miss
Your content can be perfect, but if your technical setup is wrong, Google Discover will never show it. Here are the must-haves.
The Critical Technical Setup:
| Technical Element | Before My Changes | After My Changes | The Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Featured Image Size | 800px wide | 1600px wide | 3X increase in Discover impressions. Google wants high-res images for its feed. |
| Author Bio | No author box | Detailed author box with photo and credentials | 40% CTR boost. E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is not just for search; it’s for Discover, too. |
| Meta Tag | Missing | <meta name="robots" content="max-image-preview:large"> | This is the most critical and most-missed tag. It explicitly tells Google it can use your large images in its preview, which is essential for getting clicks. |
On top of these, you must have:
- Green Core Web Vitals: Your site must be fast on mobile. Period. A Time to First Byte over 2 seconds is a death sentence.
- Structured Data: Use
ArticleorNewsArticleschema markup on your posts. - Mobile-First Design: Your site must be flawless on a mobile device. Discover is a 100% mobile product.
My 3-Pillar Topic Selection Strategy
You can’t just write about anything. I’ve found that all successful Discover content falls into one of these three pillars. My current strategy is a mix of all three. Learn more in my content marketing strategy guide.
Pillar 1: Trending Reactions (30% of my content)
- What it is: Taking a major breaking news story in your niche and adding your unique, personal experience to it.
- Example: “OpenAI Sora 2 Just Launched: I Tested It for 7 Days and What I Found Shocked Me.”
- Discover Lifespan: Short and intense, usually 3-7 days.
Pillar 2: Personal Transformations (40% of my content)
- What it is: A case study of a personal experiment with a clear before-and-after.
- Example: “I Quit Coffee for 30 Days. Here Are the Unexpected Results.”
- Discover Lifespan: Very long. These articles can get Discover traffic for 30-90 days.
Pillar 3: Controversy / Unpopular Opinions (30% of my content)
- What it is: Taking a commonly held belief in your niche and arguing against it with a strong, evidence-backed opinion.
- Example: “Why I Stopped Using Password Managers (And What I Do Instead).”
- Discover Lifespan: Extremely long, often 60+ days, with traffic spikes whenever the topic becomes relevant again.
The Mistakes That Will Get You Banned from Discover
Google is very protective of the Discover user experience. Make one of these mistakes, and your site can be instantly and permanently disqualified.
- Using Clickbait Headlines: If your headline promises something your content doesn’t deliver, Google’s algorithm will detect it (via user bounce rates) and penalize your site.
- Slow Mobile Load Speed: If your page takes more than 2-3 seconds to load on a mobile connection, it’s dead on arrival.
- Using Your Logo as the Featured Image: Discover is a visual, personal platform. It wants to show images of people, places, and things, not your corporate logo.
- Inconsistent Publishing: The algorithm seems to favor sites that publish fresh, optimized content on a regular schedule. Publishing once a month is not enough.
- Borderline Content: Any content that is violent, graphic, or sexually suggestive will get your site blacklisted immediately, as per Google’s official policies.
How I Track, Measure, and Scale My Results
You don’t have to guess what’s working. Google Search Console gives you all the data you need.
The Google Search Console Discover Tab:
In GSC, there’s a dedicated “Discover” performance report. The only metrics that matter are:
- Total Clicks: Your actual traffic.
- Total Impressions: How many people saw your content in their feed.
- Average CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of people who saw your content and clicked on it. Your goal is to get this above 8-10%.
What I Track in a Weekly Spreadsheet:
- Topic & Angle: Which of my three pillars is performing best? (I double down on winners).
- Headline Formula: Are “How I…” headlines outperforming “X Reasons Why…”?
- Image Type: Are images of faces getting a higher CTR than landscapes or product shots?
My Scaling System:
- Publish 5 Articles per Week: At least three of these are specifically optimized for Discover using the formula above.
- Repurpose Winners into Shorts: I take my top-performing Discover articles and turn the key ideas into 60-second YouTube Shorts. Thanks to the September update, these Shorts now get shown in Discover and act as a new funnel to my blog. Check out my short-form video playbook for more on this.
- Refresh Old Winners: Every 60 days, I go back to my top-performing Discover articles, update them with new information, and republish them. This often re-triggers the algorithm and gives the article a second wave of traffic.
Conclusion: Your Exact Next Steps
The mystery is gone. Getting traffic from Google Discover is no longer a game of chance; it’s a game of strategy. It’s about understanding that Discover is not a search engine—it’s a personalized, mobile-first, visual content feed.
So, tomorrow morning, I want you to do this. This is the exact formula that took my blog from a ghost town to a thriving hub of activity.
- Open Google Trends and find one rising topic in your niche.
- Write a 1,500-word article with a personal “How I…” or “I tested…” angle.
- Include at least 8 large (1200px+) images, with human faces if possible.
- Publish it at 6 AM EST.
- Check your Google Search Console Discover report in 48 hours.
That’s it. That is the formula. Stop chasing keywords and start creating content that resonates with people. Google will reward you for it.
