Today, Google launched the February 2026 Discover Core update, which makes broad changes to how Google’s systems show articles in Discover. Their tests show that people find Discover more useful and valuable with these improvements.
Below are a few ways this update from Google will make Discover better:
- You will see more content that’s relevant to your location from websites based in your country.
- Google is reducing the amount of sensational material and clickbait in Discover.
- Discover will now highlight more in-depth, original, and timely content from websites that exhibit expertise in a specific area based on how their systems understand their content.
Many sites have deep knowledge in different subjects, so Google’s systems look for expertise on each topic separately. This means that sites with expertise in several areas or a strong focus on one topic have the same chance of appearing in Discover. For example, a local news site with a gardening section could be considered an expert in gardening, even if it also covers other topics. On the other hand, a movie review site that only has one article about gardening would not.
Google will continue to personalize content based on your favorite creators and sources.
As with other core updates, you might notice changes in Discover traffic. Some sites may see more or less traffic, while many may not see any change. Google is starting with English users in the US and will roll out to other countries and languages soon.
How Discover Works With Your Website
Discover is a feature in Google search that shows people content based on their interests and app activity. This page explains how your content can appear in Discover and shares best practices for site owners.
How content appears in Discover
Your content can appear in Discover if Google indexes it and follows Discover’s content policy. You do not need special tags or structured data. However, eligibility does not guarantee that your content will appear.
Discover can show many types of content that match a person’s interests. Sometimes older content appears if it is still helpful and relevant to users.
Discover uses many of the team’s same details as Google Search to find helpful, people-first content. To do well in Discover, review our tips on creating helpful and reliable content for your audience.
To help your content appear in Discover, try these recommendations:
- Do not use clickbait or similar tactics to increase engagement. Avoid misleading or exaggerated details in titles, snippets, or images, and do not leave out important information needed to understand your content.
- Write page titles and headlines that clearly reflect what your content is about.
- Do not use sensational tactics that try to attract attention by appealing to shock, curiosity, or outrage.
- Timely shared content tells a clear story or delivers unique insights for your audience.
- Add high-quality, eye-catching images to your content. Large images at least 1200 pixels wide, enabled by the Max Image Preview, the large setting, or AMP, are more likely to attract visitors from Discover.
- Make sure your pages offer a great user experience. For more tips, see our help page about page experience in Google search results.
Discover aims to show content that fits interest-based feeds, like articles and videos, and filters out content that may not be useful or could confuse readers. For example, Discover usually does not recommend job applications, petitions, forms, code repositories, or satirical content without context. Discover uses safe search and also filters out content that could be shocking or unexpected.
Why Discover Traffic Might Change Over Time
Traffic from Discover is less predictable than traffic from keyword-based searches because Discover is more random. Treat it as extra, not your main source. Here are some reasons why Discover traffic can change:
- Changing Interests: Discover is built to show content that aligns with people’s interests, often based on their search activity. If someone loses interest in a topic and searches for it less, their Discover feed will show other content. This can lead to changes in publishers’ traffic.
- Content types: Discover keeps updating the types of content it shows to more closely match what people want. It commonly features topics like sports, health, entertainment, and lifestyle from across the web.
- Updates to Google Search: Sometimes we update Search to help people find better content. Since Discover is part of Search, these updates may affect your traffic. If you see changes in your website’s performance after an update, check our documentation on Google Search’s Core Updates and your website.
If your content appears in Discover, you can track its performance with the Discover Performance Report. This report shows impressions, clicks, and CTR of your content from the last 16 months, as long as you meet the minimum impression threshold. It includes traffic from Chrome and tracks Discover traffic at all platforms.
